Thanzing-Lap celebrated
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, September 27 2014 :
The Autumn festival of Vaiphei tribe Thazing Lap was celebrated at Salam Patong Village, Sadar Hill in Senapati district.
Various cultural dances, indigenous sports items of the youth of the surrounding villages were shown on Saturday.
It is a festival that is exclusive to the Vaipheis as there is no evidence of kindred tribes having a similar festival in the State.
Thazing-Lap is a recreational post-sowing or pre-harvest festival that takes place after the entire sowing process including weeding, clearing and burning of fields, transplanting and sowing of paddy is completed during (July) or the summer season.
After the sowing season is over, Vaipheis engage in recreation and festivities that stretch to the autumn season which is called Thanzing-month (August, September, and October), said Thangkhawtawng.
The antecedents or origin of the Thazing-Lap is traced back to a period in Vaiphei history when various Vaiphei clans inhabited a settlement called Khuavaiphei, believed to be located in present day Chin hills, Burma (Myanmar) .
Its celebration as a major festival of the Khuavaiphei settlers can be found from around the year back 1560, said history teller Thangkhawtawng while adding that the festival is not an annual festival.
In Manipur, the earliest instance of the Thazing-Lap was celebrated in the year 1830 at Kulbung Veng, Salam Patong village, Sadar Hill in Senapati district which was continued for three month where the forefather were so engrossed that they even forget about their crops which was already time for harvest.
The festival was attended by Ts Anek Vaiphei, Vaiphei People Council (VPC) Cabinet member as a chief guest and Jangneilun Vaiphei, Eastern block VPC chairman as functional president.
Hundreds of Vaiphei villagers of the surrounding villages join the festival in which they were treated with a grand feast by the host village.