Building Traditional Tangkhul Houses in Olden Days

This would without doubt will be my toughest post to understand and probably the most boring one as I am going to flung us all back to the times when there were no iron nails, saw, and other carpentry tools to build houses. This is when the axe and iron chisel were the only tools Tangkhuls used for building their houses. We are glaring at early nineteenth century, the pre-Christian era in the Tangkhul hills.

I can understand a bit of what mammoth effort it would have been to build a house with only an axe and a chisel in the hands of the carpenter. I am a part time carpenter and I vouch it would take me a decade at least to complete a house with an axe and a chisel.

Traditional Tangkhul houses are unique in every way. The front portion consists of huge carved pillars with the gaps filled by wooden planks. The back and sides are covered with horizontally placed wooden planks which are joined by ropes.The roof is slanted and covered with thatch.

The wooden planks were chipped out from huge trees, which are split in the middle first and then the two sides made into single planks. Thus, a huge tree which could build a whole house if modern tools were used were just made into two planks. Some of the wooden planks measure 3/4 meters. Depending on the length of the tree, the planks are cut into multiple pieces to fit the height of the walls.

The huge carved pillars for the front side are made from single woods, which are chipped and shaped with axe and crude chisels. It is said that 90% of carving on the pillars are done with axe, which is sort of unimaginable.

The interior of the house is partitioned into two sections separated by wooden planks and carved pillars.The front side which forms major part of the house is reserved as the cooking area and the smaller portion is kept as the bedroom.

The front door and the bedroom doors were usually made of single wood planks and are heavily carved. One side of the doors have pointed ends which are slightly longer than the main frame. These pointed ends are fixed to hollowed out wooden frames on one side of the door that makes closing and opening of the doors possible. Hinges were something unheard of then.

The Building Process:

The whole village in some ways or the other is involved when a house is built. Men are responsible for felling trees and cutting them into planks and to carry them home from the forest. Craftsmen and carpenters in the village are responsible for carving the pillars and the doors. Women and children help in collecting the thatch of house.

The owner of the house feeds the workers until the house is completed. People who are rich build more magnificent houses to showcase their social standings. The house of the rich apart from being larger has more carved pillars. The workers do their duties voluntarily, with the understanding that they are just helping each other. Rich people host a grand feast for the whole village when the building is completed, this is in addition to feeding the workers throughout the building period.

It is said that building a house take months. After the advent of Christianity and introduction of modern carpentry tools the traditional way of house building got replaced by simpler and less time consuming strategy. Pure traditional houses are hard to find today even in the most interior Tangkhul villages.

After moving into the new house, the heads of animals slaughtered at the time of building it are hung on wall of the cooking area as decoration. The front wall of the house used to be adorned with wild animal heads killed by the head of the family. It is said that during the days of head hunting, the heads of the victims are hung at the front wall of the house between the carved pillars.

The carved pillars and doors too have vanished. Some of the pillars and doors were looted away by antique collectors which most of the villagers gave away at throwaway price not knowing their value. It is a shame that we have lost almost everything that can remind us of our glorious past. In some villages, the wood totems were cut down to use as fuel which otherwise has withstood for centuries.

Author's Note: A writeup based on memory from stories I heard from old people by the hearth.

Things I like about India!!!

I am an Indian, and there are some things I really like about my India and my fellow Indians.

Honking unnecessarily

Have you ever imagined what use would a vehicle be without a honk? Thanks to the inventor and the inventor should be grateful to Indians as we feel we are the only nation that make good use of it. We have the liberty to honk at anyone and any place we feel like. In India there is no penalty for honking even in restricted places. Well, we don't even know what are the places where we shouldn't honk. This is what we call real freedom. Here, your vehicle will never be towed away, at least for honking.

Peeing anywhere Just Do It style

This is sort of an addiction and you need not be surprised nor be shocked if you see someone peeing wherever you think isn't appropriate. Roadside, railway platforms, railway tracks are some places that mysteriously inspire us to relax and relieve. Is there a logic at all in spending a coin to use the public toilet? Moreover, public toilets are hard to find and are maintained so well that the stench in most of them kill even flies.

Scratching crotches

This is one of our favorite pastimes scratching away, like the way primates do. It is not in the least related to habits, for your kind information. It is more of a hobby to scratch our crotches in public places to draw attention. Whose attention do we get if this is done in private? We call this sport as "Mission Show Off."

Conversing while mo-biking

We Indians are super duper hard working. We don't have time to spend even with our wives. So, it is an implied fact that we have no time to talk to our closest friends and neighbors for years. The only chance to spare time for our dearest friends and pour out our emotions is while mo-biking on our way to and from work. Don't ever think it is odd when you see friends biking side by side and conversing making the narrow roads filled. There is no use objecting to this wonderful moments of emotion sharing as even our police finds it touching. We also use biking time for texting, sexting and chatting to stay in touch with our near and dear ones.

Perching on Railway Tracks

You know what morning hours are for, don't you? The best place to welcome the rising sun is on the railway tracks. The surroundings are clear except for the occasional trains that whizzed by. You would probably think we are relieving perched on the iron fish plates. Do not be mistaken friends, we call it as sun bathing though in most cases we end up emptying our bowels. It is the sun bathing part that is more important than the relieving.

Garbage Disposal
Do not preach us about cleanliness and civic sense as it won't make sense at all. We are just happy to take care of ourselves. Life is short and where in the world do you think we'll have time for others. So, we feel it is absolutely justified to throw waste wherever we feel as long as our houses and compounds are clean. We can bear with the stench of rotting garbage outside our houses, actually we are used to it now. It is our birth right to throw waste wherever we want. Where else on earth do people exercise that insane liberty except India? I love my India!!!

Yoghurt addiction

Being a cow country, we have plenty and plenty of cows and milk flows even from walls. Whatever, we are not able to drink we make it into butter, ghee and yoghurt. We have some ethics not to eat anything without yoghurt. So, we mix rice, yoghurt, salt and water thoroughly until the mixture oozes out from between our fingers; then we finally slurp aloud and eat wholeheartedly. Licking our hand and fingers to make justice to the well mixed food is a sequential natural ritual.

I was Born Brilliant, Google Spoiled Me

How Useless has Google Made us?

Google's mission statement "to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful," has in many ways rendered our memory power useless.

While Google as a company climbs the success ladder higher with its knowledge repository becoming bulkier by the day, our brains are getting lazier at an alarming rate.

Google is the undeclared universal knowledge opium. Once you are on it, you sure have signed the satanic contract not to store anything in your brain and to Shift+Delete your temporary memory folder as frequently as you pee.

I won't find it so offensive if Google were meant just to augment our knowledge, but it is not doomed to be so according to Eric Schmidt who without blinking declared the war cry "The goal is to enable Google users to be able to ask the question such as ‘What shall I do tomorrow?’ and ‘What job shall I take?"

Is Eric Schmidt hinting that we all should consider Google as god and that we place the Google logo in our homes and burn incense and do puja every day?

Likely!!! Yes, let us all start worshiping this giant search engine logo for spoiling our brains. Will someone refresh my memory regarding how knowledge was amassed inside human brains before the blooming of Google? Will someone also tell me who earn the revenue that Google ads is earning now?

Tell me only one example that we don't need to Google for without Googling? Are you too dependent on Google like me? If the answer is positive, you too need to change your Gmail signature to something similar to mine; "Sent via Google Mail service (gmail); if there are any grammatical mistakes or typos complain Eric Schmidt & Google."

Thanks to Microsoft for providing spell check feature in MS Word, else I'd be Googling all the words written in this post to proof read... including even the simple words such as was, is, the, of, so, etc.......

No thanks Google for making my brain latent but, I won't stop using you as you won't stop spoiling me no matter what!!!!

Are you Googled too???

Raitha Mihao Atamna:

Matun ngaireo tunhaowa Zimik

Makum khangai kazingla kumluiura

Atamna kasing mikumo shongzala

Manarsingpai karphalung-nga shingashong.

Somkhangai apamwui eina khangthuishap

Paropngaiching kachi ning-ngaila shimanmi,

Khamana atamla ngahunmihai

Khipakhana makhayui atam pangthem.

Ngapak khavai rasamkaphang pheikar

Phaningching kapai otsak sakrumhai

Mahanung mara atambing chi vaolala

Khanishi mawon kapai mirin riyan.

Raitha mihao Imangli ajava atamna,

Mazangta khangai yur katei luiramli

Ringkapha khi leira kahao kapam;

Ngashanla makhamalan kaphung zingshoram.

Ngasotnao, ramnao, shimkhur phaningungching

Ningtha sangmi kahaiwui kachot sarisak

Malairekda malai kapaiva maning

Kar-rum zatrum kahai ringkapha pheikarbing.

Nganuingaishon, yaron ngala sangaichingnga

Makar ngaireo karda thuihai rasai pheikar

Kashi maphenpai khangachei hupta

Kapar ngavai khamarar mari ngalungla.

Mangshong ngasa kahai aya kaho

Makot kapai wuklungli ngayinsai

Mapingasakpai ringpha khangasak kachihan

“Atamlungli zakmai zingkumna ngacheihailala,

Samphang luira leishikhamatai Iyarnaobingli

Makhangachei zingsho kaphungram chili.”

*** A tribute to all the members of Timrumshon Yar, and Tangkhul alumni of D.M College of Arts Imphal.