World Bamboo Day

As the world was observing the World Bamboo Day on 18th last, I was looking around the ways we use bamboos in our daily life. I briefly mentioned the roles of bamboo in our live here and so, will not repeat that. I'll show some bamboo items as I looked around my home. 

Piipiñ and yagii are two of the most prominent items in any Apatani house. Piipiñ is used to dry paddy, millet, chilly or other items. It also serves as giant plates for many people to eat together on certain special occasions.

Yagii essentially serves as a basket to carry things around. They are named according to their sizes - giida pata, entii yagii, puhe yagii and so on. The one in the picture is the giida pata.

 There are many other bamboo implements that I mentioned earlier. I recently constructed a bamboo furniture which I find is really useful.

 And this is the season bamboo is harvested at Ziro. The following are the remains of the bamboo - the top (milyiñ and arañ). They too are used for many purposes; I am still figuring out the best uses now.

The few points mentioned here are hardly a comprehensive list of the ways the Apatanis use bamboo. It is just a pointer to the fact that bamboo is the material that sustains our lives.

Shades of Gold at Ziro

Colors never cease to play at Ziro. Gorgeous grey with placid blue as background in winter. Spring brings with it riots of color - whites of pecha apu, reds of sembo apu and pinks of takuñ apu. As the season advances, greenery spreads everywhere. The blanket of greenery goes on darkening, giving way to yellowish tint.

Middle of September, however, is the best time as far as color combination at Ziro is concerned. Ripening paddy presenting various shades of gold. Emo look whitish with green tints due to their leaves. Different varieties of mipya, which are ripe now, are either golden or blackish. This, verily, must have inspired the pyamiñ combination so characteristic of the Apatani textile.

.   

At places the paddy fields look like islands of gold in the sea of green. At others, the villages with their characteristic green rims of bamboo gardens look like islands of white in the sea of gold.

More shades can be seen here and here. Welcome to Ziro before it turns grey with harvesting of paddy in two weeks from now.

Hapoli - Then & Now

Ziro in mid-1980s (Source: posting in Facebook by Tadu Omo)

Ziro in mid-2000s

Custodian of Ranii Akhii

Dree this year has been celebrated all over the country in the most visible way, thanks to the internet and social networking sites.

Some of the most significant events, however, take place silently. Such an event has been the passing away of Tabyu Karlung, who inherited Ranii Akhii from his brother Tabyu Tabin and has been responsible for initiating the process of Dree ritual every year. He quietly passed away on June 25, 2011 just a week ahead of the Dree.

Ranii Akhii remains one of the most sacred and mysterious artefacts in Apatani culture. As per the oral history, the comb was brought from a mythological place called Wiipyo Ranii by a war expedition. "Wiipyo Ranii gañda ho nyibo pachala, Tanii Dree miinii naniipa, Ranii Akhii mi pagiitii," so goes the narration.

The tale of the akhii, which resembles some designs of Chinese hairpin, has always been baffling. During a major fire accident in Tajang village decades back, Tabyu Tabin, who was its custodian at the time, thought it has been burnt along with his house. To his amazement, however, the akhii returned unscathed a day after he re-constructed his house! Now, however, extra care has to be taken as one of its legs is broken and may not be able to run away in such crisis on its own.

Ranii Akhii has always been kept away from ordinary people, especially children, as it would harm them in various ways if disturbed. If its curse causes, for example, skin diseases, that could be cured by propitiating the akhii in appropriate ways. It was only during occasions like Dree that the sacred akhii could be freely seen by anybody. Did you see it this Dree?

Even as the custodian of the Ranii Akhii quietly passed away, Dree has been celebrated with pomp and gaiety, praying for the well being of humankind. The world goes on.

Ziro Landing Ground

1957: Kimin-Ziro road opened.
1952: Divisional Headquarter of Subansiri shifted from Kimin to Ziro.
1951: First aeroplane landed at Ziro landing ground.

This chronology of events looks upside down. It is one of the many intriguing facts about Ziro. Before the Kimin-Ziro road was opened in 1957, one had to trek through pestilential jungles for as long as a week from Kimin. Ziro was, in those days, an administrative outpost.

View of Landing Ground in 2011:

Construction of the landing ground was a major event in the otherwise sleepy valley at 5000 ft above sea level. RG Menzes, then Political Officer, who also opened the Ziro township on March 24, 1952 supervised the works. It is noteworthy that only local people - both Apatanis and Nyishis - were engaged in the construction project.

Landing Ground under construction in 1951:

The first aeroplane to land was an Otter in 1951 and next year in 1952, a Dakota landed after lengthening the landing ground. Since then, supply of essential items to the whole Subansiri division has been much easier. Till this day, this is the base for air-dropping of such items to strategic places like Damin, Sarli, Chambang, Limeking and Taksing.

In the seventies, the first commercial operation - that of Vayudoot - was started with much fanfare. The services never took off as expected as the flights became too unreliable due to unpredictable weather.

A serious attempt was made in the late nineties to extend the length of the present ground so as to make it viable for landing of commercial airplanes. As vast areas of priceless wet-rice cultivation areas were at stake, the project got a major setback. The government still has said to have an ongoing project to ungrade it into an airport. Even at the present status, the landing ground remains the most prominent landmark of Ziro.