Discussion with Guru Rewben Mashangv

(Guru Rewben Mashangva, based in Imphal, is one of the most popular and respected indigenous Naga musicians of the country.  He is a singer, songwriter, musician, folk music researcher and maker of indigenous musical instruments.  He plays guitar, a bamboo flute known as Yangkahui the Tingteila (folk fiddle) and his cow-bell percussion.  He adapts old Naga folk songs for modern listeners).

Background:
For ages the tribal people in the Northeast region of India lived a dignified and respectful life, rich in culture and with very limited exposure to the external world.  Unfortunately in the process of colonization and consolidation of the British empire, the tribal people were looked own upon as primitive and savage, their culture and way of life was threatened.  Due to the lack of appreciation for the cultural diversity and richness as well as subsequent attempts made by the Indian stage to mainstream and homogenize, the pluralities and particularities of tribal cultural forms and expressions were severely challenged and some were pushed to the verge of extinction.  Today their world views, ways of life, music, songs, dances and folklore are challenged further by other cultural forms that are being mainstreamed, resulting in loss of many of their distinct identity markers and many tribal people have begun to ape the mass culture that is being propagated by market forces through mainstream media, thereby becoming photo-copies of a henomonic mass-culture and losing their originality, their perspective and ways of seeing and living in this world. 
I want to revive and promote this dying culture.  I have researched and collected musical instruments, songs, dances etc. and improvised them to make them relevant.  My aim is not only preserving but also promoting this invaluable cultural heritage. (From “Our Story” by Rewben Mashangva)

Do you know of any Thangkul artists or sculptors?
We do have a few very good talented artists.  I can think of one, he is in a remote area, the Komjong Subdivision of Ukhrul District.  He carves animals – tigers and buffaloes fighting.  We live very scattered.  There are a few writers, but not many.  Storytelling was an oral tradition, as we only recently became literate.  Our people are not protecting our culture and soon it will be gone.  That the educated people go away and make a living outside is also not helpful for our culture. 
The hornbill….once our people understood the weather patterns by looking at the flight of the hornbill bird, according to its height and path.  It was very important when faced by possible famine.  Nowadays people depend on the Government if they fall on hard times.  The Nagas are celebrating the Hornbill Festival but they have no idea about their connection with the hornbill.

What about the folktales?
Our stories have moral lessons and they are about the things we have around us.  Until recently my community has not realized the need to do something original they would just imitate.  So many PhD students have come and asked me about things but I told them nothing.  The students go and speak to intellectuals and read a lot of books but they do not know the reality from experience.  I am not well educated so they won’t believe me when I tell.  They will not trust me, nor do I trust them.  Now all the old guys are gone.  I do not write in English, I write in my own Thangkul language…I did not write down the stories but I remember some of them.  In some of the tribes there is this belief that some men can transform into other creatures such as a tiger. 

There is a story that relates to this:  There was once a poor lazy boy who went out hunting small birds.  To do this he would collect a particular seed (Nei).  He would boil it, mash it and paste it on sticks and birds would stick to it.  One day he caught a very small bird. It was too small to satisfy his appetite, and besides it begged to be spared, offering him special good luck in exchange.  Three three angels would come and bathe in the pond and the poor boy was able to catch one of the angels and he married her.  One day he went up to the heavens to visit his divine in-laws and when he returned he brought back all the seeds and grains for the world.  We say that those people who have magical powers are the offspring of this union with an angel.

It is so important for the youth to be in touch with art.  My son performs with me and I want to give him exposure to art as it will enrich his life.  The songs are new each time I sing them and for me this is art. 
I am financially not well off, but the meals are provided by the creator. For years I chased after money but now I have given up and I live for the moment.  I tell my son, “you are my heir, study hard and do well, but a deeper understanding of life is also required too”.  I do not have any place to rehearse so I play solo with my son.  Many young people have said they want to join me.  My father was not a musician, he was a carpenter but he did play the bamboo trumpet.  We have a lot of bamboo here and the instruments can be played and disposed of.   I am also good with woodwork and for a while I made handicrafts but what I really enjoy is music.  I carve all my percussion instruments. 

I am really interested in listening to the old guys.  I travel from village to village by foot to meet them.  Now our people and those in other parts of India are appreciating fusion music, and like me, they are turning to their roots.  Church is a dominant force here.

Press Release 5 March 2012

The second week of the three week long Animation Workshop in Manipur promises plenty of activities for the group of Manipuri animation enthusiasts that have volunteered for the workshop as an opportunity to develop one of their own folktales for a short animation film. 

The workshop is a collaborative project between the Government of Manipur Art and Culture Department and the UK based NGO, the Adivasi Arts Trust.  Further support is being provided by the Manipur Film Development Cooperation and the Bryan Guinness Charitable Trust in the UK. 

Having selected a well known story “Tapta” from a collection of fifteen from various communities in Manipur, the team have decided to create and film a test sequence of the film using traditional cut-out puppets to be filmed by capturing frames with a digital camera.   This will give a hand-made look to the animation which may well suit for the traditional content.  One of the participants, a graduate from the Art College in Imphal, Yamnam Sapha Wangam Apanthoi M. (Swam) is exploring a charming style for the characters of the film that is inspired by the folk art of the illustrated manuscripts of Manipur. 
The storyboard team, with assistance from two animators from the National Institute of Design, Sephin Alexander and Rahul Laishram,  have identified the first sequence of the film as the part they would like to experiment with and they are now breaking down each shot to identify the artwork and animation  requirements. 

A daily film screening is also part of the programme, with the focus on experimental and artistic animation films that use all kinds of materials ranging from claymation to oil painting on glass and cut-out animation.  “While we are inspired by masterpieces such as “Old Man and the Sea” by Alexander Petrov, it has taken him years to make that film.  We would do best to start with a simple style”, suggested Tara Douglas, Secretary of the Adivasi Arts Trust and visiting resource person at the workshop.

Renowned Naga folk blues singer Guru Rewben Mashangva also visited the workshop today to meet the team and find out more as he is active in the perseveration of his own Thangkul culture.   

Discussion with Guru S. Achon Kom

The Kom tribe belongs to the Mizo-Kuki group and according to the myth of their origin, their forefathers are believed to have emerged from a Khul (cave). As they came out, a tiger was lying in wait to kill them so Karongpa came out wearing a striped cloth to make friends with the tiger, as his cloth resembled its skin.   From then on his descendents refrained from eating or killing a tiger.

Kom settlements are located in Manipur and several villages in Assam and Tripura.

(Guru S. Achon Kom is a farmer and cultural expert from the Kom tribe of Manipur.  He is also the Secretary of the Kom Cultural Dance and Research Centre in Khoirentak, Churachandpur District, Manipur).

In 2005 I was awarded the Guru Shisha Parampara status through a programme by the North East Zone Cultural Centre in Dimapur.  We are working to uplift the Kom community and also the other tribes too.  We have to collect the stories from the old storytellers otherwise in a few decades tribal culture will surely vanish here.  How many people from the tribes are attending your workshop?  None?  This shows that they are neglected.   If Rewben had not phoned us, you would have left and we would not have known anything about your workshop.   How are we going to document our oral traditions?  They are not written down yet.  We were not contacted about this workshop, clearly only the experts knew about it.  We also have a great interest in this, but we don’t know how to go about animating our stories.  For the past two or three years we have been wondering about the possibilities of animating our folktales because times are changing.  Young people are very smart these days and they do not have much interest in sitting around with their elders listening to folktales. 
We are from the backward classes so we know nothing about animation but we are making efforts to document our folktales in written form.  We really don’t know how to promote our culture.  All the tribes here have different stories, cultures and origins. 

In Nagaland the majority is tribal.  They are able to cooperate as they have similar stories, costumes and so on.  Here in Manipur everything is different between the tribes, and it has been occupied by the Meiteis who decide what is good.  Tribal people should be contacted directly not through the Meitei community as they are mostly interested in promoting themselves and because of this, tribal culture will surely vanish. 

In tribal areas you will not find any experts in animation, and for us it takes much longer to collect stories.  The Meiteis on the other hand have plenty of historians and experts.  We Kom are all Christian now.  That goes for nearly all the tribes here, though the Kabui are reviving their indigenous faith.  We don’t have much material artwork we express ourselves mostly in song and dance.  I would say that the population of our tribe is nearly 20,000. 

The benefits need to go to the right people so this is why we have established our Non Government Organisation.  If we approach the Art and Culture Department here in Manipur, they will surely help us but it is difficult when you are based in the village.  Village life is so different from that of Imphal!  It is very difficult too.  We are busy in our fields from morning to night and it is very hard work so we have little time for documentation.  Another factor is that it is easy to move around in the valley but to do proper documentation of the tribes one has to go to all the hill districts.

Most of our folktales are based on themes of magic.  They would really come to life in animation films.  I only studied up to class 8 because then I had family responsibilities and I still work in the fields from May through to August.  I am encouraging my son to become an anthropologist so that he can document our traditions as most scholars are not able to write about the oral traditions of the Kom.  We have our own traditional hut at the Indira Gandhi Manav Sangrahalaya in Bhopal.  In fact, the whole northeast section of the Museum begins at our house. 

In the village it is a very simple life and there is no idea of competition.  Our village is well known in the popular Khamba Thoibi folktale of the Meiteis as it is said to be where the hero Khamba caught a tiger.   So the legend goes.  We made a proposal for a Cultural Interpretation Centre for our village but so far nothing has come of it.   There is a communication gap with the Art and Culture Department here so we need our own research centre, resource people and so on.  The village is the primary source for tribal culture.    Our culture was also much affected when we were converted to Christianity, and it is disappearing.  It would be great to have a workshop in our Kom village as the youth need exposure to understand what we are doing and to support it.  In the city, jeans are the fashion but in the village it is important for the younger generation to know the importance of the cloth that we weave.    If I do not know the customs and traditions of the Kom tribe, how can I be called a Kom?

We need to target the younger generation.  Come to my village and you will get lots of information without even a word because you will see how we really live.

Press Release 3 March 2012


Animation film screenings are a feature at the Animation Workshop that is currently taking place at the Manipur Film Development Corporation.  These screenings have a difference however:  Participants are finding out about animation done by minority communities in countries such as Finland and Estonia, and by dedicated individuals that cannot help themselves but bring all kinds of materials to life.  Animation is an incredibly time consuming process, a  reason that it gets farmed out from the West to countries such as India where the hourly rate is considerably lower.  The 23 participants of the workshop are from the Meitei community and they are interested in developing an alternative to the standard commercial animation that they have been exposed to by finding an artistic style of their own in the animation medium, and they are investigating the  ancient illustrated manuscripts from their own tradition for ideas.

Senior artist and teacher, Dr. R.K. Joykumar is supervising the design team. “This is the first workshop like this.   I have two expectations:  One thing is the introduction of the internal mechanics for those that are newcomers and the second is the exploration of possibilities with regard to creativity with right guidance from the resource persons.  We are doing something experimental, we don’t need to look for new materials we can go for traditional things too.  We are looking for a medium with which we are quite familiar”, he explains. 

In the afternoon a storyboard discussion was organised by two visiting animators, Sephin Alexander and Rahul Laishram,  from the National Institute of Design in Ahmadabad.   At their institute emphasis is placed on pre-production and story development for the audio visual medium.  The two animators have been working on the first draft storyboard for a folktale chosen by the group for their animation film.  They point out that while there is always a temptation to go straight into animation, a well planned storyboard is essential to any production; It is in the storyboard that the main visual elements and actions from the story are identified and communicated, with the focus also on continuity in the sequence of shots.   

Tara Douglas from the UK based Adivasi Arts Trust has also joined the workshop as a resource person.  She is researching the art and culture of tribal communities in India to find out if it can provide original content for animation and revitalize the local communities too. 

Discussion with Thakhellambam Raghumani Singh

(Thakhellambam Raghumani Singh is a member of the Kanglei Mime Theatre Repartory, Imphal.  He visited the Animation Workshop on 2 March 2012 with two members of his group to share his experience in acting for animation).

Do you use content from folktales in your performances?
In our mime group we do occasionally do folktales but our style is non verbal.  Mostly though we focus on burning topics of the current time, social issues that kind of thing.  For example Sharmila – you have heard of her – she has been on a fast now for a very long time in protest.  We stage performances to make people aware of the situation here in Manipur.

Where did you learn mime acting?
The Director of our group, Y. Sandana Singh introduced us all to mime.  There are around 25 members in our group and four of them are women.  They are all from the Meitei community, no one from the tribes.

Do you know the story we are working on for the animation film?
My grandmother would tell me the story of “Tapta"  when I was a small child, I remember it well.  But there are many versions of the story.  There are a lot of folktales here that would make good animation films for children.  “Tapta” is a very popular story, everyone here in Manipur knows it.  It is mostly from the Meitei community but there are similar stories in the other communities too.  Animation is a good way of communicating culture, but I don’t know much about it as I am a theatre actor.  I tried my best today to contribute to the story. 

Is theatre popular with the tribes too?
Theatre is very rare amongst the tribes.  For one thing, there is the language differences.  The tribes have their own culture and traditions.  In the early days things were more similar but now religions, languages and habit are different, and there is not much cross over.  We need to find out more about their traditions.
Sometimes we have performed on tribal themes.  Before joining this group I was with one called Theatre Mirror and at that time we also dealt with tribal issues such as violence in the hill regions. 

How old is the theatre tradition in Manipur?
Theatre has a long history here – say from 1901 onwards.  There are a lot of traditional art forms here and there are elements of theatre in these arts too. 

You have performed abroad too?
Yes, performed our play “Mirel Mashinga”  in South Korea and Armenia recently.

Can you make a living as an actor in Manipur?
In Manipur it is difficult to manage as an actor so we have to do other jobs too, such as working in shops, offices or teaching.  The Art and Culture Department helps us out but it is a struggle.  Theatre is a strong Meitei tradition. Last year I attended a workshop on oral history and visual documentation at the Jawaharlal Nehru Museum and Library in Delhi.  We also did  a theatre workshop in Mizoram in 2008.  Both young and old enjoy our plays.  

Press Release 2 March 2012

An enthusiastic team of artists and animators from Manipur have gathered at the Manipur Film and Development Corporation in Imphal for a three week long Animation Workshop.  They have decided to take this opportunity to develop a popular Meitei folktale for a short animation film and they are receiving support for this initiative from the Government of Art and Culture, Manipur.  As a collaborative venture with the UK based Adivasi Arts Trust, the Secretary of the Trust, Ms. Tara Douglas is attending the workshop as a resource person.  Two additional animators have also come from the National Institute of Design in Ahmadabad to help the team through the preproduction process.  Also on the team is Dr. R.K. Joykumar, the local coordinator and animation expert. 

As the workshop moves forward the designers have started visualizing the characters for the comical story based on mistaken identity and imaginary fear.  Dr. Joykumar has provided the group with references to the traditional art of the illustrated manuscripts of Manipur and in the morning session he shared his own explorations with the style.  He urged the participants to consider features such as elongated heads, long fingers, large feet and delicate profiles as seen in the traditional art. 

Meanwhile the scripting team is adapting the story for a film script where decisions need to be taken to make it concise and readable to audiences outside Manipur.  The animators have also started visualizing the scenes through the first draft of the storyboard.  In the afternoon the group was joined by guest theatre actors from the Kanglei Mime Theatre Repartory.  Arimbam Devabarta Sharma, Thakhellambam Raghumani Singh and Sorokhaibam Herojit Singh discussed the script and then went on to act out key scenes to bring the story to life for the participants, suggesting new ideas to enrich the action of the story.

The day ended with film screenings to inspire the team with a variety of techniques that have been used to create masterpieces of animation – “Neighbours” (Norman Maclaren) that uses the pixilation technique, “Walking” (Ryan Larkin), stop motion and sand animation films made by students from the National Institute of Design, and “Push comes to Shove” by Bill Plimpton.

The Advasi Arts Trust would like to thank Beeshantam Yumnam for organising the interactive session with  actors  from the Kanglei Mime Theatre Repartory.

Press Release 1 March 2012

The first Animation Workshop in Manipur is taking place in Imphal at the Manipur Film Development Corporation as a collaborative project between the UK based Adivasi Arts Trust and the Government of Manipur, Department of Art and Culture.

The objective of the workshop is to develop one of the popular folktales from the state into a short animation film.  A group of 23 participants have been joined by two students of animation from the National Institute of Design, Rahul Laishram and Sephin Alexander, and also by Tara Douglas (the Secretary of the Adivasi Arts Trust) and the local coordination team -   Beeshantam Yumnam and Satya Hijam, led by Dr. R.K. Joykumar Singh. 
Two days ago the group went through a democratic process of selecting a story from fifteen options with the Meitei story “Tapta” coming out as the obvious favourite from the group.  Many versions of this tale exist and it has been a lengthy process to identify the officially accepted version, documented by O Bhogeshwor in his book “Meitei Folk Tales” (first part) published in Imphal by the Manipur Stage Kala Akademi.  As this original version is in the Manipuri language it needed to be translated into English by Dr. Joykumar, and now it is going through the process of adaptation for film by the animation team.  This process began with script discussions which will lead to a finalized film script from which the storyboard can be drawn. 

Simultaneously the talented group of participants, many of them from art college backgrounds are starting to visualize and sketch characters and scenes from the film.  The artistic style and techniques for the animation production are yet to be confirmed though current discussions are pointing to a combination of hand drawn artwork and 2D software.  It is also hoped that the team will be able to draw on the rich heritage of ancient illustrated manuscripts of Manipur to create an interesting look for the short film.  The group are also inspired by “Sita Sings the Blues”, a feature length animation based on themes from the Ramanyana that showcases traditional Indian art styles in cut out animation.  In this film the group observed that with a good script and attractive artwork the animation can be reduced without compromising the enjoyment of the film. 

Click here for a video except from the discussion on adapting the traditional story "Tapta" for animation film.