Dree

The land of the first sun, the land of the clouds and the land of the Zos are all parts of the eight sisters that demarcate the North-Eastern States of India. Not many Indians are aware of the custom, tradition and the people that inhabit these eight states. One of the languages of India is Tenyidie, that is spoken in Nagaland, is fiction to many eyes and ears. The eight states house myriad of things to be explored and enjoyed.

The folktales from the North-eastern states convey a lot about life and the understanding of people of life. Folk tales from Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland and Meghalaya reveal so much about the people's understanding of their place of living, nature that shapes their lives and a holistic understanding of life. For the people of the North-eastern states the Sun is female and the Moon is male. The Sun is the first daughter to have been born to the mother earth and her husband the God of creation. The Moon happens to be the only son to the couple, so a pampered and prodigal progeny. The Sun and the Moon give light to the earth and so often the Moon acts truant and is not being reprimanded for his dereliction as he is the only male offspring. In an another tale, two brothers who dwell in heaven create everything on the earth. They have summoned all the winds to bring soil from various places and which has resulted in soils of different hues and texture.

In an another story, the people of the earth want to fight the two lights that have been created by Gods to give illumination on the earth. They approach a frog Ettung Tiklung and who with great valor reaches the sky and kills the husband light, thus leaving the wife, the Sun, in great sorrow and solitude. She confines herself into the citadel of hers in mourning, depriving the earth of light. The people of the earth then approach the cock to bring her out of her cocoon. It crows many a time until its crown turns red-chilly-red to no avail and returns in dismay and generates the cause of the tremendous gap between cock's crow and sun's rising. They then approach the Ullu monkey, that in its greatest vanity yells into the ear of the wife-sun and disturbs the rhythm of hers. Startling greatly, she trembles bringing in earthquake and destroying the path for the Ullu monkeys to return. As a result the Ullu monkeys have been confined to a particular territory of Arunachal Pradesh. After much effort peace has been restored by a crow and as a result the sun has removed her veil to give light. The killer of her husband Ettung Tiklung hider itself in bamboos all morning and comes out only at night. It is still believed that the spotting of frogs in the morning will knell the other light as he is a great warrior.

Dree is a popular festival in the North-eastern states, especially in Arunachal Pradesh of the Apa Tani tribes. There is a folk tale that tells the origin of the festival. Dree is celebrated to welcome the grains that have been reaped and so an agricultural fest. Once upon a time there lived an ancestral man called Abatoni. He was a great hunter and often went on expeditions into the jungle with his dog. On one such trip, the mutt left him and veered off the course to reach a huge tree, that had never before been noticed by Abatoni. It was a tall tree and had golden colour fruits on its branches. The hunter wanted to pluck the fruit and as it was quite high above him and the trunk was tender, he was unable to pluck them. The intelligent Abatoni wanted to wait since the ripened fruit not bearing the weight would bend itself and then he would pluck the fruit and examine its grains. As he waited there for a week, the branch with the paddy bent and as he was about pluck, there blew a strong breeze and carried it afar and made it fall in water. He plunged in the river and searched everywhere. It turned out to be a fruitless endeavour. Depressed, he made his homeward journey and found two fishermen discussing their catch. As he neared them, he found the fruit in their net. He took the fruit with him and examined it thoroughly and started cultivating paddy. He gave up hunting and started feeding on the vegetation. According to the Apa Tanis that is how the earth got paddy and rice.