An attractive girl, along with older women and men from the Ao Naga tribe sit around on a bamboo platform-deck, drums at hand, and chat, in all their tribal regalia, adorned with jewellery and neck-pieces.
The Ao are a Naga people of Nagaland in north-east India. Their main territory is from Tsula (Dikhu) Valley (in the east) to Tsurang (Disai) Valley (in the west) in Mokokchung District. They are well known for multiple harvest festivals held each year. With the arrival of Christian missionaries in the 19th century the Ao were some of the earliest converts to Christianity among the other Naga tribes. Many became Christians in the 1870s. Today, Aos are almost 100 percent Christians, the majority being Baptists. Many Ao people have undertaken missionary work in other areas as well.According to the 2010 census of India, Ao Nagas number 231,823. They are believed to have migrated from Mongolia through south-east Asia to Nagaland.
Ao Nagas are found in the north-eastern part of Nagaland, mostly in the central Mokokchung District and also few are found in the adjacent Assam state. Mokokchung, one of the districts in Nagaland, is considered as the home of the Ao Naga tribe. It covers an area of 1,615 km2 and is bounded by Assam to its north, Wokha to its west, Tuensang to its east, and Zunheboto to its south. The physiography of the district shows six distinct hill ranges which are more or less parallel to each other and run in the south-east direction.
Source: www.hornbillfestival.com
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