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Never knew, Ziro is such a treasure land when I decided to visit this place.
This is a small quaint town in Lower Subansiri district of Arunachal Pradesh. Apatani Cultural Landscape of Ziro has been included in India’s Tentative Lists of World Heritage Site. It is said, that Ziro is named after one of the first clans, that came first to the valley about 500 years ago.
Situated at an altitude of 1500 m, scenic beauty of Ziro is treat to the eyes. Despite of having bad communication, its beauty, lush green paddy fields, pine grooves and unique tradition and culture of Apatani people, it attracts tourists from all over the world, round the year.
Ziro is the home of the Apatani tribes.
Apatani people have unique characteristic features, which separate them from other tribes of this region. They have a distinct civilisation, systematic land use practice and traditional knowledge of natural resource conservation.
They cultivate in permanent wetlands unlike Zhum cultivation by the other tribes.
Apatani people are famous for face tattooing. Elderly women are famous and immensely popular with the photographers for their face tattoos and large nose plugs and ornaments.
Saying goes that, Apatani women are extremely beautiful, that is why neighbouring tribes used to abduct them and marry them. So, to stop this, to make them look less attractive, society decided to tattoo the faces of girls with plugging their nose.
On the other hand, most of the elderly Apatani women are proud of this system and says, nose plugs and tattoos define them as Apatani women, and it adds to their beauty.
The process of tattooing is called Tippei. These were usually done when a girl is about 10years old. Ink is made of pig fat and soot from the fireplace. Tattooing was done by a thorny plant, locally called “tipe tere” slowly hitting the thorn on the face by a cane. Tattoos used to be a thick straight line from the forehead to the tip of the nose and 5 straight lines on the chin. Men used to have T shaped small tattoo in their face.
Photo - Fazlul Alam
The nose plugs are called ‘Yaping Hullo ‘They are made of wood or cane from the forest.
They also wear heavy beaded neck pieces.
But in today’s modern world, where women have become progressive, and empowered, these tattoos and nose plugs made Apatani women unacceptable in the outside world. Therefore, Government banned the process of tattooing and nose plugs in 1974.
Now, only few elderly ladies are alive with tattoos and nose plugs. These customs are slowly becoming history now.
I have travelled to Ziro in October,2019, just after the famous music festival of Ziro was over.
This is an outdoor and independent artist music festival amidst greenery of Ziro, held every year in the month of September, usually in the last week. Despite of bad roads and infrastructure, world famous musicians and music lovers gather here at this time. This festival was founded in 2012 by Bobby Hano and guitarist Anup Kutty. This is a four days festival, hosted by Apatani people. Along with music, people can enjoy Apatani cuisine, tradition in this festival.
As, road is the only option to reach Ziro, I took a car from Guwahati. I have heard about the bad roads, so I decided to stay one night in Itanagar. Next day, early morning we started for Ziro. Ziro is 115 km away from state capital Itanagar. It took us 5 hours to reach Ziro from Itanagar, with a short stop in Potin for a cup of tea. A place called Kalapani is known for frequent landslides. One can also travel from North Lakhimpur, the road joins Ziro road at Potin. The distance is 150 km by this road.
I have heard a lot about the beauty of Ziro and its flora and fauna and rich tradition and culture of Apatani tribe.
Once checked in at Hotel in Old Ziro, Hotel Ziro palace Inn, I started looking for a guide to show us around. The manager of the hotel, Pankaj Chetry has arranged one guide to show us around. His name was Ribia Koj. We have decided to go out next day, after breakfast.
He took us first to the Hong basti, the largest village of Ziro. They say that it is supposed to be the second largest village of Asia.
Ziro consist of New Ziro or Hapoli, which is the house for administrative offices etc. About 6km from here is old Ziro, consists of few Bastis.
Hong Basti being the largest with highest population, others are Bulla basti, Hira basti, and Siiro basti etc. Houses look similar in all the bastis. Mostly made of wood and bamboo on wooden stilts. In modern houses, houses are made on concrete stilts and roof is made of tin. There are few cemented houses also, which I saw mostly in Hira Basti.
All houses have a fireplace in the centre of the main room, with a storage area above, which is used to dry meat, fish, vegetables, firewood etc. Fireplace is used for cooking food and also to keep themselves warm at night. This place is also used as meeting place for friends and families.
Though, around 40 per cent of Apatanis have converted to Christianity, they traditionally follow a religion known as Donyi-polo, an indigenous religion of animistic and Shamanic type. Donyi means the sun and polo means the moon- opposite but complimentary forces. They believe, every aspect of the nature is sacred. This is a common religion of the Sino-Tibetan tribes of Arunachal Pradesh.
Those, who follow the Animism put Totem, made of Cane and bamboo, and also a flag with red sun in front of their houses.
Ziro is famous for its unique way of cultivation. They cultivate in available wetlands; they do not shift to other places for cultivation and use limited land for cultivation judiciously.
As they believe, everything is sacred, they do not use animals or machine for cultivation and plough with their hands.
They usually grow two crops at the same time in same fields, Rice and millet, Millet is grown in the elevated portion bunds between the rice plots.
Photo- Fazlul Alam
The community use a unique way of cultivating fish in the flat areas of paddy fields. They harvest fish in the small channels between the paddy fields, which are used for irrigation and water supply. This method is called Terin fish firming. In that way, they use same land at the same time to grow rice, millets, and fish.
Photo- Fazlul Alam
To retain the nutrient of the paddy field, after cutting the crops, they take home only the grains and keep the straws and crop residues in the field. They also use organic waste of the villages and animal excreta to retain the fertility and nutrient of the paddy fields years after years.
Apatanis also cultivate Bamboo. There are distinctive areas for wet cultivation, dry cultivation and social cultivation, houses, and storage for crops. The landscape development of the Valley is supposed to be dates back since Apatanis settled in this valley. Apatanis are also famous for their skills in cane and bamboo crafts and for their intricate handloom designs.
They have an effective traditional village council, called Bulyan. which supervises, guides and have legal oversight of the act of individuals of the community. They prevent unlawful activities by addressing the conscience of people, rather than imposing law and punishments. Every member of the family has to take part in community decisions, which leads to strong sense of ownership.
Strict customary laws are there to utilise forest resources and hunting process. Due to conservation of forests, watersheds are preserved, and irrigation is possible through meticulously planned channels to the paddy field and fish farming.
Ziro is famous for its culture too. They celebrate few festivals, e.g. Myoko festival, Dree festival is the main festival along with common festivals of Arunachal Pradesh.
Myoko festival is celebrated in mid-March and last for about a month. Villages of Ziro are divided in three groups and one group takes turn to host this festival and other groups takes parts. This festival strengthens the family ties and social bonding.
Other major festival is Dree. Celebrated in July is a harvesting festival. This is the biggest festival of Ziro. Apatanis offer prayers to the God by sacrificing, holding feast and dance & music.
There are few places of tourist attractions in Ziro, like Shiva temple, Dolo Mando, Kile phako, Meghna cave temple, Pine groves and Talley valley wildlife sanctuary etc.
Talley valley wildlife sanctuary is favourite with birders and nature lovers. We could not go to Talley valley, Meghna cave temple and Dolo Mando but went to see other places.
Next day, we ourselves went for a walk in Hong basti and music festival site and in the afternoon, we went to have traditional Apatani food at Tage Rani’s place. She arranges traditional food on prior order. She turned out to be my old patient.
Apatanis eat meat and vegetables usually boiled and also cook meat in bamboo. They eat lots of raw and boiled greens and chutneys. They are famous for making wines and rice beers.
We have so much to learn from Apatani people, especially on sustainable ecological development. This is an ideal place for nature lovers too. After staying three nights in Ziro, I still feel, I had lot more to explore. If possible, I would like to go back to Ziro again.
To visit Ziro, one needs to obtain Inner line permit (ILP). The ILP can be obtained online or from the Resident Commissioner’s office/Deputy Resident Commissioner’s office in Guwahati, New Delhi, Dibrugarh, Tezpur, North Lakhimpur etc. Details on procedures and formalities are available at http://www.arunachalilp.com
Nearest airports are Lilabari in North Lakhimpur and Lokapriya Gopinath Bardoloi International airport at Borjhar in Guwahati.
Trains, buses, and private taxies are available from Guwahati to Naharlagun or Itanagar. Share taxies or private taxies are available from both North Lakhimpur and Itanagar or Naharlagun.
Few hotels are available at Ziro, not star category but neat and clean. There are homestays available in Ziro too. One can book online.
To attend music festival, it is advisable to book accommodation much in advance.
Photographs by Dr Mitali Baruah and Fazlul Alam
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