Apatani

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Apatani woman on the way to the field in Lower Subansiri , Arunachal Pradesh

The Apatani (also Apa Tani or Tanw ) are one of the Indian tribal peoples ( Adivasi ), whose settlement area extends to the Apatani Plateau in the Lower Subansiri district , Arunachal Pradesh . The Apatani Valley with its unique culture has been proposed by UNESCO for inclusion in the list of World Heritage Sites .

Settlement area and history

The Apatani are one of the most important ethnic groups in the northeast Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh with a population of around 60,000 people. Most of the Apatani live in the lower elevations of the eastern Himalayas in the Lower Subansiri district. The settlement area consists of about 32 km² of cultivable land, the Ziro Valley (Eng. "Ziro Valley") in the Apatani Plateau, which is surrounded by mountains of the Himalayas.

Tibetan sources suggest that the tribes in the mountains of Arunachal Pradesh, including the Apatani, have lived there since at least the 15th century. Oral tradition of the Apatani says that the tribe immigrated to Arunachal Pradesh from the north at least 20 generations ago, bringing with them pine , bamboo and mustard seeds .

  • Location of Arunachal Pradesh in India

  • Ziro Valley, settlement area of ​​the Apatani

society

The Apatanis are organized in clans , with each clan living in a clearly defined area of ​​a village. Each clan has a platform ( lapang ) on which meetings and ceremonies are held. Fields, houses and cattle are owned by individual clan members, while pastures, fishing and hunting areas are owned by the whole clan. Houses and fields can usually only be passed on within the clan. Only if there is no buyer within the clan can land be sold to residents of other Apatani villages, but not outside the Apatani tribe.

Apatanis marry outside of their own clan, but within their tribe. Divorces are recognized among the Apatanis. Property is usually passed on to the oldest male child; women are not entitled to inheritance.

Matters that affect an entire community are settled by a village council ( bulyañ ).

The Apatani are recognized by the Indian government as a Scheduled Tribe ("listed tribal people"). De jure, this includes preferential treatment in the allocation of government agencies, university place reservations and other quotas.

Culture

language

About 35,000 of the total of 60,000 Apatani still speak the Apatani language of the same name, a North Assam language that belongs to the Tibetan-Burman branch of the Sino- Tibetan languages . Other languages ​​spoken by Apatanis are Hindi and English .

Living

The houses of the Apatanis are made of bamboo and cane, and corrugated iron has recently been used for the roofs . The main ingredient in Apatanian cuisine is rice, along with corn , millet , green vegetables, wild roots , sprouts and herbs, as well as meat and fish. Vegetables, rice and other grains are cooked, meat is smoked . Utensils made of bamboo, clay and aluminum are used for cooking .

Religion and customs

The religion of the Apatanis is classified as animistic - shamanistic . The Apatanis celebrate many religious rites during the year, including in January / February spring is welcomed with the Morom festival . At the Morom Festival , the villages visit and give gifts to each other in order to strengthen ties with one another. The Ropi ceremony, with which the victory over an enemy used to be celebrated by dancing, is only historical . The ropi ceremony is still performed today when a tiger has been killed.

economy

Wet rice cultivation and fishing culture in Ziro Valley

The Apatani live from agriculture , mainly from wet rice cultivation , supplemented by livestock farming and fishing. Wet rice cultivation in the Ziro Valley and the adjacent slopes is mainly organized through a complex system of terraces and dams, which divert the larger watercourses from the mountains and thus irrigate the fields.

The Apatani also carry out manual work, e.g. B. forging , leather, pipe and bamboo work and weaving .

Agriculture and the use of the available land is characterized by strict management regulations: there are areas of land that are specially designed for agriculture, for grazing, for pine and bamboo gardens or for community forests. The cultivation of the land, which has been sophisticated over generations, ensures, among other things, that the Apatani can cultivate wet rice effectively despite the high altitude in their valley. Their cultivation method is therefore also much more sophisticated than that of the tribes in their neighborhood. The culture and traditions of the Apatani also focus on nature. For these reasons, UNESCO has put the Apatani cultural landscape on the list of candidates for a World Heritage Site.

literature

Web links

Commons : Apatani people  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e UNESCO World Heritage Center: Apatani Cultural Landscape - UNESCO World Heritage Center. Retrieved November 28, 2018 .
  2. ↑ Days Kanno, Hage Yaapa: Tanw Aguñ: An Audio Dictionary of the Apatani Language. Apatani Language Development Committee, 2015, accessed November 28, 2018 .
  3. ↑ Dalvinder Singh Grewal: Tribes of Arunachal Pradesh: Identity, Culture and Language . tape 1 . South Asia Publications, Delhi 1997, ISBN 81-7433-017-8 , pp. 153 .
  4. ↑ a b Dalvinder Singh Grewal: Tribes of Arunachal Pradesh: Identity, Culture and Language . tape 1 . South Asia Publications, Delhi 1997, ISBN 81-7433-017-8 , pp. 156 .
  5. ↑ Arunachal Pradesh: DATA HIGHLIGHTS: THE SCHEDULED TRIBES. (pdf) Census of India 2001, accessed on November 30, 2018 .
  6. ↑ Dalvinder Singh Grewal: Tribes of Arunachal Pradesh: Identity, Culture and Language . tape 1 . South Asia Publications, Delhi 1997, ISBN 81-7433-017-8 , pp. 158-161 .
  7. ^ Christoph von Fürer-Haimendorf: The Apa Tanis and Their Neighbors . Routledge & Kegan Paul, London 1962, pp. 103 .
  8. ^ Christoph von Fürer-Haimendorf: The Apa Tanis and Their Neighbors . Routledge & Kegan Paul, London 1962, pp. 24-26 .
  9. ↑ Dalvinder Singh Grewal: Tribes of Arunachal Pradesh: Identity, Culture and Language . tape 1 . South Asia Publications, Delhi 1997, ISBN 81-7433-017-8 , pp. 160-161 .