The Nagas

Hill Peoples of Northeast India

Project Introduction The Naga Database

book : Return to the Naked Nagas (1939;1976)

caption: Chapter Twenty-seven. Return to Nagaland
caption: curious abandonment of old faith for Christianity
medium: books
ethnicgroup: Konyaks
location: Tang
production:
person: Furer-Haimendorf
date: 1970
text: (241) Our host admitted that he had two wives, but excused himself by saying that he had married them before becoming a Christian. It seems strange that one Ao could persuade quite a number of the Tang people to abandon their old faith and accept numerous innovations, particularly as they understood little of Christian ideology. The Ang and his family were opposing the change-over to a new religion and way of life, but it seemed that they were fighting a losing battle. Already eighty-seven out of the two hundred and sixtyfour households of Tang had become Christian, and as the teacher was a Christian and undoubtedly indoctrinated those children who went to school, the strength of the Christians was bound to increase. The majority of the villagers were still performing the old rituals, but judging from developments in other villages one could reasonably predict that the old tribal religion had little future among the people of Tang.