SHIYONG VILLAGE,NAGALAND(INDIA)

Shiyong Village - Home of the last Tattooed Head Hunters

Explore the Land of the Konyak tribe in Mon district, Nagaland state, India and experience the culture and way of living.

• Famed for their head hunting practises and facial tattoos.
• Come and Live in a village with a Konyak family and experience everyday lifestyle and way of living in the community.
• Trek around through the different villages and see traditional living and livelihood in the longhouses of bamboo and palm leaves.
• Walk around tea plantations, paddy fields and in the forests.
• Take the less travelled road.

ABOUT THE KONYAKS AND MON DISTRICT

The Konyak tribe is one of the major tribes of Nagaland. They inhabit Mon district which is in the northern most part of Nagaland. Mon town is the main headquarter of the district, which is 354kms away from Kohima, the capital of Nagaland and 294kms away from Dimapur, which is connected to the other Indian metros by air and railways. The nearest airport to Mon is Jorhat (147kms) and Dibrugarh (283kms) connected by major flights and trains from New Delhi, Kolkata and Guwahati. (know more about The Konyaks)

Art & Culture - AOLING FESTIVAL (1-6 APRIL)

Aoling Festival or Spring Festival is the main festival of the Konyak tribe. This festival is celebrated for over a period of 6 days in the 1st week of April to mark the period of the rice sowing season and to celebrate advent of the Spring season. People dress up in colourful traditional attire and headgear and participate in the festivities. The villagers play log drums in the Morungs(traditional meeting place of the males). The women sing folk songs and the Men dance the war and warrior dance with their guns and spears which represents and depicts the stories of valour in the battle during the heydays of headhunting. They invite friends, relatives and fellow villagers for food and drinks. Even visitors and tourists dropping in from outside are welcomed warmly and heartily. They brew rice beer specially for this occasion, make special steamed sticky rice in a locally made earthern pot which goes well with smoked meat. This is an opportunity to get a view of the colourful life and culture of the Konyak tribe and to experience it firsthand for a lifetime memory.