Traditional dress and ornament of the Zeliangrong of North East
- Part 2 -

Budha Kamei *

Traditional dress and ornament of the Zeliangrong people as seen at State level Gaan-Ngai 2014 at Keikhu, Kabui Village in January 2014
Pix - Ashok Ningthoujam

Adornment and decoration of human body features in all known cultures and societies and the practice is as old as recorded history. It is said that the use of ornaments preceded the use of garments and its purpose was to emphasize social position by a great display of trophies, charms and other valuables and to enhance attractiveness. In any societies particularly in tropical and mild climate adornment is far more important than clothing. It suggests the behavior or roles expected of people on the basis of their various and sometimes multiple connections with each other and can, therefore distinguish the powerful from the weak, the rich from the poor, the hero from the outcaste, the conformer from the non-conformer, the religious from the irreligious, the leader from the follower.

In some societies valued kinds of adornment are widely available to all, with perhaps some restriction on age. It can be used to indicate social roles, to establish social worth, as a symbol of economic status, as an emblem of political power or ideological inclination, as a reflection of magico-religious condition, as a facility in social rituals, and a reinforcement of beliefs, customs and values.

The Nagas don't know when they came to this present home. However, recorded accounts mention of their ornaments which are used as items of material culture, to develop the idea of oness in culture. It also indicates tribal roots. It is a universal channel of communication; serves to enhance individual attractiveness, a symbol vocabulary which conjectures origin of some particular ornaments which have functional use. There are non-functional ornaments which are used commonly. The functional ornaments have particular meanings.

In their material culture, the Zeliangrong use many natural objects deriving from feather, cotton, pith, teeth, horn, shells, bones, grasses, seeds, etc.

This is for the love of originality and the long ingrained custom that the tribals had chosen their ornaments, so that they are in keeping with their costume, no matter how simple or colorful it may be. The tribal ornaments are simple but notable for its uniqueness.

Regarding the ornaments of Zeliangrong people, Colonel McCulloch has stated that the women are fond of ornaments and they wear many till they are married. These consist of glass beads ornaments on the arms. Gold or silver ornaments do not exist among them. In the festivals, the men wear their peculiar ornaments of which the most prized are necklaces of red pebbles. A single stone of this sort is sometimes valued at five mithuns, but such stones are usually heirlooms and are sacredly preserved.

R. Brown writes, necklaces of beads and shell are commonly worn. A reddish pebble necklace is the most highly prized. On the upper arm an ornament of brass is commonly worn. It is made of very thick wire with a bell shaped ball at either extremity; this is wound round the arm pretty light about ten or twelve times, until a large deep ring is formed. Above the calf of the leg numerous rings of cane, very thin, and generally colored black, are frequently worn. The ornaments amongst the women are similar to those of the men, but worn in larger numbers. The earrings are always large and heavy, and the necklaces numerous; bracelets of brass are also worn besides the upper arm ornament above mentioned; the legs and ankles are bare of ornaments.

Like other communities of the world, the Zeliangrong also have their own traditional dresses and ornaments of different varieties, for both male and female according to their age and social status in the society. There are clothes exclusively meant for the birth, marriage, death ceremonies, and for their festive occasions. Indeed, the dress and ornaments are the medium of expressing their social and cultural identity.

The Simon commission report commenting on the Nagas writes, "These races must be among the most picturesque in the world," and on shawls and ornaments, Dr. Hutton writes, "All Naga tribes have a most remarkable appreciation of the effective and picturesque in their use of color, is usually an extraordinary good taste and particularly well adopted to the surroundings in which it is displayed. The design of their clothes is conspicuous for the right use of brilliant colors, cowries, ivory and scarlet hair seem peculiarly well fitted to the deep green or bluish background usually afforded by the well weeded hills which is their home."

In Zeliangrong society, the wearing of ornament begins at the time of birth of a child. On the birthday itself, the baby is fastened with a black thread locally called Khim round the neck, ankle, wrists and waist with ritual. This act symbolizes the beginning of wearing ornaments in the life cycle of an individual.

A lower garment known as Tanina is believed to be the oldest cloth used by the Zeliangrong people. They wore this garment to cover the private parts from puberty period onwards. This cloth is considerably warm in use because of the compact weaving of the fiber of the cloth, which is obtained from a kind of creeper plant locally recognized as Taningken. This type of fibre was the only one known to be used in the ancient times. McCulloch writes, the Zeliangrong male wear a cloth round his waist to cover the private parts.

They love to wear their traditional dresses which are richly colored with beautiful and elaborate designs woven by them according to their fancy and skill. Traditionally, the Zeliangrong women possess the knowledge of weaving and it is the responsibility of a mother to teach her daughter the art of weaving from tender age. It is a shameful for a girl who did not learn and possess the knowledge of weaving after attending maturity.

They produce most of their cloth artistically designed and woven by women in the families loin looms. Their yarn is spun from locally grown staple cotton and the dye required for coloring the yarn is also produced by themselves from herbs collected from the forest.

The best description of the Zeliangrong traditional dress is given by R. Brown who was a political agent of Manipur. He writes, the dress of male is scanty. In the valley of Manipur, a more decent costume is adopted: either a kilt-like piece of cloth round the waist. The only other article of clothing worn by the men is a thick sheet of cotton cloth, and this only when the weather is cold. The women wear a piece of cotton cloth of thick texture, which is put on in the same way as the Manipuri Fanek, and reaches to a little below the knee; this garment is confined round the waist by a colored scarf with fringed ends. The color for ordinary wear is usually of muddy hews, with colored stripes of various widths; on festive occasions, blue, with red stripes, is the favorite color. Over the shoulders is worn a scarf-shaped piece of cloth, generally of blue with a border and fringe of other colors.

They have special dresses for their children such as Tane, Phaitha, Langjinnina, Giyakni, Aliumailangni and Nithuina etc. Tane is one of the smallest lower garments of the Zeliangrongs used as clothing by the young boys and girls of the age group from three to four years old. Decoration is made throughout the body of the cloth with black and white stripes running horizontally. The young children and elder men use Phaitha, a kind of shawl as daily wear. The color of this shawl is of pure white and it is usually woven in the family's loin loom according to the intended size of the user.

Langjinnina is another type of lower garment for the young girls. It possesses layers of thin cream colored stripes throughout the body of the cloth along with three pairs of horizontal black lines running at four equal intervals. The lower parts of the cloth are decorated with red and black horizontal lines at the border. The young children and teenage girls of the age group from thirteen to fifteen years wear Giyakni as lower garment especially at the time of festive occasions and other ceremonial functions. The base of the cloth is mixed with black, red and white broad striped lines running horizontally in a repeated manner.

The lower part of the garment has a decorative design made by multicolor woven embroidery with tassels of multicolor yarn hanging from the body of the cloth. It has a motif of thirty pairs of butterflies flanked by black color locally recognized as Kaike on each joining part of the cloth. Aliumailangni is worn by young girls as lower garment at home as well as on ceremonial occasions. This cloth has backdrop of grey and the color of thread is naturally produced from homegrown cotton. The grey backdrop of the cloth is supported by broad red borders on the two horizontal sides.

The border has woven embroidery which is produced by interlacing of multicolor yarn. Tassels hang freely over the woven embroidery along the weft. It is made by joining of four pieces of cloth together and each of the joining part has a motif of butterfly flanked by black stripes. The young girls wear Nithuina also as lower garment at the festive occasions.

To be continued...