The Nagas

Hill Peoples of Northeast India

Project Introduction The Naga Database

black & white photographs taken by Ursula Graham Bower between 1937 and 1946

caption: Kabui Naga dancers
medium: photographs
keywords: ceremonialcostume
ethnicgroup: Kabui
location: Mao Majorkhul Mao
production:
form: 35mm negatives
person: Graham Bower/ Ursula
date: [1.1938-3.1938]
note: information based on catalogue compiled by photographer unless in square brackets
acquirer:
person: Pitt Rivers Museum Archive, Oxford
refnum: BT NO 465,466,468-471
clip:
Caption:These dancers come from Kabui Naga villages settled on the outskirts of Imphal. Under Manipuri rule they seem to have been of semi-servile status and later provided a servant class for British and Manipuri employers. They have departed in various ways from the dress and customs of their fellow tribesmen in the Hills. As with these men from Majorkhul a great deal is borrowed from the Manipuris and from Europeans. The baldric and necklaces are Mao, but the sashes and horns and dancing are traditional Kabui.
clip:
seealso: Hodson, Naga Tribes of Manipur, p.64 et seq