Orange Festival Dambuk, Memories of 2015 And so far….

Orange Festival – Dambuk – Arunachal Pradesh:-December 15-18, 2016

Four days of songs, art and adventure in a faraway land.

December 15-18, 2016

Venue: Dambuk, Arunachal Pradesh

Mechuka-Paradise on earth, Arunachal Pradesh

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Paradise on earth is Ziro Part II- words and image by Dani Sulu

One of the sweetest moments of our life is home coming experience. Wherever one may be, his home and her native land and neighbourhood is closest to her heart, however ugly or dirty the home and native town may be, it remains perched in the green land of our memory, forever lovely and refreshing. Coming back to Ziro, my home town, is tantalisingly romantic. It still gives me goose bumps when we start to ascend the hills from Yazali. As one drives through hairpin bends, cool breeze is felt smooching your cheeks and gently weaving through your hair as if mother is running her loving fingers through hair while we are asleep in her bossom. One can smell the pine trees and feel freshness of mountain air coursing down your lungs.

          There hardly is a rest period for the people of Apatani Plateau. As the autumn gives way to winter, Apatanis start preparing their field for next agriculture seaon with repair of bunds and irrigation channels. Even on a chilly winter day, when the sun hides behind the clouds from biting winter wind of Ziro Valley, you will find farmers in the fields cleaning and caressing their fields as would a painter feel his canvass before the start of a master piece. Here I post winter scenes of Ziro giving way to Spring…

Nursery bed to sow paddy seedlings is being prepared. After the Myoko, in the month of April, paddy sapplings will be transplanted.

Elsewhere, paddy fields are treated with crystal clear water….

And the flowering of takung apu..announces arrival of Myoko Piilo.

Here is a closer look of flowers of peach…

Looking through the wide fields one can view Ziro blossoming into youthful beauty..of flowers….

Another of visual Vista.

Flower blossom in a far off place is seen from the ground which has borne the winter brunt of Ziro. Grass has turned brown because of cold.

Flowers deck the bamboo gardens and pine groves.

Closer view of the blossoming Ziro.

Care to take a walk with me?

This is a bird’s eye view of Ziro during Winter.

My dear friends, you might delight youselves in the depthness of winter, when the cold becomes unbearable with these poetic sentence.”When winter comes, can spring be far behind?” But I ask you,” If winter be skipped for it’s severity, would spring have appeared so young and beautiful?” The beauty of winter is, that ,it gives spring a backdrop to appreciate it’s magic. On the rugged surface of winter, beauty of spring is painted. Thus Sulu muses.

Paradise on earth is ziro…Part I- words and image by Dani Sulu

Well, of heaven in the sky, a promising paradise after death…I really am not very sure. But place where your heart and soul remains on this earth is paradise to our living being. Loveliest places are one’s with which you identify yourselves.  My hometown Ziro, where I grew up and where I go to live back my childhood is dearest to my heart. Here, I am posting some of the pictures  of  Ziro, where a small patch of my rice fields lies. These pictures were taken during last summer  and also during the visit to my beloved valley I made during October 2005, before I left for Afghanistan. It was a gala harvesting time.

Ziro

As I go to my field, I have to pass through LEYU,(Leyu is a passage through the bamboo groves which one must take to leave village for any work .. including field work.) Here I take nenting leyu, which is a way to upper Hija village’s fields and forests.

As soon as I leave Leyu, this is the vista my eyes are blessed with.

 Another eye feasting vista as you view the Myoko( Open space beyond village area) beyond your village.

Here, I turn to my right and find the fields swaying to the music of the winds playing with instruments nature provided in abundance in the open fields. What symphony can compete with nature’s sweet music. huh!!!!

Moving with steps that are confident of grounds beneath, of the paths that I grew up with, I find the lush green fields swaying with a blush of young heads of rice as the wind blows gently.

I take a detour and take picture of my field from afar, where my father was laid to rest last year. A patch of raised land is called Nendu Nenchang – a public burial ground. My dad, rests not there, but where I stand and take these snaps. Small hut you see is Myole Piinyi, where the apatani priests perform rituals to propitiate the spirits. White bamboo structures are burial memorials.

This is another picture – my eyes are never tired of such visual feast of greenery, freshness, beauty and tenderness that was all along.

 When you see something, and find it beautifull, you behold it. Nature takes its tolls, and you look again, and wonder, where is that which I beheld with such awe? How has it withered with time and age? Where do I find such beauty, such love, which neither time nor age will leave it untouched. And you wonder!!!!!! 

       Suddenly, a whiff of fresh memories, not fresh in a sense it is new, but fresh because of its essence, … the memories of childhood, of neighbours and surroundnings that looks so unpalatable to the foreigners, whispers, here I am. And, you know you have found true beauty. It grows with age, and as the seasons change, it reveals its beaty in phases. 

      What is beauty? Is it skin deep? Is it limited to the pereiod when you are young and fresh? Where does the beauty fade away when the age catches up with it?

             Haaa Haa haa…. ha ha ha. Like most people, I am usually confused between youth and beauty. That loveliness that we see usually are the youths in bloom, not the beauty in its true colour. True beauty is deeper and unfathomable. Like a good old wine, it becomes better with age. So is Ziro. You thought, green and beautiful Ziro will give way to old and withering autumn and winter? No way. These are some of the pictures I took during the harvest season in October’2005, before, I left for Afghanistan.

As Ziro matures from spring to summer and to autumn, it turns golden in its look and its content. Whole of Ziro valley is carpeted with golden crops of ricewith a far away blue mountains as a back ground. This is the time when gangs of male and females( Patangs), as per their age, band together and have maximum fun and frolick harvesting the rice fields and getting drowned in its celebration. Those of you, who have never experienced abandoned gay and joy, come during the harvest time to Ziro and join one of the patangs to drink the last drop of joy that lifes gives us. I assure you, you would have squeezed out the nectar, the honey that life has never blessed anywhere else.

This is a view from Siilang Diiting of Siilang, Boppii, Tbyo and Piisa pu putu. I took this scenary while proceeding to my fields beyond those blue mountains with my wife and children.

Just as I cross a small stream to enter my field, I see this view. The fenced field is others. Beyond that, in a far off hirizon where lies the blue mountains is our clan’s naring morey and katu morey.( Morey refers to forest, here clan forest.) To the left is Aifu Puttu(AAifu Hillock) and to the right is Piisa Pu Puttu.

This is another shot of fraction of my field and beyond as described above. It looks surreal. Doesnt it?

The  picture at the top is of my son Dingyang performing pabung banni, which means carrying the threshed rice grains to a place called intii pere. Usually children are tasked with pabung banni while the young and grown up females reap the rice stalks and young and grown upmales thresh the rice. It is one of the most beautiful moments of any childhood who have grown up in a typical Apatani Village life.)

Well, Ziro is covered under goldend carpets all around during the months of September and October

THANKS TO MR. DANI SULU Sire for allowing me to upload his Words and Images over pasighat Blog…

Revisited view from Ranaghat Bridge, Siang River, Pasighat II

Ranaghat Bridge over Siang River, Pasighat

Ranaghat Bridge over Siang River, Pasighat

 

Revisited view from Ranaghat Bridge, Siang River, Pasighat

view from Ranaghat Bridge, Siang River, Pasighat

view from Ranaghat Bridge, Siang River, Pasighat

THE RIVER SYSTEM OF ARUNACHAL PRADESH

Subansiri River

  THE RIVER SYSTEM OF ARUNACHAL PRADESH

It may not be wrong to speculate that, but for the existence of Punjab in India, Bibhabasu das Shastri, the then Director of Research in the Government of Arunachal Pradesh, who was credited with giving the name “Arunachal Pradesh” to the then NEFA, in 1972, would have named it Punjab, since the five major rivers of this state, namely KAMENG, SUBANSIRI, SIANG, TIRAP and LOHIT, have been associated with the region from the very early times. Anyway, a speculation apart, Arunachal Pradesh is drained by innumerable rivers and a number of streams that drain the area almost throughout the year.

Starting from the west, in the Kameng district the first noteworthy river is the Nyamjang Chu, also called Dargong, drawing the waters of Mela ridge.  Then, there is the river Namka Chu, which assumes the name of Tawang Chu. The Kameng river starts at the Kameng  range at a height of 3000 mts, which is fed by the Dirang river, which flows through the Se La Pass. Other important rivers of the district are the Bhorelli, the Bichom and the Tengapani rivers. The long and narrow valley at the foot of Bomdila range is intersected by many streams, all of which are not perennial. The important river is the Daphla Kho, which flows into the basin of the largest river of Kameng, the Bhorelli. From the south-west direction, the Rupa river runs through the Sherdukpen Hills and joins the Kameng river. The rivers of the eastern Kameng hills flow in the south-westernly direction and the rivers in the western flow in the south easternly direction.

Kameng River

The main rivers of the Subansiri district are the Subansiri, Kamla, khru, Panior, Par and Dikrang. The life-line of the river system of the district is Subansiri which makes its way across the entire length of the territory flowing from north-west to south-east, also marking approximately the eastern boundary of the district. The headwater of the river in Tibet is formed by Char Chu, Chayal Chu and Yume Chu rivers. The Kamla river forms an important part of the Subansiri drainage system. It immerges from the confluence of a number of amall rivers cascading down from the noth-western snowy heights of the district. It may not be wrong to say that the Kamla river is the Nile of the Apatani valley. The Khru river is a turbulent river and like the Kamla, cuts through precipitous gorges. River Dikrang is formed by Par, Norochi and Pachin rivers. 

 

Moving to the east, the main rivers in the Siang district are Siang and Siyom, flowing in a north-sough direction. The Siang, also called Dihang, is known as Tsangpo in its upper course in Tibet. The river, originating in Tibet, makes its way into the Indian territory east of Gelling. In Arunachal, the river covers a length of about 250 kms., and is fed by many tributaries of which Siyom, Yame and Yang Sang Chu are worth mention. The Siyom river rises from the Pari mountains in the Mechuka area and flowing east through the areas of the Membas, the Ramos, the Pailibos and the Bokars, merges with the Siang river near Pangin. Another river of the Distric worth note is Simen, which emargs from high hills of Basar, and flowing southwards merges with Brahmaputra.

In the Lohit district, the main rivers are the Lohit, the Dibang, the Kamlang and the Nao-Dihing. River Lohit is called Tellu by the Mishmis. It originates from the mountains across the north-east border, i.e. from China where it is called Zayul Chu. River Lohit has a course of about 190 kms. Through steep hills and valleys before it reaches the plains at Parsuram Kund. The Dibang is the main river of the western part of the district. Originating from the southern flank of Great Himalayan Ranges, it flows from north to south and finally meets river Lohit near Sadiya. This river is called a Talon by the Indus and changes its course very often in the foothill region, thereby making it almost impossible to bridge it. The plains towards the south of the district are drained by the Kamlang and the Nao-Dihing rivers. The main tributaries of the Nao-Dihing in the Lohit district are Dirak on the left bank and Tengapani on the right bank. The Kamlang rises from the Galo in Wakro and flows in an east-westernly direction to finally meet the Lohit river.

Most of the rivers in the Tirap district flow east to west. The major rivers of this area the Nao-Dihing, the Burhi-Dihing, the Tirap, the Namsang, the Namphuk and the Namphai. The Noa-Dihing flows east-west through the entire north-eastern and northern stretch of the district and meets the Lohit river near Namsai in the Lohit district. One of its major tributary is the Dapha river. River Burhi-Dihing, flowing south-west, joins the Brahmaputra near Borgohaingaon in Assam. The Namphuk, the Namchik, the Namsang, the Namphai and the Tirap rivers are its main tributaries. The Tirap river originates from a high peak between Laju and Wakka in the south-western region. It flows from south-west to north-east through Tirap district and then turns north and due west in the plains to join the Burhi-Dihing near Ledo. Some other rivers in the district are the Tisa, the Taken, The Tiking, the Tising ju and Tewai.

Subansiri River

Lohit River

Kameng River

Mariyang, Upper Siang, Arunachal Pradesh

Mariyang, Upper Siang, Arunachal Pradesh

Mariyang is on of the Town in Mariyang Tehsil , Upper Siang District , Arunachal Pradesh State . Mariyang is located 48.9 km distance from its District Main City Yingkiong.

Mariyang, Upper Siang, Arunachal Pradesh

 

BirdEye View of Suspension Bridge, Pangin, Pasighat #Arunachal Pradesh#

BirdEye View of Suspension Bridge, Pangin, Pasighat #Arunachal Pradesh#.