New Delhi: Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu has embarked on a 157-km long journey via foot and on a car to reach one of the remotest administrative circles of the state’s Changlang district called Vijaynagar.
Khandu recently took to Twitter to announce his journey.
Today begins my journey of 157km Miao-Vijaynagar road (Myanmar border) on foot & car. I have promised people of Arunachal that motorable road will reach Vijaynagar by March 2022. Inspected the construction of RCC bridge over Mpen river. Ensuring work is being expedited on ground. pic.twitter.com/HcYqKkIqEk
— Pema Khandu པདྨ་མཁའ་འགྲོ་། (@PemaKhanduBJP) March 25, 2021
Vijaynagar is yet to be connected by a motorable road and it takes around six to eight days to reach the circle on foot through dense forests, from the nearest town called Miao, which is around 157 km away. It is surrounded on three sides by Myanmar.
The circle comprises sixteen villages and has a population of around 4,400 people.
71-year-old Manipur man preserving tribal relics for over 20 years in ‘30×20 ft wooden hut’
Ringkahao Khangrah, a 71-year-old from Sihai Khullen village in Manipur, has been preserving hundreds of relics belonging to the Tangkhul Naga tribe at a small hut beside his residence for over 20 years.
His ‘mini museum’ is a 30×20 ft wooden structure, its walls painted black and marred with dust.
Khangrah told the Imphal Free Press (IFP) that he began setting up the mini museum in 1994-95 as a “memorial of days gone by”.
“Few items were donated by generous people whose names I have recorded and others I have collected by myself. The space is small and is already full with over 100 items. But, there are still many things yet to be collected and preserved,” he told IFP.
Apart from culinary items, vessels, traditional musical instruments of the Tangkhuls, the ‘museum’ also has skulls of animals that signify the earlier ‘head hunting’ tradition of the tribe. It houses a traditional bed too, measuring over 15 ft, where at least 10 people would sleep together in the past.
He had also kept some human skulls earlier but these were destroyed. “Some people protested saying that Christianity does not allow such beheading and the skulls were incinerated. However, I sometimes regret doing so,” Khangrah told IFP.
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This is Assam’s biggest family, and it accounts for 1,200 votes in the state polls
The family of late Ron Bahadur Thapa has more than 2,500 members today and accounts for 1,200 votes in Assam’s Rangapara constituency. It is the biggest family in the state.
Ron Bahadur is survived by 12 sons and 10 daughters from his five wives and over 150 grandchildren. They all live in Nepali Gaon in Assam’s Sonitpur district.
“Our father left us in 1997 at the age of 116 years. An acclaimed farmer, Ron Bahadur came to Assam from Nepal in 1906 and created today’s Nepali Gaon clearing jungles and rocky areas. He was elected as the Gaon Bura (headman) of the village in 1935. We have more than 120 bighas of land which is the prime source of income for us,” Charki Thapa, village headman of Nepali Gaon was quoted as saying by News18.
Rangapara voted Saturday in the first phase of the elections.
“As Ron Bahadur family’s votes do matter in deciding the fate of Rangapara, we expect the representative to look after our basic needs,” Charki added.
Over a century old Assamese folklore debuts on OTT platform as web series
A more than a century-old collection of Assamese folklore called Burhi Aair Xadhu, which roughly translates as grandma’s tales, is now streaming on OTT platform Reeldrama.
The video series, called ‘Xadhukothar Kuki’, features a fictional grandmother who presents the stories in such a way that children today can easily understand and relate to them.
“It was a nostalgic experience for me. When Reeldrama approached me with this idea, I grabbed the opportunity as I also wanted to preserve these stories and present our folktales in such a format that the new generation relates to the same and enjoys the enriching experience. This is an honest effort towards this,” director of the series, Sankalpajit, has been quoted as saying.
Compiled by famous Assamese author and poet Lakshminath Bezbaruah, Burhi Aair Xadhu was first published in 1911.
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