Portrait of young man of Semkhor (Image number U.004, J.P. Mills Photographic Collection)
Wearing a necklace of beads and sections of conch shell, and showing the method of doing the hair. The whole head is shaved except for the hair on the crown, which is allowed to grow long and twisted up into a knot with the end left to hang down. The inhabitants of Semkhor are very different from t...
| Full title: |
Portrait of young man of Semkhor (Image number U.004, J.P. Mills Photographic Collection) [electronic resource]. |
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| Format: | Photo |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
1927.
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| Series: |
SOAS Digital Library.
ASC. REGIONS. RSA. JPMILLS. ILOAA. |
| Subjects: | |
| Online access: |
Click here to view record |
| Summary: |
Wearing a necklace of beads and sections of conch shell, and showing the method of doing the hair. The whole head is shaved except for the hair on the crown, which is allowed to grow long and twisted up into a knot with the end left to hang down. The inhabitants of Semkhor are very different from the Zemi Nagas which surround them. They speak Kachari, dress like Kacharis and their houses are of the Kachari pattern, yet they are definitely not Kacharis, though Kacharis are the only people allowed to enter their houses, a right which is reciprocated. They are Hindus, like Kacharis. Mills considered that they could be descendants of the Konyak Nagas who used to form the bodyguard of the Kachari kings. This theory was borne out, in his opinion, by certain similarities with the Konyaks in burial customs and items of dress. There are the remains of a Kachari fort about three miles from the village. The people of Semkhor have never intermarried with Kacharis, and the reason why the village is the only one of its kind is that the Kachari kings strictly forbade the founding of any colony villages. |
|---|---|
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
1927.
|
| Subjects: | |
| Series: |
SOAS Digital Library.
ASC. REGIONS. RSA. JPMILLS. ILOAA. |
| Access: |
Image: © 1927, The Estate of J.P. Mills. Text: © 1996, Geraldine Hobson. |
| Place of Publication: |
India -- Assam -- Dima Hasao District -- Semkhor. |