KHONOMA – HIDDEN TREASURE OF NAGALAND

 

Nagaland had long been considered as one of the forbidden states of India just because of its poor connectivity and presence of ethnic tribes. But with the introduction of worldwide publicity through the Hornbill Festival and the interest shown by foreign tourists, Nagaland has now taken a place on the tourist map of India.

 

The natural beauty, breathtaking views of the mountain ranges of Eastern Himalayas, flora and fauna of the region have started attracting domestic tourists round the year barring the rainy season.

 

I had the opportunity to visit Nagaland a couple of times but did not have the scope of enjoying the beauty of bountiful nature because of preoccupation. However, during the last Hornbill Festival, my trip, for a slightly longer period gave me a chance to visit the cleanest village of Nagaland - Khonoma.

 

Though it was only a day visit, it gave immense pleasure to enjoy the entire day in the village not only because of nature but also the history of the village, interaction with the local people, and tasting local cuisine.

 

The distance from Kohima, the capital of Nagaland to Khonoma was just 20 km, and it took around one hour to reach the center of the village. The vehicle was parked in the designated parking lot and we explored the entire village on foot with a local guide.

 

The nomenclature Khonoma got derived from a local plant called Khwunoria, which was abundantly available once upon a time. The history of the village was more than 700 years old. The inhabitants of the village were the Angami tribe with a population of around 3000 persons covering all ages residing there for generations. The entire village was located in the hilly terrain with mountains guarding against all sides. Thick forest prevailed all-round the village with an abundance of forest resources. The major occupation of the population was agriculture in the form of step cultivation and animal husbandry. Though the village was very near to the capital, connectivity was poor because of the lack of availability of public transport. Just one public bus from Kohima plied to the village on a daily basis carrying local passengers, consumables, other necessities, and even functioned as a postal van.

 

The village had a rich history of the battle between the Angami tribe and the British army more than a century ago where the tribal people did not want to lose liberty in the hands of British soldiers. There were monuments of the martyrs at different locations of the village, still carrying the memories of their sacrifice.

 

Our walking tour continued in the village pedestrian roads, touching the entrances of the houses mostly built with stones and thatched roofs. Most of the houses were above the road level leading through staircases. Almost all the houses had small gardens with blooming flowers and a few vegetable plants. The gen-next the population was mostly in the modern dresses and rarely could we find any trace of the old generation in traditional Angami dress.

 

The houses of village chiefs could be identified easily because of their size and gorgeous entrance as the signs of glorious past continued in future generations also. We had the opportunity to interact with a village chief whose next generation had moved to the capital and further away to enjoy tools of modern civilization.

 

Christianity was a major religion and a big sophisticated church in the center of the village depicted the symbol of faith.

 

We had to climb more than four hundred steps on top of a hillock to witness an old palace now abandoned by the royal family of the village. A symbol of the royal family, though in dilapidated condition was marked on the entrance of the palace. From the roof of the palace, we could observe that the village was guarded by mountains from all sides, step cultivation along the gentle and steep slopes to the extremely rugged hillsides. The major cultivation included paddy, canes, vegetables, and a variety of seasonal fruits. Availability of bamboo and canes were in abundance, some of which were also consumed as food.

 

Serene and tranquility, prevailing in the village, had drawn domestic and foreign tourists. Homestays in the village had substituted the absence of hotels and resorts. The ambiance of the homestays was not high end, but basic amenities with local cuisine had also attracted many tourists. We could meet a young girl from Andhra Pradesh, who had been staying there for around two months to explore the flora and fauna of the village and its surroundings, learning the life cycle of the ethnic tribes, their economic activities, level of education, which were part of her research studies. On the way, we could find a particular house was being decorated with flowers and traditional products on account of the forthcoming marriage of their daughter.

 

As all may be aware, the tribes of Nagaland were mostly dependent on animal protein as their staple food as agriculture was not so prevalent in the early days. The same tradition continued for ages and as it was told that the tribal people converted any creature flying, swimming, or crawling to their food. There was a huge ecological imbalance and the forest resources started getting exhausted. But Khonoma was the first village to introduce conservation of forest resources including the prevention of rampant cutting of timber from the forest. It had resulted in banning hunting and opposed the destruction of forests. Dust bins had been placed at reasonable intervals on all the roads and people were aware of the limited use of plastic and non-perishable goods.

 

While interacting with the local guide, we came to know that there was huge turmoil among the tribes in the recent past to prove the supremacy of one tribe over another. But with the introduction of education among the children and intervention of churches, the rivalry had reduced considerably though could not be fully removed. Even the next-gen youths were undergoing inter-tribe nuptial knots when they met each other in colleges and universities. However, still, the majority of the cultural programs of tribes depicted war and violence among each other, to keep the fighting spirit intact for the next generation.

 

The noticeable feature of the village was cleanliness and maintenance of health and hygiene. We could not find a single plastic on the road as it was totally banned in the village. A heavy penalty was imposed if any person was found to be with plastic under his possession. Though we carried packaged mineral water, we were warned not to drop plastic bottles in the public dustbins even. The roads were being mopped at regular intervals. Incidentally, Khonoma was awarded the best prize by the Nagaland government for keeping the village clean for two consecutive years. Of course, we did not any documentary evidence of what has been told to us by the guide.

 

After exploring the entire village, we had lunch with local cuisine like smoked pork and fish in bamboo, (but the names could not be remembered) that included a delicacy in the form of grasshopper crispy fry.

 

After lunch, we visited the church, that was open by that time and then we started for Kohima for a new experience.

 

The maintenance of cleanliness and hygiene in the village had been an example to the rest of the country like Mowlynglong in Meghalaya, where the tribal people had changed their lifestyle and were able to come out from their age-old tradition to conserve nature. They have understood the importance of protection of flora and fauna of a particular region and paved safer earth for their future generation. On the other hand, the so-called civilized society of urban and semi-urban areas are not able to adopt measures to protect the earth from destruction.

 

Now, it is the question to the rest of the country, when shall we change ourselves?

 Backlink

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bk1UpNbgoqw