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The Konyaks of Nagaland
| Article
# : |
16642 |
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Section : |
CULTURE
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| Issue
Date : |
10 / 1989 |
5,102 Words |
| Author
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Arun Kumar T.R.
Arun Kumar T.R. is an Indian Journalist and filmmaker. |
Like the ways of the tribe itself, the origins of the Konyak are surrounded by myth and folklore. In his thesis on the Konyak tribe, first presented in 1982 at Serampore College, West Bengal, and subsequently published as a book entitled From Darkness to Light, A. Yanang Konyak traces the origin of the tribe to a stone called Longphenghong. The tribe apparently emerged from this stone.
A more realistic version believes that the tribe came from the East. They followed the great river Brahmaputra and settled on a mountain called Longphang. Over the years the people spread out from there. It may be presumed that Yanang Konyak's "myth" in fact refers to the same mountain and that the tribe's emergence from a stone is merely symbolic of their spread from Longphang mountain. Yanang Konyak mentions that it is more or less unanimously agreed that the tribe came through Alamkaphen, which means "gate of the sun" or "the East." Brahamaputra refers to an actual river that still flows through the area; Longphang and Alamkaphen remain myths, although many attempts have been made to identify them with actual locations.
The first recorded mention of the existence of the Konyak is found in the history of the Ahom kings who ruled the adjacent plains that today constitute the state of Assam. The chronicles mention that an Ahom king named Sukapha invaded the region and encountered the tribe in A.D. 1228. The Ahom did not subdue the country and generally friendly relations between the Ahom and the Naga tribes existed from that time forward.
Burmese rule was established over Nagaland in 1819 and ended when Nagaland was gradually annexed, between 1826 to 1892,
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