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information about position of Angs in Wakching |
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In the morning the Ang came to borrow money from me. I gave him Rs. 2 as an advance on future carvings. He complained about his restricted position. Of course only his opium consumption and his laziness are to be blamed. After all he still does get considerable tributes from other villagers. The Wakching people, however, work for him only as much as is absolutely necessary. (241) Now all five morungs together work one field for the Ang. Balang clears the field, Ang-ban plants, Bala and The-phong weed and Aug-kheang takes in the harvest. The Ang has to provide the seed as well as food for the workers. Formerly each morung worked one field for the Ang but now he could not find the food for so many days of labour as every time he has to kill a pig. I cannot say whether this is the real reason for the reduction of his fields or whether the morungs refuse to do more for him. In any case they are not rebuilding his house for him. For the Ou-ling-bu everyone who slaughters a pig or cattle gives a piece of it back to the Ang. |
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A man from the Bala morung called Chingyan, who arrived with the Ang's father from Chi, collects these pieces for the Ang. In the Bala khel there are four households which come from Chi and five in the Ang khel including the Ang himself. Chinkak also gave me a slightly different version of the expulsion of the Bala morung. As long as the Bala people were banned the The-phong morung's ceremonies must have been restricted in many points (242) as all ceremonies which are based on reciprocity had to be left. So during that time no girls at all followed the coffin of a young The-phong man but the Ang-ban and Balang girls spread the leaves apparently. (notebook 6 p. 26-27). the indigenous Ang, Pongyong, who was deposed for reasons which are not quite clear was given a rice granary including the contents and the fields of two Bala families. |
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It seems that the new Ang from Chi, Longmien, was called in through the efforts of some rich men, in particular, Weichieng, Shankok's grandfather, as they believed that he would be a puppet ruler and that they themselves would govern in fact. Apparently their expectations were not quite fulfilled. In any case every khel wanted to have the new Ang to live with them but finally it was agreed that he would live in the Ang house near the Ang-bang and Pongyong had to vacate it and move to the Bala khel. It is difficult to determine nowadays whether Longmien really had the powers of a great Ang. He certainly left a great fortune to his son which he however soon wasted. |
