Tangkhul Naga funeral at Ukhrul village, February 1939

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Tangkhul Naga funeral at Ukhrul village, February 1939 (Tangkhul Naga funeral at Ukhrul village, February 1939)

Tangkhul Naga funeral at Ukhrul village, February 1939

Longshim

Date: Sunday, 25/10/2015, 8:13 AM | Message # 1

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The Process of Tangkhul Naga funeral at Ukhrul village. Information based on catalogue compiled by photographer
Ursula Graham Bower in February 1939

Tangkhul Naga funeral at Ukhrul village

The graves are hollowed out some seven to eight feet underground. The shaft is large enough to admit a man and a body on a stretcher. This shaft leads to the opening of an underground chamber, into which the body on the stretcher can be passed. These tombs are re-usable. I understand that consideration is had to the date of the last burial; in this case the
tomb had not been used for some 30 years. There was natural aversion to rapid re-use of a tomb in which was a still-decaying body, but this was a point on which I found it difficult to get details. After the shaft had opened, the next-of-kin of the man last interred, went down and entered the chamber carrying a cloth, in which he bundled up the bones. These
were brought to the surface, where the bones were carefully checked over and washed with rice beer. When it was certain that none were missing, they were repacked in the cloth and returned to a corner of the tomb and the second body was then buried. An old man breaks the dead man's platter and pours rice beer at the side of the grave to be opened.

Caption:The old man begins digging

Caption:Younger man takes over digging

Caption:Shaft grows deeper

Caption:Sacrificing pig in porch of dead man's house

Caption:Roasting the pig

Caption:Bringing out young buffalo for the funeral sacrifice

Caption:Bringing out for sacrifice a big buffalo, belonging to the village headman. The
street has been cleared and the buffalo is coming down at full gallop.
Half a dozen men are clinging to a rope attached to its hind leg, and
the headman is holding a rope on its horns

Caption:Head-rope is fixed to the stake in the centre and the buffalo is dragged round
and round by gangs of men in front and behind. Every few minutes there
is a halt and a man with a spear stabs the beast in the flank

Caption:The beast is thrown and stabbed in the throat to dispatch it

Caption:The shaft to the vault has been opened. The next-of-kin to the dead man
previously interred there is bringing out the skeleton and collecting
the bones in a cloth. The low arched entrance to the vault can just be
seen to the left.

Caption:Old man counting the bones before being brought to the surface.

Caption:The bones are brought to the surface.

Caption:The bones are washed with rice beer.

Caption:The bones of the previous occupant are tied in a cloth and returned to the
corner of the vault. Friends of the dead man are laying his body on the
bier and covering it with cloths. The newly dead man is then placed,
full length, in the vault, and the shaft filled in.

Longshim

Date: Sunday, 25/10/2015, 8:18 AM | Message # 2