To The Roots

The Konyaks — Last of the Tattooed Headhunters, a book by Phejin Konyak, is a documentation of the tattoo culture which has become a vanishing art in our society.

- Unnati Sagar

An ode to her great grandfathers and the headhunting tribes of Nagaland, the book takes you back in time when the fearsome Nagas walked the lands, on the northeastern edge of the Indian map. Known to all for their fierce and unforgiving nature, the headhunters of Nagaland were the purveyors of a tattoo tradition which was the fundamental part of the Konyak society.

Isolated from the influence of the outside world, the Konyaks were the last of the tribes to transcend to modernity. Headhunting and tattooing were a quintessential aspect of their lives. After the advent of British Administration in India, head hunting began declining and so did the tattoo culture. This 195-page book traces Phejin’s journey as she tries to document the historic yarns of her ancestors. The Konyaks is a book which gives you an almost encyclopedic knowledge about a cultural practice, long-lost in the realms of modernism.