Thongjao Village - Village And People - Land Of Pottery
- Part 4 -

Molung Angjoy *

A film clip from "The Coil Pottery of Manipur in Andro and Thongjao"

3.22 SECONDARY OCCUPATION

TABLE NO. – X
FREQUENCY PERCENT DISTRIBUTION OF SECONDARY OCCUPATION

INFERENCE:-

The above table no. – X reveals that the main secondary occupation of the village is Cultivation consisting frequencies of 107 (43.6 %) followed by Wage Owner, Potter, Business and Carpenter consisting 50 (20.4 %), 45 (18.3 %), 23 (5.9 %) and 18 (7.3 %). Other works as secondary occupation has the least frequencies of 2 (0.8%).

3.23 TYPES OF FAMILY

TABLE NO. – X1
FREQUENCY PERCENT DISTRIBUTION OF TYPES OF FAMILY

INFERENCE:-

The above table no. X1 shows the typology of families of the village. It is found that out of total number of 358 families 214 (57.8 %) are Nuclear families which occupy the highest number of household of this type. The Nuclear family is followed by Joint family 82 (22.9%), Incomplete family comprising the frequency of 40 (11.1%) and broken family comprising the frequency of 22 (6.1 %).

3.24 HOUSE TYPE

TABLE NO. – X11
FREQUENCY PERCENT DISTRIBUTION OF HOUSE TYPE

INFERENCE:-

The above table no. X11 shows that there are three types of houses. They are:
i) Traditional house
ii) Slightly modern and
iii) Modern house.

There are altogether 358 houses out of which 11 are Modern houses (3.07 %), Traditional house has the frequencies of 48 (13.4 %) houses and 299 (83.5 %) are built in slightly modern.

3.25 PRIMARY OCCUPATION

TABLE NO. – X111
FREQUENCY PERCENT DISTRIBUTION OF PRIMARY OCCUPATION

INFERENCE:-

The above table no. – X111 reveals that the main primary occupation of the village is Potter consisting frequencies of 311 (35.5 %) followed by Wage Owner, Cultivator, Government service and Carpenter consisting 197 (23.7 %), 144 (17.3 %), 94 (11.3 %) and 49 (5.9 %). Business as primary occupation has the least frequencies of 34 (4.1 %).

3.26 CLAN

TABLE NO. – X1V
FREQUENCY PERCENT DISTRIBUTION OF CLAN

INFERENCE:-

The above table shows the clan wise distribution of families among the Thongjao village. From the table it is seen that the Mangang clan has the highest number of families contributing 36.5 % of the total families followed by Luwang with 78 families is comprising 21.7 % each.

The frequencies of the Angom, Khuman, Kha-nganba, and Moirang are 48 (13.4 %), 39 (10.8 %), 30 (8.3 %) and 20 (5.5 %). The Sarang-Leisangthem clan has the least number of families with only 12 families forming 3.3 % of the total in the Thongjao village.

3.27 LAND HOLDING

TABLE NO. – XV
FREQUENCY PERCENT DISTRIBUTION OF LAND HOLDING PATTERN OF AGRICULTURAL LAND

INFERENCE:-

The above table shows the pattern of landholding of cultivable field. This table reveals that as many as 153 households (73.9%) in the village acquired smallest area of cultivable land. However, the biggest area of agricultural land (i.e. 9 – 10 sangam) is possessed by only one household (0.4%). Altogether 41 households (19.3%) have cultivable land of about 3 – 4 sangams.

** A local unit of measuring agricultural land, 1 sangam = 0.62 acre.

3.28 FESTIVALS

1. Christmas

It is generally observed on December 25th of every year to commemorate the birth of Jesus, the central figure of Christianity. The Thongjao Believers Church celebrates festivals like Good Friday, Easter Sunday and many other Christian festivals.

2. Tarpon

It is celebrated in the beginning of full moon of Langban (local day – Thasi). It is generally performed by all Vaishnavite Meitei’s of Thongjao. They have offered beatal nut, beatal leaf, banana, pineapples, graves, rice’s etc. nearby to the local pond or river.

3. Deepa wal (light festival)

This festival is observed in the month of Mera (October). This festival is the reign and symbol of welcoming Rana. Over the victory with lighted candle in which every houses in the village who prefers Hinduism observed it by lighting candle in their own houses including fruits consisting of banana, sweet, incense etc. It can be done by anyone in the family.

4. Ningol chak-kouba

It is observed on the second day of Hiyangei (October to November). It literally mean feast for married daughter and sister. It is one of the biggest festivals especially for married woman in Manipur. The parents invite their married daughters and sisters and offer gifts to them.

5. Lai haraoba

The most popular Lai Haraoba traditional festival of Thongjao village is the Ibudhou Mayang Ngamba haraoba. Lai Haraoba literally means “Pleasing the God” The Ibudhu Mayang Ngamba haraoba begins on the 3rd day or 5th day of Kalan (May) the second month of local calendar. Lai Haraoba is performed by the priest (Maiba and Maibi). Pena Khongba (musical instrumentalist) and associated with Lai Shelungba, Phamnaiba, Lai Committee members respectively.

6. Ratha Jathra

This festival is locally known as Kang Chingba. It is celebrated by the Vaishnavite Meitei’s of Thongjao people with the regional colour lasting for nine days that is it starts from the 2nd day up to 10th day of Ingen (june-july). The 4th month of the local calendar year. It is held in honour of Sri Jagat Bondhu and his sister Subhadra.


Concluded .....

Video Related to Thongjao and Andro

• jourNE to Andro - Part 1 :: Ooba
• jourNE to Andro - Part 2 :: Ooba
• The Coil Pottery of Manipur in Andro and Thongjao :: Part 1 :: Ooba
• The Coil Pottery of Manipur in Andro and Thongjao :: Part 2 :: Ooba

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* By Molung Angjoy (Anthropologist, Field Research) contributes regularly to e-pao.net. The sender can be contacted at mljoyakanshowa(at)gmail(dot)com
This article was webcasted on Ocotber 30, 2011.

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