A traditional folktale from Arunachal Pradesh’s Wancho community of Longding district, is getting adapted into an animated short film, which makes it to be the first animation project based on an indigenous story from the remote Patkai Hills near the India-Myanmar border.
Adivasi Arts Trust (UK) on Wednesday, shared on social media that the film is currently being developed at a two-month long workshop at Bengaluru’s Srishti Manipal Institute of Art, Design and Technology (SMI). The workshop is being conducted in collaboration with the UK’s Trust and the Bryan Guinness Charitable Trust, bringing together four undergraduate design students and two young Wancho artists under the guidance of animation faculty member Vijay Punia. The project traces its origins to Kamhua Noknu, one of the largest traditional Wancho villages in Longding district.
When the UK-based filmmaker and cultural researcher Jonathan Hope visited the village in 2019 to document oral narratives narrated by village elders as part of his postdoctoral research hosted by the Anthropology department at North-Eastern Hill University (NEHU), in Shillong, 32 stories were recorded from Kamhua Noknu and nearby villages.
Local school teacher Jatwang Wangsa translated the stories, which were later published in the book Myth, Memory and Folktale of the Wancho Tribe of Arunachal Pradesh by Niyogi Books in 2024. The stories which were being preserved only through oral tradition, were now available to reflect the community’s beliefs, customs and relationship with nature.
The second phase of the initiative began in 2020 with an animation workshop in Kamhua Noknu aimed at introducing local youth to filmmaking and animation. The workshop was conducted during the pandemic, offering the village school office as a workspace and relied on a solar-powered backup system due to unreliable electricity in the area.
Though 16 young people initially joined the programme, a smaller group of dedicated participants continued with the training and laid the foundation for the animation project. The workshop was later documented in the film Myths of the Wancho (2021). The team selected The Story of the Gourd for adaptation because of its importance in Wancho cultural traditions.
Narrated by the late Ngamchai Wangsa, father of Jatwang Wangsa, the story recounts the mythical creation of Wangham, regarded as the first village chief, and explores themes of community life, traditional agriculture, territorial disputes, governance and the relationship between people and their environment.
The project, however, was delayed for several years due to administrative issues before receiving fresh financial support from the Bryan Guinness Charitable Trust.
The Wancho or Wancho Naga is a prominent indigenous ethnic group inhabiting the northeastern region of India, inhabiting primarily the rugged Patkai Hills of the Longding district (which was carved out from Tirap district in 2012) in the southeastern corner of Arunachal Pradesh. They share borders with Nagaland to the west and Myanmar to the south. A smaller number of Wancho communities are also seen to be living across state lines in Assam and Nagaland, as well as over the international border in Myanmar.
According to the 2011 Census of India, the Wancho population stands at approximately 56,866 individuals.
The Wancho society follows a highly stratified, rigid class system based on royal bloodlines and birth. Villages are traditionally governed by a paramount chief known as a Wangham (or Wangsa), who holds supreme political authority and is assisted by a council of elders.
Historically, the Wanchos were known as a fierce warrior group practicing ritualistic headhunting. Successful warriors were traditionally awarded elaborate, prestigious tattoos on their limbs and faces. While the practice of headhunting has long been banned, the intricate body tattooing remains a powerful component of their historical identity.
The community traditionally uses a youth dormitory system. Young men live and get trained in large bachelor dormitories called Murungs, where they learn traditional customs, responsibilities, and values from village elders.
The community is traditionally agrarian and heavily rely on Jhum or shifting cultivation, growing crops like rice, maize, and millet, and are also widely celebrated for their exceptional craftsmanship in wood carving, gun-making, and heavy beadwork.
The principal festival of Wancho Tribe is Oriah, a vibrant agricultural spring festival usually celebrated in March or April, with a common celebration date fixed on February 16, spanning several days and includes traditional songs, sacrificial feasts, the offering of pork skin to the village chief, and dancing around a ceremonial pole called a Jangban.
Their indigenous faith is rooted in animism, with supreme reverence for nature and a dual deity system consisting of Rang and Baurang. However, over the past several decades, a significant majority of the population has embraced Christianity (primarily Baptist or Catholic denominations) under the influence of neighboring Naga groups.
The people speak in the Wancho language that belongs to the Tibeto-Burman language family (specifically the Konyak branch).
Interestingly, between 2001 and 2012, a local teacher named Banwang Losu created a completely unique alphabetic script for the language, a Wancho script, which was officially published into the global Unicode Standard in 2019 and is now taught across several schools in the region to help preserve their linguistic heritage.
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