Ten days of drums: the Hornbill Festival

Before dawn, the road up to Kisama is already busy. Minibuses grind past with their windows steamed, and men in woven shawls walk the last stretch in twos and threes, carrying folded costumes. The air smells of woodsmoke and wet pine. By the time the morning sun reaches the arena, the first of the performing groups has begun to sing.

The Hornbill Festival is held every December at Kisama, the Naga Heritage Village a short drive from Kohima, and it is traditionally spread across the first ten days of the month. The state government organises it, and it is named for the great hornbill, a bird that appears in Naga folklore, headgear and songs. Its idea is simple and generous: every major tribe of Nagaland sets up a traditional house, or morung, in the village grounds, and takes turns in the central arena to perform songs, war dances, games and rituals.

What a visitor sees depends on where they stand. The arena has the pageantry, and the dances are worth watching with attention to who is dancing: whole families, from teenagers to elders, in the attire of their own tribe. The morungs have the conversation. This is where you can sit with a host, try rice beer or tea, ask what a pattern on a shawl means, and be told, politely, when a question is the wrong one. The evening Night Bazaar in Kohima has the food and the music.

It also has crowds. Accommodation in and around Kohima fills early, and prices rise accordingly. Planning for a few days either side of the festival makes it easier to see the surrounding villages and to avoid arriving only for the busiest days.

How to go well: ask before photographing a person, particularly at close range. Buy crafts from the people who make them. Treat the war dances as living tradition, not as costume. And plan time away from the arena — the next feature in this issue explains where.