Tamla-Du festival displays rich culture of Mishmi tribe

Newsdesk
18th of February, 2020

Dibrugarh: Three -day golden jubilee Tamla-DU festival concluded at Tezu in Lohit district Arunachal Pradesh on Sunday.

Tamla-DU festival is celebrated by Mishmi tribe of Arunachal Pradesh. The three day festival displayed rich culture and tradition of Mishmi tribe.

It is believed that the mordern way of celebration in an organised manner on a particular day every year started on February 15, 1972. The elders of the Mishmi community like Sobeng Tayang and Bramtingso Tayang took the leadership to organise it and to adopt the date permanently.

Mishmi having a population of 35,000 in Arunachal Pradesh. It is one of the primitive tribe of Arunachal Pradesh.

Soplan Manyu, chairman of Tamla-Du festival said, “Our main objective of the festival is to showcase our rich cultural heritage of the Mishmi tribe. This year we have celebrated our 50th Tamladu festival. The Mishmi tribe is one of the unique and primitive tribe of Arunachal Pradesh. During the three day festival, the people have displayed their rich culture. We are taking step to preserve the unique culture and tradition of Mishmi tribe,”.

He added during the three day festival the Mishmi preast have conducted different rituals which were associated with the festival.

“Tamla-Du is predominantly an agriculture and environment friendly festival and all the rituals of the festival are associated with the environment. Our ancestors celebrated the festival from ages, so during festival we pay respect our our ancestors who have played a crucial role for our community. Different tribes of Arunachal Pradesh participated in the three day festival and displayed their rich culture,” the Chairman said.

However, traditional foods and Mishmi clothes were exhibited in different stalls during the three day festival. Many young girls from Mishmi tribe were seen wearing traditional Mishmi attire participated in the festival.

“Every year we celebrated the festival but this time we have celebrated golden jubilee. The festival is unique for us because we get to learn the rich culture and tradition of our tribe. We have enjoyed a lot in the three day festival and enjoyed the traditional foods and drinks,” said Laxmi Lu, a young girl from Mishmi tribe.

Ritemso Manyu, a social worker and a youngster of the Mishmi tribe said, “The young generation of Mishmi tribe should come forward to preserve the age old tradition and culture of tribe. It is true that in modern time our customs, tradition and rituals have change to some extent but our young generation should play a vital role to preserve the culture of the tribe. Our culture and tradition is our identity if we forget our own culture and tradition we will be lost,” Manyu said.