Usher In Spring At The Ojiyale Festival In Arunachal Pradesh

This morning I woke up and suddenly realised that winter was over and spring had crept up on all of us! Quietly in the cities perhaps, but every rural community in India celebrates the incoming season with gusto with harvest festivals like Lohri and Pongal celebrated with traditional merriment.

In Arunachal Pradesh, where the population consists of numerous indigenous tribes, the months of March and April resonate with sounds of music, prayer, dancing and merry making when nearly every tribe celebrates its own harvest festival. This is an incredible time to be here because if you wanted to catch the state at its best, this is it! One such harvest festival is Ojiyale or Ozele Festival of the Wancho people, famous for its colourful dances and celebrated all over the Tirap district.

The Wanchos

Fierce warriors and once dreaded head hunters, the Wanchos are ethnically and culturally related to the Nagas of North-East. Though their numbers are dwindling (35,000 in the 2011 census), they are a powerful presence in the area and draw visitors with their vibrant folk culture, the high point of which is the Ojiyale Festival. Most Wancho people are either Baptists or Roman Catholics today but at one time, followed traditional religions and strongly believed in Animism, which meant they believed every physical component of the world like plants, trees, animals and even rocks had a soul. But the advent of new organised religions and the homogenization of society means they are getting farther and farther away from their traditional culture and the associated rituals and festivals like Ojiyale. That is why in this scenario, it is even more important for festivals like Ojiyale to be celebrated with vigour and full participation.

Ojiyale Festival

The Ojiyale Festival is a long drawn out affair and could run from anywhere between 6 and 21 days. The festival is celebrated right after the sowing of millet when famers pray to Animist deities, Rang and Baurang, for protecting the crop against ravages of nature and gifting them a good harvest. The tribe’s chief called Wangham or Wansa and the main priest lead all the rituals and prayer during Ojiyale.

The Wancho work hard and party hard so when the festival of Ojiyale comes around, there is a general atmosphere of bonhomie all around, generated in no small amount by the special ‘rice beer’ brewed only by the Wancho in the entire region and something you must sample on your Arunachal trip. During Ojiyale, people gift each other bamboo tubes filled with this rice beer as a goodwill offering. The best gift however, is retained for the chief of the tribe – its pigskin! (Pigs are valuable currency with the Wancho).

The most vibrant element of Ojiyale is the special community dance that starts at night at around 9 pm in the village chief’s house. Tattooed Wancho men wearing typical cane basket head dresses dance the night away with women decked in fine traditional jewellery like girdles, cowries and straw anklets.

This is an exciting time to be in Arunachal Pradesh and going to the Ojiyale Festival is sure to show you a new facet of India, which is thoroughly enjoyable. Tell us what you liked most about it; we’re always willing to listen! Planning a trip? Book your flights and hotels on MakeMyTrip.com!