Ramos, Pailibo & Bokars to celebrate Podi-Barbi

ITANAGAR, Dec 4: The Ramo, Pailibo and Bokar communities residing in and around the capital complex are all set to celebrate their common festival “Podi -Barbi here on December 5 next.

Ramo, Pailibo and Bokar communities are mainly concentrated in Mechukha, Monigong, Pidi and Tato circle of Mechukha Sub-Division bordering China in West Siang District.

Culture, custom and tradition of the three communities are similar and together they celebrate the Podi-Barbi festival every year.

According to the legend ‘Podi-Barbi’ means a small cricket like migratory insect which makes out a strong tweeter sound that arrives at the time of harvesting season in the region.

Since the earlier people did not use any calendar, they relied on the arrival of the small insect as their calendar for harvesting season.

The festival is celebrated in order to welcome the harvesting season and to extend thankfulness to the Mother Nature for bumper harvesting and pray for sufficient growth of crops in coming years and pray for ample hunting opportunities of wild animals.

Men and women clad in traditional attire, and enjoy the day with fun and merry making.

Like other festivals of Tani origin, the sacrifice of domestic animals during the festival is another feature and local priest called Nyubu performs the ritual.

The people are agrarian and grow maize, millet and paddy along with vegetable items, which they still practice though in a very limited quantity.

Maize was used as staple food crop as cultivation of paddy in hilly and rocky terrain was quite difficult and even if it did grow it was scanty, but with the introduction of Public Distribution System (PDS) by the government, food habits among the people have drastically changed.

The people now dependent totally on PDS item for they prefer rice to maize as food. However, they have not abandon the practice of growing maize, millet and other vegetable items for themselves and domestic animals.

These three communities have rich culture and tradition but due to lack of proper exposure to outside world, most of the people even in the state do not know much about the Ramos, Pailibos and Bokars.