A day amidst the Apatanis -- Ziro Valley Rediscovered. See the endearing Numpi go to school in a remote and beautiful part of India - the true essence of India lies in her rural secrets!
A region -- remote, landlocked... inaccessible for the longest time. With forests so
dense and mountains so insurmountable, its tribal population was completely cut off from the world outside.
In the midst of this mountainous area, priorly known as the North East Frontier Agency, lies a picturesque valley with fertile lands, inhabited by a tribe of efficient rice cultivators. This is the Ziro Valley in the state of Arunachal Pradesh. The land of fertile paddy plains at an altitude of 5,500 feet and inhabited by the progressive Apatani tribe.
Ziro has the highest number of schools in the state, even more than its capital
Itanagar. It has a total of more than a hundred government and private run schools, and one undergraduate college run by the Claretian Missionaries.
Numpi is a 10-year-old Apatani girl, living in Tajang village in the Ziro Valley. Her family is one of the modern Apatani families, but among those who hold their traditions and culture close to their heart. She is up by 7 in the morning and is helped by her mother to get dressed for school.
Apatanis are mainly a rice cultivating tribe, non nomadic, unlike almost their counterparts in the state. They believe their ancestors once migrated to this beautiful land from the across the northern mountains- the Himalaya. The language they speak belongs to the Sino-Tibetan family.
Apatanis are nature worshippers, following an animistic religion they call
Donyi Polo, Donyi meaning the sun and Polo referring to the moon.
It is 8 in the morning and Numpi has to catch her school bus at the stop, a jog away from her home. As she runs through the lane, she crosses the houses of her neighbours, which are traditional and made of bamboo and timber. Tajang village, is one of the new settlements in Ziro valley, but is very traditional in terms of its set up. Numpi catches the bus on time and boards it, to get to her school, Vivekananda Kendra Vidyalaya.
As her bus crosses the rice plains of Ziro valley, people can be seen working in the fields, reaping the rich paddy harvest. The nature worshipping Apatanis believe that the gods protect their crops and have altars called the Agyans in the middle of their fields. Apatanis are known to be progressive in terms of their way of life and their tribal habits and rituals. As nature worshippers, they take utmost care of their land and keep sustainability in mind, always.
Vivekananda Kendra Vidyalaya, in Ziro, is a state recognized school and is managed by the Vivekananda Kendra Vidyalaya Arunachal Pradesh Trust. Numpi's schoolmates mostly belong to the area but some of them come from adjoining districts like the West Siang and the Upper Subansiri. All the students start gathering around the school campus by 8.30 am. The school has residential hostel facilities for both boys and girls. Numpi has her classroom in one corner of the school campus. As her school day begins, daily activities in Ziro, which is one of the first regions in India to see the sun in the morning, are already underway. As for the students, their day starts with the school prayer.
With the Apatani people heading out to the larger cities in the country and bringing back as many possibilities for their tribe and for their land, it is now to be seen whether the modernity they bring with them is in sync with the tribal roots that their society is based on. The Ziro valley has always followed a model of growth that can be an example for many other regions - founded on deep respect for nature and yet opening up to new possibilities.
The sustainable development that Ziro practices is in keeping with the love the Apatanis have for nature around them. Even today, getting to Ziro is quite arduous, but the self-sufficient Apatanis have brought about great development in their region, which completely belies pre-conceived ideas of modern development in the world today. It is a picture perfect haven locked away in a remote mountainous terrain, untouched by the exploitation of mankind, and by the looks of it, the Apatanis will continue to maintain it thus, in the future.
This footage is part of the professionally-shot broadcast stock footage archive of Wilderness Films India Ltd., the largest collection of HD imagery from South Asia. The Wilderness Films India collection comprises of tens of thousands of hours of high quality broadcast imagery, mostly shot on HDCAM and XDCAM. Write to us for licensing this footage on a broadcast format, for use in your production! We are happy to be commissioned to film for you or else provide you with broadcast crewing and production solutions across South Asia. We pride ourselves in bringing the best of India and South Asia to the world... Reach us at rupindang @ gmail . com and admin@wildfilmsindia.com.
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