LEKHAPANI, Feb 15 ? They were known to be a ferocious community, which never subjugated themselves before anybody else. Save the British, who enticed them with opium trading licences. But over the decades, the Singpho community has distanced itself from violence, took to Buddhism, and today is one of the most docile people to be found anywhere in the world. Their warmth is especially experienced at the annual Shapawng Yawng Manau Poi festivities where they pay obeisance to their forefathers and dance around the Shadung in graceful, semi-military formations.
This year?s festivities were held here for three days and concluded today here. The Shapawng Yawng Manau Poi is the most important festival of the Singpho community. After the merry making is over, this chiefly agrarian tribe then prepares itself to plough the fields and the hard work of growing foodgrain. Rice is the staple, but the Singphos also have huge orange orchanrds and tea plantations. Pabitra Ningda, an educated youth of the community proudly announced that the average Singpho family owns at least 50 acres of farmlands.
This year?s festivities had a message too. Says the Bisa Raja of Bisa gaon (located near Ledo), Bisa Nong Singpho: ?we are offering special prayers for lasting peace and prosperity in the country.? This is significant, since the Shapawng Yawng Manau Poi festivities have not sent out such messages on earlier occasions. It is also in tune with the current craving for overall peace and development throughout the North Eastern States.
The Shapawng Yawng Manau Poi festival is normally held in the middle of February. It is also a spring festival of the community and there are several instances when young males and females of the community got into wedlock after seeing each other at the Manau (dance grounds). The festival centres around paying homage to the forefathers of the community. Traditional Singpho knowledge is that Shapawng Yawng was the father of the founder of the Singpho tribe, Tingli Yawng. The participants in the traditional dance also pray for the overall well being of the society.
This year?s festival venue was the same as that of last month?s Dehing Patkai festival. Normally, the festival is held in Arunachal Pradesh locations, as that State has a bigger Singpho population, compared to only 12000 in Assam. In the latter, the tribe is concentrated in the Tirap tribal belt of Tinsukia district, in the Margherita legislative assembly constituency. The local MLA, Pradyut Bordoloi, who is also the State Forest Minister is keen to develop his constituency as a major tourist attraction, with nature and eco-tourism as focal points. ?Nowhere else in Assam can you come across a place which survives on trans-community harmony,? he said. Then, the area also has enormous potential for nature and adventure tourism in the virgin forests, undulating hills and places of historical significance.
As for the celebrations, earlier each Singhpho village had their own Shapawng Yawng Manau Poi. But with the community?s dwindling population, it made little sense to have village level celebrations. With each Singpho village being a widely scattered society, Singhpho elders got together in 1985 and organized the first centralized festival that year in Miao, now in Changlang district of Arunachal Pradesh. Ever since, the festival is organized for the entire Singpho community spread over Assam and Arunachal pradesh. It is quite common to have guests from Myanmar too. Both Myanmar and China have a significant Singhpho population. In the former, it is mostly concentrated in the Kachin province and in the latter, in Yunan province. The community in India continues to maintain social links with its counterpart in Myanmar, and it is quite common for a Singpho lad from India getting married to a damsel of the community in Myanmar and vice-versa.