OLAC Record: The Traditional Songs And Poetry Of Upper Assam – A Multifaceted Linguistic and Ethnographic Documentation of the Tangsa, Tai and Singpho Communities in Margherita, Northeast India

OLAC Record
oai:www.mpi.nl:1839_00-0000-0000-0017-C57A-E

Metadata

Title: Cholim - Mulon story, story of the salt clan

The Traditional Songs And Poetry Of Upper Assam – A Multifaceted Linguistic and Ethnographic Documentation of the Tangsa, Tai and Singpho Communities in Margherita, Northeast India

Contributor: Meenaxi Barkataki

Contributor (consultant): Lukam Tonglum (Loekyam Cholim is his Cholim name; Lukam is the name used by other Tangsa groups)

Coverage: India

Date: 2009-11-03

Description: KHUM-SE-CHIRIO MANPHAN 'Khum-se-chirio' means salt-water-clan, so it means the clan of the salt-water woman. 'manphan' means both history and story, history because it happened a long while ago, story because it is being told now. In the olden times, there was no salt. There was an old woman in a certain village – her family worked in the fields while she stayed at home. The daughters-in-law would cook in the morning before going to the fields, while the old lady cooked in the afternoon, for the family to eat after they got back. The meal cooked by the daughters-in-law was not so tasty but the meal cooked by the old lady was delicious. The children wanted to find out what the secret of this was, so one day they asked one of the sons to stay back and hide and see what the old lady did – they all went out in the morning as usual but one of the sons came back by some other way and observed his mother. He saw that when she was cooking, she would spit into the pot. That son told the others what he had seen. All of them discussed it and thought that their mother was making their food dirty by spitting into it –they decided to throw the mother out. The mother was thrown out – she left taking with her a khang (basket), a sador (a shawl), a jathi (a spear) and a samdan ( a tent-like thing made of bark of a certain tree for protection against rain etc) . She left home but wherever she stopped for rest, wherever she spat or urinated, a pool of salt water would form. The soil of the place became salty wherever she did her toilet. In this manner, she reached Lajjo in Arunachal Pradesh, sat atop a huge stone and died. At the place where she sat was formed a huge pool of salt water. In her village back home was also formed a huge underground source of salt. When her children understood that her mother had produced salt wherever she went, they decided to impose a tax on salt. But the people vehemently objected to that saying that they could not claim rights over their mother now when they had thrown her out while she lived. When they presisted, all the villagers got together and killed the whole family. Only one newly married daughter-in-law was saved because she was away visiting her own parents at that time. While at her parents she realised that she was pregnant. Her parents feared for her life too, and also for their own and asked her to go away if she wanted to save the life of the child – the only survivor of the Khumse jati -- she was carrying. The girl went away, gave birth to a daughter, named Moolon, and then died. Moolan roamed from place to place and grew up. The village boys began to tease her but she would have nothing to do with them. In those days both men and women wore no clothes – but she put a sheath of cowrie shells over her vagina to frighten the young men away. All the other young men got scared (because the cowrie shells looked like teeth) and refused to touch her, but there was one amongst them, who was very persistent. Moolon asked whether he would do everything she asked him to do. He said yes. Would he kill if she asked him to? He said yes. He swore to do everything that she asked him to do (swearing is a very big thing for the Nagas). They gradually fell in love. She told him the story of her family and asked him to get a group of young men together to go back to kill the people of the village where her clan members had been killed. She asked him to bring his group and hide in the forests around the village for three days, and to come out only when she gave the signal to do so. She and a group of singers went into the village, she pretended to be a ‘pujary’(a priestess) and began to sing the Moolongan (Moolon's song) in which she actually tells the real story of her clan: My mother was cut with a knife/ my father was killed with a spear / his body was thrown on the village street/ I am a wakhip bird/ behind me a wapi bird is coming/ when a wapi bird comes rain will fall from the sky/ (Wapi is a male bird, wakhip is the female, here she is the wakhip bird, behind her her husband is coming, rain falling signifies blood falling.) There is a female elephant in front/ behind her the male elephant is coming/ when the elephant will come the roots of trees will be severed/ (The uprooting of trees means that necks will be cut) The song is basically very sad as it tells of a tragedy. She sang so beautifully that the people of the village listened to her singing for 2 days and 2 nights. After that they were all tired – Moolon then told them to rest a little since they would have to go to work in the fields the next morning, she will also be leaving the next day and needed to prepare for her journey. All the people of the village were so exhausted that they all fell asleep. Then she went out and gave the signal for the men to come in – they came in and slaughtered all the people of the village – in this way Moolon took her revenge on the people who had wiped out her Khumse clan. Thus Moolangan is a sad song but the story behind it is one of tragedy. In the song she tells the real story of the past of the Khumse clan but she also narrates her plans for the next day indirectly. [During my discussion with Wamjung and Mohen Ronrang later in Phulbari, Moolon again came up – but this time she was called a ‘hijra’(a hermaphrodite) —the story was not as complete as the one above and somewhat different. Mohen Ronrang claimed she belonged to the Chukangache tribe of the Tangsas. MB]

Lukam Tonglum (Loekyam Cholim) is the leader of the Cholim community in Kharang Kong. He came from Burma in the 1950s to join his brother who had already set up in Kharang Kong. He is very knowledgeable about all aspects of Cholim culture.

This project contains linguistic, musicalogical, ethnographic and other cultural information about three communities in Upper Assam: Singpho, Tai and Tangsa. The recordings and analyses have been done by Stephen Morey, together with Palash Kumar Nath (Gauhati University), Juergen Schoepf (Phonogram Archiv, Vienna), Meenaxi Bhattacharjee, Chaichuen Khamdaengyodtai (Rajabhat University, Chiang Mai), Zeenat Tabassum (Gauhati University), Karabi Mazumder (Gauhati University), Krishna Boro (Gauhati University). The key aims of the project were • to provide a comprehensive documentation of the varieties of Tangsa language spoken in the Margherita Subdivision of Upper Assam, India, • to provide a comprehensive documentation of the traditional songs, and poetry of three endangered language communities in the Margherita Subdivision: the Tangsa and Singpho (both Tibeto-Burman) and the Tai (Tai-Kadai), including a study of Tai traditional manuscripts, which are highly relevant for language and culture maintenance among the Tai. Within each of these communities there is considerable linguistic and cultural diversity, so all the files have been divided up and named according to this system: Tai SDM01 Phake SDM02 Aiton SDM03 Khamyang SDM04 Ahom SDM05 Khamti Singpho SDM07 Turung SDM08 Numhpuk Hkawng SDM09 Diyun Hkawng SDM10 Tieng Hkawng Tangsa SDM11 Youngkuk SDM12 Cholim SDM13 Kimsing SDM14 Tikhak SDM15 Lochhang SDM16 Ngaimong SDM17 Maitai SDM18 Shechhyv SDM19 Mossang SDM20 Khvlak SDM21 Lakkai SDM22 Lungri SDM23 Hakhun SDM24 Lungkhe SDM25 Ronrang SDM26 Sangte SDM27 Sangwal SDM28 Halang SDM29 Haseng SDM30 Morang SDM31 Moklum

..\My Documents\Dobes-Assam\Field-trip-2009-10\Kharangkong\kharangkong-audio-2009-10\V-Kharangkong-files\519-Moolonganstory-meaning1-4-11-2009.wav ..\My Documents\Dobes-Assam\Field-trip-2009-10\Kharangkong\kharangkong-audio-2009-10\V-Kharangkong-files\517-Moolongan-story1-4-11-2009.wav ..\My Documents\Dobes-Assam\Field-trip-2009-10\Kharangkong\kharangkong-audio-2009-10\V-Kharangkong-files\518-Moolonganstory2-4-11-2009.wav ..\My Documents\Dobes-Assam\Field-trip-2009-10\Kharangkong\kharangkong-audio-2009-10\V-Kharangkong-files\55-Moolongan-3-11-2009.wav ..\My Documents\Dobes-Assam\Field-trip-2009-10\Kharangkong\kharangkong-audio-2009-10\V-Kharangkong-files\56-Moolongan-meaning-3-11-2009.wav ..\My Documents\Dobes-Assam\Field-trip-2009-10\Kharangkong\kharangkong-audio-2009-10\V-Kharangkong-files\520-Moolonganstory-meaning2-4-11-2009.wav ..\My Documents\Dobes-Assam\Field-trip-2009-10\Kharangkong\kharangkong-audio-2009-10\V-Kharangkong-files\521-Moolonganstory-meaning3-4-11-2009.wav

Format: audio/x-wav

text/x-toolbox-text

application/pdf

text/html

text/x-eaf+xml

Identifier: oai:www.mpi.nl:1839_00-0000-0000-0017-C57A-E

Publisher: Stephen Morey

Research Centre for Linguistic Typology, La Trobe University

Subject: Discourse

Narrative

narrating a story

Tase Naga language

Tangsa - Cholim variety (general name Tonglum)

Assamese language

Subject (ISO639): nst

asm

OLAC Info

Archive: The Language Archive at the MPI for Psycholinguistics

Description: http://www.language-archives.org/archive/www.mpi.nl

GetRecord: OAI-PMH request for OLAC format

GetRecord: Pre-generated XML file

OAI Info

OaiIdentifier: oai:www.mpi.nl:1839_00-0000-0000-0017-C57A-E

DateStamp: 2017-04-21

GetRecord: OAI-PMH request for simple DC format

Search Info
Citation: Lukam Tonglum (Loekyam Cholim is his Cholim name; Lukam is the name used by other Tangsa groups) (consultant); Meenaxi Barkataki. 2009-11-03. Stephen Morey.
Terms: area_Asia country_IN country_MM iso639_asm iso639_nst

Inferred Metadata
Country: India Myanmar
Area: Asia

http://www.language-archives.org/item.php/oai:www.mpi.nl:1839_00-0000-0000-0017-C57A-E
Up-to-date as of: Sat Apr 22 1:16:09 EDT 2017

Metadata
Title:		Cholim - Mulon story, story of the salt clan
Title:		The Traditional Songs And Poetry Of Upper Assam – A Multifaceted Linguistic and Ethnographic Documentation of the Tangsa, Tai and Singpho Communities in Margherita, Northeast India
Contributor:		Meenaxi Barkataki
Contributor (consultant):		Lukam Tonglum (Loekyam Cholim is his Cholim name; Lukam is the name used by other Tangsa groups)
Coverage:		India
Date:		2009-11-03
Description:		KHUM-SE-CHIRIO MANPHAN 'Khum-se-chirio' means salt-water-clan, so it means the clan of the salt-water woman. 'manphan' means both history and story, history because it happened a long while ago, story because it is being told now. In the olden times, there was no salt. There was an old woman in a certain village – her family worked in the fields while she stayed at home. The daughters-in-law would cook in the morning before going to the fields, while the old lady cooked in the afternoon, for the family to eat after they got back. The meal cooked by the daughters-in-law was not so tasty but the meal cooked by the old lady was delicious. The children wanted to find out what the secret of this was, so one day they asked one of the sons to stay back and hide and see what the old lady did – they all went out in the morning as usual but one of the sons came back by some other way and observed his mother. He saw that when she was cooking, she would spit into the pot. That son told the others what he had seen. All of them discussed it and thought that their mother was making their food dirty by spitting into it –they decided to throw the mother out. The mother was thrown out – she left taking with her a khang (basket), a sador (a shawl), a jathi (a spear) and a samdan ( a tent-like thing made of bark of a certain tree for protection against rain etc) . She left home but wherever she stopped for rest, wherever she spat or urinated, a pool of salt water would form. The soil of the place became salty wherever she did her toilet. In this manner, she reached Lajjo in Arunachal Pradesh, sat atop a huge stone and died. At the place where she sat was formed a huge pool of salt water. In her village back home was also formed a huge underground source of salt. When her children understood that her mother had produced salt wherever she went, they decided to impose a tax on salt. But the people vehemently objected to that saying that they could not claim rights over their mother now when they had thrown her out while she lived. When they presisted, all the villagers got together and killed the whole family. Only one newly married daughter-in-law was saved because she was away visiting her own parents at that time. While at her parents she realised that she was pregnant. Her parents feared for her life too, and also for their own and asked her to go away if she wanted to save the life of the child – the only survivor of the Khumse jati -- she was carrying. The girl went away, gave birth to a daughter, named Moolon, and then died. Moolan roamed from place to place and grew up. The village boys began to tease her but she would have nothing to do with them. In those days both men and women wore no clothes – but she put a sheath of cowrie shells over her vagina to frighten the young men away. All the other young men got scared (because the cowrie shells looked like teeth) and refused to touch her, but there was one amongst them, who was very persistent. Moolon asked whether he would do everything she asked him to do. He said yes. Would he kill if she asked him to? He said yes. He swore to do everything that she asked him to do (swearing is a very big thing for the Nagas). They gradually fell in love. She told him the story of her family and asked him to get a group of young men together to go back to kill the people of the village where her clan members had been killed. She asked him to bring his group and hide in the forests around the village for three days, and to come out only when she gave the signal to do so. She and a group of singers went into the village, she pretended to be a ‘pujary’(a priestess) and began to sing the Moolongan (Moolon's song) in which she actually tells the real story of her clan: My mother was cut with a knife/ my father was killed with a spear / his body was thrown on the village street/ I am a wakhip bird/ behind me a wapi bird is coming/ when a wapi bird comes rain will fall from the sky/ (Wapi is a male bird, wakhip is the female, here she is the wakhip bird, behind her her husband is coming, rain falling signifies blood falling.) There is a female elephant in front/ behind her the male elephant is coming/ when the elephant will come the roots of trees will be severed/ (The uprooting of trees means that necks will be cut) The song is basically very sad as it tells of a tragedy. She sang so beautifully that the people of the village listened to her singing for 2 days and 2 nights. After that they were all tired – Moolon then told them to rest a little since they would have to go to work in the fields the next morning, she will also be leaving the next day and needed to prepare for her journey. All the people of the village were so exhausted that they all fell asleep. Then she went out and gave the signal for the men to come in – they came in and slaughtered all the people of the village – in this way Moolon took her revenge on the people who had wiped out her Khumse clan. Thus Moolangan is a sad song but the story behind it is one of tragedy. In the song she tells the real story of the past of the Khumse clan but she also narrates her plans for the next day indirectly. [During my discussion with Wamjung and Mohen Ronrang later in Phulbari, Moolon again came up – but this time she was called a ‘hijra’(a hermaphrodite) —the story was not as complete as the one above and somewhat different. Mohen Ronrang claimed she belonged to the Chukangache tribe of the Tangsas. MB]
		Lukam Tonglum (Loekyam Cholim) is the leader of the Cholim community in Kharang Kong. He came from Burma in the 1950s to join his brother who had already set up in Kharang Kong. He is very knowledgeable about all aspects of Cholim culture.
		This project contains linguistic, musicalogical, ethnographic and other cultural information about three communities in Upper Assam: Singpho, Tai and Tangsa. The recordings and analyses have been done by Stephen Morey, together with Palash Kumar Nath (Gauhati University), Juergen Schoepf (Phonogram Archiv, Vienna), Meenaxi Bhattacharjee, Chaichuen Khamdaengyodtai (Rajabhat University, Chiang Mai), Zeenat Tabassum (Gauhati University), Karabi Mazumder (Gauhati University), Krishna Boro (Gauhati University). The key aims of the project were • to provide a comprehensive documentation of the varieties of Tangsa language spoken in the Margherita Subdivision of Upper Assam, India, • to provide a comprehensive documentation of the traditional songs, and poetry of three endangered language communities in the Margherita Subdivision: the Tangsa and Singpho (both Tibeto-Burman) and the Tai (Tai-Kadai), including a study of Tai traditional manuscripts, which are highly relevant for language and culture maintenance among the Tai. Within each of these communities there is considerable linguistic and cultural diversity, so all the files have been divided up and named according to this system: Tai SDM01 Phake SDM02 Aiton SDM03 Khamyang SDM04 Ahom SDM05 Khamti Singpho SDM07 Turung SDM08 Numhpuk Hkawng SDM09 Diyun Hkawng SDM10 Tieng Hkawng Tangsa SDM11 Youngkuk SDM12 Cholim SDM13 Kimsing SDM14 Tikhak SDM15 Lochhang SDM16 Ngaimong SDM17 Maitai SDM18 Shechhyv SDM19 Mossang SDM20 Khvlak SDM21 Lakkai SDM22 Lungri SDM23 Hakhun SDM24 Lungkhe SDM25 Ronrang SDM26 Sangte SDM27 Sangwal SDM28 Halang SDM29 Haseng SDM30 Morang SDM31 Moklum
		..\My Documents\Dobes-Assam\Field-trip-2009-10\Kharangkong\kharangkong-audio-2009-10\V-Kharangkong-files\519-Moolonganstory-meaning1-4-11-2009.wav ..\My Documents\Dobes-Assam\Field-trip-2009-10\Kharangkong\kharangkong-audio-2009-10\V-Kharangkong-files\517-Moolongan-story1-4-11-2009.wav ..\My Documents\Dobes-Assam\Field-trip-2009-10\Kharangkong\kharangkong-audio-2009-10\V-Kharangkong-files\518-Moolonganstory2-4-11-2009.wav ..\My Documents\Dobes-Assam\Field-trip-2009-10\Kharangkong\kharangkong-audio-2009-10\V-Kharangkong-files\55-Moolongan-3-11-2009.wav ..\My Documents\Dobes-Assam\Field-trip-2009-10\Kharangkong\kharangkong-audio-2009-10\V-Kharangkong-files\56-Moolongan-meaning-3-11-2009.wav ..\My Documents\Dobes-Assam\Field-trip-2009-10\Kharangkong\kharangkong-audio-2009-10\V-Kharangkong-files\520-Moolonganstory-meaning2-4-11-2009.wav ..\My Documents\Dobes-Assam\Field-trip-2009-10\Kharangkong\kharangkong-audio-2009-10\V-Kharangkong-files\521-Moolonganstory-meaning3-4-11-2009.wav
Format:		audio/x-wav
		text/x-toolbox-text
		application/pdf
		text/html
		text/x-eaf+xml
Identifier:		oai:www.mpi.nl:1839_00-0000-0000-0017-C57A-E
Publisher:		Stephen Morey
Publisher:		Research Centre for Linguistic Typology, La Trobe University
Subject:		Discourse
		Narrative
		narrating a story
		Tase Naga language
		Tangsa - Cholim variety (general name Tonglum)
		Assamese language
Subject (ISO639):		nst
Subject (ISO639):		asm
OLAC Info
Archive:		The Language Archive at the MPI for Psycholinguistics
Description:		http://www.language-archives.org/archive/www.mpi.nl
GetRecord:		OAI-PMH request for OLAC format
GetRecord:		Pre-generated XML file
OAI Info
OaiIdentifier:		oai:www.mpi.nl:1839_00-0000-0000-0017-C57A-E
DateStamp:		2017-04-21
GetRecord:		OAI-PMH request for simple DC format
Search Info
Citation:		Lukam Tonglum (Loekyam Cholim is his Cholim name; Lukam is the name used by other Tangsa groups) (consultant); Meenaxi Barkataki. 2009-11-03. Stephen Morey.
Terms:		area_Asia country_IN country_MM iso639_asm iso639_nst
Inferred Metadata
Country:		India Myanmar
Area:		Asia