Music was not a profession for me; it was life itself: Adi folk artist Dr Delong Padung from Arunachal Pradesh tells us
Across the Siang valley of Arunachal Pradesh, music is not merely a performance but a living archive of memory, belief, and landscape. In the Adi community, songs carry origin myths, harvest rituals and invocations to forest and river deities. At the same time, dance becomes a collective expression of identity shaped by agrarian rhythms and indigenous cosmology.
Led by Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar awardee Dr Delong Padung, a cultural practitioner devoted to sustaining these traditions, a 35-member ensemble from the Karpung Karduk Centre for Folk Performing Arts was in Mumbai's National Centre for the Performing Arts, carrying with them a living slice of Arunachal Pradesh — its chants, movements and ancestral narratives — into the heart of the coastal metropolis. Living Traditions is a presentation of indigenous Adi music, Aabang oral narratives and ritual performance traditions from Arunachal Pradesh, led by Dr Delong Padung.
In an exclusive conversation with Indulge, Dr Padung opens up…
You have been at the forefront of preserving folk traditions in Arunachal Pradesh. What inspired your journey, and what keeps you passionate about this work?
My inspiration comes from my childhood in Rayang village in East Siang, Arunachal Pradesh. I was born into a middle-class family with a very simple lifestyle. My father was a Solung priest and a great mythologist, and through him I inherited the sacred oral traditions of Aabang and Ponung. We had no internet, no audio players — only the sound of rivers, forests, birds, and community rituals. I used to sing for my mother while she worked. Music was not a profession for me; it was life itself.
Being an eighth-generation artist in the Miri-Ponung tradition, I feel it is my responsibility to carry this legacy forward. My journey was not easy, but the love of my people and the blessings of my ancestors keep me passionate. Every time I perform, I feel I am not alone — I carry my community, my culture, and my father’s spirit with me.
Arunachal Pradesh and the broader Northeast have incredibly rich and diverse cultural traditions. How does Living Traditions showcase this diversity, and what stories or performances are especially meaningful to you?
At the prestigious National Centre for the Performing Arts in Mumbai, during the Living Traditions festival, we are presenting the soul of the Eastern Himalayas. Arunachal Pradesh itself has more than 26 major tribes and many sub-tribes, each with unique languages, costumes, music, and belief systems.
Through performances such as “Ngoluk Ke Ome” and traditional Aabang rhapsodies, we present not just songs but living history — migration stories, cosmology, agricultural rituals, and indigenous faith practices like Donyi-Polo. These are not stage creations; they are living traditions passed down orally from generation to generation.
For me, Aabang is especially meaningful because it connects us to our ancestors. When I sing it, I feel I am opening a spiritual bridge between the past and the present.
How do the performances reflect the connection between community, nature, and spirituality in the region?
In Arunachal Pradesh, culture cannot be separated from nature and spirituality. Our songs speak of mountains, rivers like the Siang, forests, and the sun and moon. We worship Donyi (Sun) and Polo (Moon) as living energies.
Our performances reflect agricultural cycles, community bonding, and rituals of thanksgiving. For example, during the Solung festival, songs and dances are offered as prayers for prosperity and harmony. Every movement, costume, and rhythm carries symbolic meaning.
When we perform, it is not merely entertainment. It is a spiritual offering. It expresses how human life, nature, and the divine are interconnected. This ecological wisdom remains deeply relevant even in today’s modern world.