People around the world know that the forefathers of the present Naga people were head hunters. Head hunting meant that man killed his enemy, cut off his victim's head, and carried home the head as a victor's trophy.
Ironically, there were no murders secret killings. There was no random killing of people just for head counting. There was a set of unwritten laws that guided the head hunters. Ref. Sl. No. 25, Page 131, Head Hunters' Code of Conduct, of this book.
It is a unique book in a sense that its author-poet himself is a direct descendant of famous Naga head hunter-warriors. Stories in longer poems are true stories stranger than fiction. (a) Shorter narrative poems give pictures of head hunters' lives in general. (b) Longer poems narrate real-life stories of head hunters in details.
To avoid any possible injury of hearts in the minds of today's descendants of earlier head hunters, I have converted all names of locales of the stories, characters or actors and actresses of the tales into fictitious names. Presentation of tales in fiction form also prevent raising again of any dormant ill- feeling down in the human hearts of head hunters' descendants.
Its author-poet had collected material of this book from the following sources: (i) Tales in shorter narrative poems are from those which he had learnt from old- generation people during his childhood and youth in his village, Merangkong, a hub of Naga folklore and culture. (ii) Details stories narrated in longer poems were collected from tale-bearing old men in different rural Naga villages elsewhere in Nagaland as well as from his birth village.
The author of this book T. Penzü (Tsüknung Penzo) himself is a descendant of ancient Naga head hunters, who were noted warriors in their time. Penzü feels proud to be a rural man. He was brought up in a rural village, Merangkong, in Mokokchung district of Nagaland, belonging to Ao Naga tribe. Merangkong was a hub of Naga culture and folklore.
T. Penzü is a self-made man, not a man with spoon on his mouth, from a cultivator's family. He learnt while earning. Obtained B.A. degree reading in evening section of a college, while serving as a teacher in a high school in a small town.
He claims himself a research field activiest in the field of Naga folklore and culture; and not a university-level- doctorate research scholar. For all his five books, his story materials were all collected, learning by heart in oral tradition' of transmitting from 'father to son' and 'old to new generation people That is the reason why names of particular 'resource persons' and bibliography are not given in his books in respect of materials collection.
This is a unique book. Its readers will rediscover an ancient world so far remained unknown by the world. It is thrilling to read it, and equal to having a rich treasure.
It is eminently fitting and appropriate to depict the rich cultural heritage of Naga people, their tales of bravery, strength and velour which the versatile writer T Penzu once a teacher, a Government Officer in Public Relations Department, a former Minister and now actively involved in state politics-has beautifully penned down in prose and poetry form the legendary heroic tales, episodes, head-hunting expeditions and war, romanticism and adventures communicating through print media for the benefit of the generations to come and at the same time to enrich the Naga folk literature.
The lives and tales of the Naga head-hunters of the bygone days are reflected with fullness of human dignity in the book "Ancient Naga Head Hunters Lives and Tales" by T Penzu. It is more stimulating that, the author has inspired the readers to re-think about the yearnings of the common people, their conflicts, contradictions and temporary misunderstandings.
These tales in the form of poems are the integral part of beautiful people of Nagaland and the valour and courage of the brave warriors and their lives with a definite sense of struggle and challenges into every level of life and reality in a spirit of sufferings and hopes, oppression and liberation.
I am sure that this book will give a good start pointing the realm of communication to share our reality and traditional values of those great warriors popularly known as head- hunters who sacrifice their lives for their own people.
It is a well-known fact all over the world that the Nagas were,in the past, head hunting tribal people. The word headhunting' means beheading or cutting off of a human enemy's head; and the severed head was taken home by the victor as his hard-eamed trophy. Beheading was done during the following circumstances:
(1) During major battles in inter-village or inter-tribal head hunting wars. (ii) During minor skirmishes of small groups of foes. (ii) During head-hunting expeditions of individual head hunter warriors on certain specific revenge mission or to fulfil certain bet. (iv) In some other unspecified or unexpected circumstances.
Such a trophy head, after bringing to the village, was treated with solemn ceremonies. After a process of several rites and rituals the head was kept hooked in a particular, designated natural live tree. Such a tree was called "The tree of skull Each of the head hunter's villages had such a tree located in the centre of the village in the past age (Poem no. 23).
Every male member of a village, after attaining certain age limit, probably 12 to 15 years of age, used to undergo compulsory training in the art of warfare in their arju system (Poem no. 1 of the book, Naga Social Life Through The Ages).
During major wars all adult males participated in the fighting compulsorily or voluntarily. Every male member took such a battle as an opportunity to exercise his maturity and feats in fighting. Yet during the normal time they engaged themselves in paddy field cultivation work. However, there were professional head hunters or fighters who took head hunting as a game of life. They brought enemies' heads to their respective villages. They rarely fell to the enemy's hands Such a man protected his village from enemy attacks. He was called village protector, village wall or pillar and so on. He was indeed a warrior of his time. He became a folk hero and a legend even in his lifetime. During his death great ceremonial rites and rituals were observed for several days (number of days varied from tribe to tribe), with a solemn funeral service on the last day when they took the coffin to the graveyard.
There is incredibly big irony in the folklore of the Naga head hunting practice. Indeed head hunting practice was a bloody, savage, barbarian, and terrible system. However, on the other hand, there was no murder or secret killing of human life among the warring villages or rival parties. Killing was done openly and straightforward; giving information to the victim's village by the victor. It was a 'must' for the victor to declare the identity of the victim. That means the name, father's name, clan and village of the deceased person must be known by the killer, before cutting off his or her head, and the news must be sent or made known to the victim's village that he had killed a person with that identity. An unidentified head was of no use and no head hunter brought any nameless head to his village (Poem no. 6).
On the other hand, it was a 'must' for the victim too to disclose and declare his/her name, identity to the killer before one was being killed. Otherwise, victim's family members, relatives and villagers could not take revenge or might be in the dark as to where, how and who had killed him/her. So, both from the killer and the victim's sides it was a conventional custom to disclose and make known the identity of both the killer and the killed.
**Contents and Sample Pages**
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