The Nah people are a small tribal group residing in the Indian state of
Arunachal Pradesh
Arunachal Pradesh (; ) is a States and union territories of India, state in northeast India. It was formed from the North-East Frontier Agency (NEFA) region, and India declared it as a state on 20 February 1987. Itanagar is its capital and la ...
.
They speak the
Na_dialect, a member of the
Sino-Tibetan language family, in which the population's literacy rate is 30%. The Na language has an affinity with the
Tagin language. They also use Hindi or English.
As of 2000, the tribal population stood at 1,500.
History
The ''Nah'' were believed to have migrated South from the north in Tibet following racial persecution from the Tibetans, but later engaged in trade with the
Tibetans
Tibetans () are an East Asian ethnic group native to Tibet. Their current population is estimated to be around 7.7 million. In addition to the majority living in the Tibet Autonomous Region of China, significant numbers of Tibetans live in t ...
after the
Nishi served as a mediator between the two groups until recent times. However, relations with their neighbors were often unstable; for instance, the shift of preference of their northern Tibetan trading partners in a 1906 incident resulted in a massacre which claimed many lives from their tribal group.
The Nah are adherents of
Tibetan Buddhism
Tibetan Buddhism is a form of Buddhism practiced in Tibet, Bhutan and Mongolia. It also has a sizable number of adherents in the areas surrounding the Himalayas, including the Indian regions of Ladakh, Gorkhaland Territorial Administration, D ...
but are also influenced by pre-Buddhist Shaman practices. Both Buddhist Lamas and traditional Shamans, known as Nyibu in the native tongue, are employed for religious occasions.
Like most tribes living in higher elevations, they build permanent houses made of stone and cultivate the usable land. One can see villages with terraced fields growing maize, millet, barley, etc. They breed domestic animals including
yaks and sheep, and their clothes are made of spun wool.
Origin
The Nah are more closely related to the Tagin both ethnically and linguistically than to Tibetans, but they claim to be a separate group, like the
Mara
Mara or MARA may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Fictional characters
* Mara (''Doctor Who''), an evil being in two ''Doctor Who'' serials
* Mara (She-Ra), fictional characters from the ''She-Ra and the Princesses of Power'' and ''The New Advent ...
who live in
Limeking. However, both tribes acknowledge that they share a common ancestry with the Tagin.
In all official censuses the
Naga are classified together with the
Tagin, who are ethnically related to them.
Distributions
They found mainly in the
Upper Subansiri district in villages within Taksing circle: Gumsing, Taying, Esnaya, Lingbing, Tongba, Yeja, Reding, Redi, Dadu villages.
References
External links
Ethnologue profile of Nga
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nga People
Tribes of Arunachal Pradesh
Buddhist communities of India