u/rubenmomin48

Sharing an A•chik song that I think beautifully captures a part of our cultural story. The lyrics speak about our ancestors, the old stories passed down through generations, life in the hills, traditional A·chik instruments, and the importance of standing firmly in our own roots. I found the combination really interesting because the song is distinctly A·chik in its imagery and identity while expressing a Christian worldview. I’ve included the original lyrics with an English translation (translated by me so it can have some errors, the translations are not literal but I have tried to keep it more flowing, natural to english wording style) below so that more people from across Northeast India can understand and appreciate it:

“Jatinkoan tinode baikugenma kambede
Will the peak (of our tribe) still endure?

Ritimgital nikoba bibal sale siloba
Even if seen like a new line, even if flowers bloom beautifully.

Ama ambi gitchamni golpo gitcham urangni
Of the old stories of our grandmothers and mothers.

Apa sagi manenga, goltidinge sikia
Our late fathers scolded us and taught us with a stick.

Rama dile mesoka
Guided us and showed us the path

Gangitchamkon chimponge surikoan kolame
Gathering even the old clothes and worn rags.

Ang manana batode jepo tangka dongjaode
Even if I get, or even if I have no money in my pocket.

Chibolokni chikoa amang senga ringjawa
I will not drink the water of the muddy pool even if it is clear.

Jawa jaongijako kasin chidarenikosa
Leaving what others have, [I will drink] only from the cold waterfall.

Chinga ringe okkaa
Drinking (from the cold waterfall) we are full(fulfilled)

Chinggitade gri asong gimiko
There is no one like us for our native land.

Jatango chadenge achubatgipao
Standing on our own feet in the place we were born.

Sanasa pasikna chingna donako
For whom should we make excuses for what is kept for us?

Chinga hoe achiksa ringa sulba chingnisa
We are A'chiks (Garos), and the song's tune is also ours.

Dama bangsi adil chigringsa
The drum, the flute, and the horn sound so sweet.

Hoe ringa gitelna rasong ona jisuna
Singing to give glory to the Lord, to Jesus.

Komijawa jawa gipinna
It will not decrease or be inferior to others.(will not bow down to others)

Abri mittin mittino angni ano angjongrang
Deep in the hidden hills are my mothers and my younger brothers.

Tebil bijak ritchue dongnugenba daoban
Even now they will hide, joining the leaves of the table.

Churing chanaba chimonge ramasamni akoan
Gathering earth by the roadside to boil water from the stream.

Pura weko sikaba ake bolbijakoan
Plucking the tree leaves and making rice flour.

Mainasa nisia
Why is it destroyed?

Chatchi maia deachim sani deasaanchim
What kin or relatives were the children, whose children were they?

Chola gipok kruoa kni gitchinge chitoa
Wearing a white shirt, combing the hair to the side.

Katta doka baonisa? Balwa balan dingtangsa
From where are the words spoken? The blowing wind is different.

Chuongan pattijokba nambatakon onjokba
Enough has been blessed, the better has been given.

Haiwa jringjot tanggipa
Come, behold the one who lives forever.”

Poraiani aro knani gimin mitela!!
(Thanks for reading and listening)

If you visit the Mokokchung district in Nagaland today, the heartland of the Ao Nagas, you will find a thriving, peaceful community with an incredible 94.6% literacy rate where nearly every single one of the roughly 227,000 Ao people is a Protestant Christian, mostly Baptist. Across the state of Nagaland as a whole, around 88% to over 90% of the population shares this Christian faith today. What makes this story so remarkable is that back in early 1872, there were zero Christians among the Ao. Even British colonial officers writing as late as 1891 doubted that Naga tribes would ever have any inclination to embrace Christianity. Yet the Ao Nagas proved the skeptics wrong by becoming the very first Naga tribe to welcome the Gospel, and they did it peacefully and voluntarily without a single insurgency against the new faith. When you look closely at how this happened, it stands out as a deeply inspiring story of dedicated missionaries and a wise, forward thinking tribe that actively chose to leave behind fear and warfare for spiritual hope, modern healthcare, and education.

To appreciate why the arrival of Christianity was such a liberating turning point, it helps to understand the heavy burdens of pre Christian Ao life before the 1870s. Back then, Ao society was completely clan centered and bound by animism and a constant fear of spirits known as lai or molong associated with the natural landscape. Whenever illness or disaster struck a family, villagers believed malicious spirits were to blame and had to rely on a soothsayer priest for divination to prescribe endless sacrifices of chickens, eggs, and rice beer. The missionary Mary Clark once described the grim sight of a cookhouse dedicated to an evil deity named Leezaba that was completely littered with animal bones from these constant rituals. Even the afterlife was a source of anxiety, as the Ao believed souls traveled to a land of death called Asuyim ruled by a deity named Moyutsung, where everyone faced judgment through a spear throwing test. Daily social life was similarly harsh, revolving around slavery, exhausting feasts of merit to honor ancestors, bachelor dormitories called morungs, and the constant cycle of taking human heads in tribal warfare for prestige.

The dawn of a new era began in the middle of the nineteenth century when the Assam Baptist Mission, which grew out of the 1836 mission work and Bronson's chain, sent a courageous Assamese evangelist named Godhula into the Naga Hills to build friendships and spark initial interest in the Gospel. This loving groundwork prepared the way for American Baptist missionary Edward Winter Clark and his wife Mary, serving with the American Baptist Foreign Mission Society (founded in 1814), to step into the Ao Hills. On December 22, 1872, E.W. Clark and Godhula arrived at the Ao village of Molungkimong, also known as Dekha Haimong or Mulung, which stood under the protection of Chungtia. Showing remarkable wisdom and openness, Chief Chungtia welcomed Clark and granted him permission to stay. Soon after, on October 24, 1876, Clark and 15 brave Ao convert families stepped out in faith to found a brand new settlement called New Molung, or Molungyimsen. (As a wonderful living reminder of those early days, a litchi tree planted by Clark in Molung in 1878 is still standing tall today.) New Molung was purposefully built as a peaceful Christian village where the founding families made the bold, admirable decision to completely abolish headhunting, slavery, ancestor rites, and spirit offerings. Even more inspiring, their village charter championed true religious liberty from day one, declaring there would be "no law to make Christians" so that every single person who joined the faith did so out of genuine personal conviction.
The Ao people embraced Christianity so wholeheartedly because the missionaries cared for both their souls and their practical wellbeing, bringing spiritual peace alongside Western education, medicine, and social uplift. For families weary of bloodshed, stepping into a Christian community meant immediate sanctuary from brutal tribal feuds, victimization, and terrifying accusations of sorcery. Converts also embraced a clean, uplifting moral lifestyle, happily leaving behind rice beer, gambling, and the morung system to build orderly, supportive neighborhoods. At the same time, E.W. and Mary Clark poured their lives into giving the Ao people the gift of literacy. Clark taught Ao youth to read using Burmese and Roman scripts, compiled the very first Ao dictionary and grammar, and worked with Mary to translate scriptures like the Gospel of Matthew into the local tongue, giving the Ao people printed New Testaments in their own language by the 1880s. The missionaries also introduced compassionate modern medical care through facilities like the Impur Christian Hospital, which healed the sick and continues to serve as a vital medical referral center alongside state run hospitals today. Drawn by the undeniable blessings of peace, literacy, and healthcare, more and more Ao families voluntarily chose the Christian path. By the middle of the twentieth century, the transformation of the heart was so complete that even former Ao warriors looked back on headhunting as unthinkable compared to the peace of their Christian faith, and the British administration gratefully recognized how church influence brought lasting harmony to the hills.
What makes the Ao mission story even more commendable is how quickly the missionaries empowered indigenous leaders, trusting local Ao believers to guide their own communities as trained evangelists, deacons, and pastors rather than keeping them dependent on foreign clergy. As thriving churches and mission schools blossomed in villages like Chuchuyimlang and Ungma, the American Baptists established the Impur Mission Station in 1894 as a central hub of service. Just three years later, in 1897, the Ao believers demonstrated incredible organizational vision by uniting to form their own self governing church association at Impur called the Ao Baptist Arogo Mungdang, or ABAM, decades before the wider regional CBCNEI body was formed in 1953. Today, ABAM stands as a shining testament to that early faith, uniting over 170 congregations and roughly 200,000 members across Nagaland, Assam, Meghalaya, and Delhi. From Impur, the church built enduring institutions like the Impur Bible School and Clark Theological College to equip pastors, alongside the renowned Clark Memorial Higher Secondary School, which sparked an educational renaissance that now sees Ao youth excelling at premier colleges like St. Edmund's and St. Joseph's in Shillong. The missionaries and early church leaders even pioneered roads, buildings, the town's first library and newspaper, improved agriculture through kitchen gardens, and carpentry and vocational training programs. Christianity also elevated the role of Ao women through girls' education, Sunday schools, and the ABAM Women's Union, a legacy of empowerment that was joyfully celebrated by the International American Baptist organization in November 2020 when Onenlemla Ao was ordained as a pastor at Molungyimsen Baptist Church.

Rather than destroying who the Ao people were, Christianity redeemed their culture, freeing them from destructive practices while preserving the beauty of their heritage. The tribe gladly let go of pagan spirit worship, household idols, and headhunting trophies, replacing warrior symbols with church banners and Bible plaques, turning morung dormitories into welcoming church halls and youth fellowships, and elevating marriage from bride wealth feasts into sacred church ceremonies. At the same time, the church cherished and preserved the Ao language, which remains the heart of worship alongside English, while church choirs creatively wove traditional Ao folk melodies into uplifting Christian gospel music. Even the deep spiritual longings of their ancestors found fulfillment in the Gospel, as traditional Ao concepts of a good afterlife and an ancestral paradise naturally blossomed into the Christian hope of Heaven and Jesus' paradise. Beloved agricultural celebrations like the Moatsu seed sowing festival and the Tsüngremmong harvest festival were kept alive, freed from the fear of old deities and celebrated instead as joyful community thanksgiving holidays enriched with church blessings alongside Christmas and Easter. Traditional handicrafts, weaving patterns, folk songs, and dances continue to flourish with the church's encouragement, shining brightly at Nagaland's Hornbill Festival (established in 2000) to promote tourism and cultural pride under a Christian banner, while acclaimed writers like Temsula Ao thoughtfully preserve traditional poetic imagery like soul birds and the boatman of the dead in modern literature.
Today, the decision made by those first converts at Molung continues to bless every corner of Ao life. Honoring New Molung's foundational respect for freedom of conscience, church rulings do not force legal power over tribal law, yet village councils and the Ao Council (ngipidao) work hand in hand with church ministers and elders to guide society with wisdom and grace. Even in a state with a secular constitution, Ao political leaders often serve as dedicated church elders who openly seek God in prayer during assemblies, and Nagaland's 2015 freedom of religion act against forced conversions is completely unnecessary in Ao territory because their Christian identity was embraced so willingly. Alongside the vibrant Baptist majority, smaller Presbyterian and charismatic Assemblies of God or Pentecostal congregations also enrich the community through healing ministries and youth outreach. Weekly prayer meetings, Bible quizzes, music competitions, and spiritual awakenings like the late twentieth century Ao Shalom revival keep the faith dynamic, while devoted pastors and elders actively mentor the younger generation to keep their spiritual fervor strong. Although historians note that some early mission diaries and pre 1947 census records have gaps, this remarkable journey is wonderfully preserved in E.W. Clark's 1870s journals at the American Baptist Historical Society in the US, Baptist Missionary Society records in the UK, CBCNEI archives in Assam, ABAM and Clark Theological College records in Impur, the Nagaland State Archives in Kohima, the National Archives of India, research libraries at North East Hill University in Shillong and Nagaland University, cherished village oral histories, and classic studies by J.P. Mills in 1926 and P.J. Ao in 1980, all testifying to how the love of dedicated missionaries and the wise faith of the Ao people built one of the most educated, peaceful, and vibrant Christian communities in the world.

A remarkable wildlife record has emerged from Meghalaya’s Garo Hills, where Hodgson’s Frogmouth has been documented in Balpakram National Park after decades without a confirmed sighting. The bird had last been recorded locally in 1950, following the collection of a specimen near Tura. During surveys in 2025, researchers Daniel Miranda and Tribhuwan Singh encountered the species, while its characteristic vocalisations were also heard repeatedly across the Mahadeo and Baghmara ranges from February through May. Famous for its extraordinary camouflage, the frogmouth closely resembles the texture of tree bark and can remain almost invisible even at close range. Its return adds a significant new chapter to the understanding of wildlife in the Garo Hills.

This reel came up to me and i thought Christmas’ not too far. What are the best memories that instantly brings Christmas joy to you. (Christmas memories unique to Northeastern tribes). I will start; Listening to Boney M’s music and Church rehearsals and decorations.

The only thing I said was “breed more if you want, just don’t come here.” And that becomes a hate comment according to reddit. Bruh Wut??? 😭😭