Portrait of two men (Image number U.005, J.P. Mills Photographic Collection)

They both wear white cloths, the man on the left a narrow one tied round the waist and then pulled up between the legs, his companion a short kilt. The cloths are normally made of silk. The man on the right wears deo moni beads and strips of cane bound below the knees. The inhabitants of Semkhor ar...

Full description

Full title: Portrait of two men (Image number U.005, J.P. Mills Photographic Collection) [electronic resource].
Format: Photo           
Language: English
Published: 1927.
Series: SOAS Digital Library.
ASC.
REGIONS.
RSA.
JPMILLS.
ILOAA.
Subjects:
Online access: Click here to view record


Summary: They both wear white cloths, the man on the left a narrow one tied round the waist and then pulled up between the legs, his companion a short kilt. The cloths are normally made of silk. The man on the right wears deo moni beads and strips of cane bound below the knees. 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.