Kasuang, Abak

Scope and Contents From the Collection: The collection features interviews with Puroik elders and cultivators from five villages in East Kameng, Arunachal Pradesh: Byale, Surung Kasuang, Mechidu, Mecha and Byaluom. These five villages are situated in two water basins, formed by rivers Kamyang and Katchiye, both tributaries of the Katoie river (or Kameng river) in western Arunachal Pradesh. These recordings document the ethnobotanical knowledge and life histories of elders, and the oral history of the tribe. The oral history of the...

Summary In this short recording, Abak Kasuang recounts the struggles of her youth, the challenges of Puroik people’s life in the past. She speaks of how people kept making yarn from the plant called Khryag even while walking, on their way to someplace else. They would have to keep making sago. Life in the past, she recalls, was very difficult. She sings two songs, one in praise of Jesus in Nyishi language and the other teaching kids about the sago-making process in Puroik language. The words are,...

Scope and Contents The collection features interviews with Puroik elders and cultivators from five villages in East Kameng, Arunachal Pradesh: Byale, Surung Kasuang, Mechidu, Mecha and Byaluom. These five villages are situated in two water basins, formed by rivers Kamyang and Katchiye, both tributaries of the Katoie river (or Kameng river) in western Arunachal Pradesh. These recordings document the ethnobotanical knowledge and life histories of elders, and the oral history of the tribe. The oral history of the...