Vale Of Apatanis

Surrounded by wooded hills in Lower Subansiri district of Arunachal Pradesh is the small Apatani valley, covering 26 square kilometres.VIKAS CHOUDHARY spends over a week with the Apatani tribe, capturing their lives and landscape in photographs. STUART BLACKBURN, author of Into the Hidden Valley, a novel on the Apatanis, explains the social fabric and beliefs of the tribe.

- Stuart Blackburn

THE PANCHAYAT raj and then the parliamentary system have distorted the traditional egalitarian structure of the Apatanis, but much of it still exists. There was no “village chief ” as in Assam. Instead, clans had councils of older men, who were respected (or not) for their oratory and judgement. In fact, the role of the shaman is a good reflection of this unofficial power structure. Unlike in other societies, Apatani shamans were not chosen or initiated; rather, they simply learned by observation and practice, and became shamans if they could bring healing and prosperity. The other important structure that explains the cohesion among the Apatanis is the intricate, multi-generational system of ritual exchange. Here, virtually every single person is tied into several reciprocal relations with kin and non-kin.

Conversion to Christianity, which is now bordering on 25-30 per cent, did not really take off until the 1980s and 1990s. As a result of this and other elements of assimilation and modernisation, traditional practices have retreated. Still the major festivals are celebrated, although not with the same fervour and detail as earlier. Belief in the spirit world, of course, does not disappear with the advent of a new superstructure, such as Christianity, and many Christians still perform old rituals. This is especially true of funerals, where the shaman must guide the dead person’s soul safely to the underworld.