Tour of Nagaland 2022 | Day 14 | Kohima| 0 kms

Today, I decided to spend the entire day getting to know the details of the event. I quickly got ready and left my campsite. It was bright and shiny as I reached the main performing arena of the festival around 9:30 am. I wanted to know what this festival was all about having got to know titsbits for the last 2 days. All the performing artists of respective tribes were already present and sitting on the circular arched-shaped steps. Some of the tribes were just entering. Some of them were readying their costumes, and makeup and making sure everything was perfect and presentable.

I was excited to see what each tribe had to offer. The guidebook proved handy as it had a small 2-page information about all the tribes which contained their dressing sense, their art, culture, and major celebratory festivals.

After a while, all the tribes had joined together to form a human chain that started from the arena entrance to the ground. There were 2 chains of people facing each other. They were singing and dancing, each in their tribal way welcoming the guests as they passed through them in the middle. Once all the chief guests had arrived, every one of the tribes took to their seats as the day’s show was about to start.

The first half witnessed an amazing performance by most of the tribes. Each tribe had its unique way of performing and everyone was giving their best. It was very hard to judge every tribe’s performance. During the afternoon break, I explored the places around me, visiting most of the Morungs and other places of interest. I even tried some local tribe dishes along with some tasting of alcoholic brews.

I came back for the evening session which saw even more crowd at the arena since the sun had gone behind the mountains and the complete area was under the blanket of shadow which provided much relief from the scorching heat. This session saw tribes engaged in their own crafted games which they displayed to the crowd with much pomp! As the day’s session came to an end, I visited other places in the Kisama Heritage Village such as the Horticulture arena where the local indigenous varieties of fruits and vegetables were on display. Some of them I was seeing for the first time and some of them which I knew, their sizes enthralled me. I particularly liked the ginger varieties since they were almost a foot long!

After that, I went into the flora section which had many varieties of plants and even more varieties of Orchids! I was stunned by seeing some many varieties of Orchids in different flower shapes, sizes, and colors. It was like coming to the heaven for a plant lover like me.

There were many art galleries at the venue and I made my next move towards them. The paintings were mostly medium to large size and were done beautifully by the local artists from Nagaland. Some used the tribal theme to express their work while some of them used a modern theme in their artwork. The use of various shades made the painting stand out.

After the art gallery session, some antique 2nd world war cars on display saw the war days. They were made by the Willys and had a dark green tone of color to it. The main point of attraction other than the arena was the War Museum which was huge. The whole museum was dedicated to war between the Indian-backed English with Japanese forces. The museum was done in a very detailed manner and had lots of information that could be read. It had many wartime photographs which were on display and all the equipment and paraphernalia used during the war.

It was dark by the time I came out of the Museum as the timings were over. The night was cold as I explored the area around the Morungs and as the bands started to appear on the concert stage, I sat down on the curved steps watching and listening to them. The vapors came from my nostrils and mouth as I breathed heavily. After the heavy walking of the day, it was time to give some rest to the legs and get dissolved in the soulful music being played.

I saw some 4-5 band performances after which I decided to retire to my tent for a good night’s sleep. Tomorrow, I had planned to repeat the same itinerary as today as I very much liked the tribal performances. It was time to explore more of the other tribes that would be performing tomorrow. One good thing that happened today was that I got lucky when Gary Mehigan sat beside me totally oblivious, even though we had met just 2 days back.