The Adi or Bokar Lhoba people is a major collective tribe living in the Himalayan hills of Arunachal Pradesh, and they are found in the temperate and sub-tropical regions within the districts of East Siang, Upper Siang, West Siang and Lower Dibang Valley and Lohit. Some of them are found in Southern Tibet around areas near the Indian border. The literal meaning of Adi is "hill" or "mountain top". They live in hill villages, each traditionally keeping to itself, under a selected chief styled Gam or Gao Burra (British era development) who moderates the village council, which acts even as traditional court Kebang. The olden day councils consist of the entire village elder and decisions were taken in a Musup/Dere or Village community house on majority verdict. The Sub-groups within Adis include Shimong, Karko, Millang, Minyong, Padam , Pangi, Pasi, Bokar-Palibo-Ramo, Bori and Komkar.
Adi celebrate their prime festival, Solung, between in the first week of September every year for five days or more. It is a harvest festival performed after the sowing of seeds and transplantation, to seek for future bumper crops. Ponung songs and dances are performed during the festival. At the last day of Solung, throne and indigenous weaponry are displayed along the passage of the houses, a belief that they would protect people from evil spirits. Adis dances vary from the slow, rustic and beautifully enchanting style Ponung to the exhilarating, exuberant thumps of Delong. These dances have led to certain forms of dancing which jointly narrate a story, the Tapu War Dance. In the Tapu War Dance, the dancers vigorously re-enact the actions of war, its gory details and the triumphant cries of the warriors. Yakjong is another kind of dance whereby the dancers carry sticks with designs created by removing the barks in certain patterns and then put into the fire for some time, which creates the marked black designs.
The Siang River Festival of Arunachal Pradesh is one of the major festival of the state which aims at projecting the Siang river as a symbol of integrity and communal harmony. It is usually celebrated in the month of December. The main purpose of the festival is to highlight the vast potentials of tourism in the state and to attract Indian as well as foreign tourists. Besides, Arunachal Pradesh is the 'Hidden Paradise' waiting to be explored by the people. No other state in the country offers such vast potentials for tourism as Arunachal does.
The festival highlights the traditional song and dance of different tribes of the area. Indigenous games and sports like elephant race, traditional boat race, Didi - the mock war game of Mishmis and exhibition of traditional herbal medicines, etc are other important highlights of the grand celebration. Apart from this an exhibition of handloom and handicrafts by the different districts is also conducted.
Arunachal Pradesh is a state of India, located in the far northeast. It borders the states of Assam and Nagaland to the south, and shares international borders with Burma in the east, Bhutan in the west, andTibet (now occupied by the People's Republic of China) in the north. The majority of the territory is claimed by the People's Republic of China as part of South Tibet. The northern border of Arunachal Pradesh reflects the McMahon Line, a controversial 1914 treaty between the United Kingdom and a Tibetan government, which was never accepted by the Chinese government, and not enforced by the Indian government until 1950. Itanagar is the capital of the state. Arunachal Pradesh means "land of the dawn lit mountains" in Sanskrit. It is also known as "land of the rising sun"
Source: wikipedia
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