| caption: |
life story of the Ang of Longkhai |
| text: |
The Ang however I shall see in Wakching when he will bring the two grave figures (80) which he is currently carving for me. His life story is not without interest. When he was a boy his father was held captive in Kohima because he had ignored the Government's orders against head-hunting and then his father went to Mon. His older brother too emigrated to Mon, only he remained in Longkhai in the house of a relative. When he was grown up the old house of the Ang was in ruins and the prestige of the Ang family had been lost completely in the village, so he turned to work as a blacksmith and in several years he had succeeded in earning so much money that he could buy a buffalo and the necessary rice needed for feeding the people of the village while they rebuild his house. That is how the now standing house of the Ang was built, and slowly he strengthened his position. Fourteen years ago he then married his main wife, an Ang's daughter from Chi, but his two sons by his wife died and now he has no male successor. |
