The Nagas

Hill Peoples of Northeast India

Project Introduction The Naga Database

book : 'Konyak Nagas' by Christoph von Furer-Haimendorf, (1969)

caption: Chapter One. The Material Background
caption: wood-carving, a Konyak speciality
medium: books
ethnicgroup: Konyak
production:
person: Furer-Haimendorf/ C.
date: 1969
refnum: with permission from Holt, Rinehart & Winston, New York17:5
text: Wood-carving was also exclusively a male activity, and no other Naga tribe was as expert in woodwork as the Konyaks. Their public buildings were decorated with carved figures and high reliefs of great force and vitality, and those who were especially gifted as sculptors developed their art in the service of the men's houses, decorating posts and beams and the huge log gongs with realistic carvings. Men modeled the small wooden heads which were worn as ornaments by head-takers, carved such small objects as tobacco pipes, combs, and hairpins, and made all the wooden utensils which were necessary in everyday life. Even small boys were often to be seen whittling away at a piece of wood, producing crude figures of men and animals.