Welcome to the land of bamboo - Nagaland

Yanpvuo Yanfo Kikon: A dream come true for me to see that the great Bamboo architect Richard Belho has made bamboo market place for our street vendors! Let every market place, public space, building and design incorporate bamboo instead of ugly concrete!  

From the airport to railway station to commercial houses to furniture and even retaining wall or structures, we should all start incorporating BAMBOO. The moment visitors land in Dimapur airport, they should realise they have entered Bamboo Area and Talented Area, instead of disturbed area!  

We Nagas are blessed. It is just that we are only realising now what God has blessed us with. All those studying architecture and civil engineering, those fortunate ones can go further into research and come up with something better than what Indonesia is offering to the world in terms of sustainable architecture.  

BAMBOO God gave us abundant Bamboo yet we chose concrete.  

Bamboo is known for its tensile strength and sustainable qualities yet we chose concrete and ugly structures to fill up our land.  

Nagaland falls under Seismic Zone 5 and the most advanced countries, architects are now highly recommending the use of bamboo in our structures and buildings as it is considered the toughest and earthquake resistant material. Imagine a heavy earthquake occurs, a building made of concrete will simply collapse and bricks will fall and create destruction. But Bamboo will have a much lesser destructive impact in case of any natural disaster.  

We Nagas Are Blessed~ ~We have the most beautiful landscape, ~The air we breathe is one of the best in the world, we can become the lungs of the earth in the future ~ We have the best organic produce - The world's sweetest pineapples are from Nagaland; the world's hottest organic chili is from Nagaland; the world's tastiest undiscovered cuisines are from Nagaland - Axone, Bastenga, Anishi Pork! ~ We have one of the most hospitable and friendly people in the country ~ Our rich cultural heritage and history  

Yet we forget our blessings and we are engulfed in corruption, politics, greed, material wealth and isms.  

Let us learn from this very significant event in our history where using our indigenous blessing, we have built a historic monument to sell the best Naga produce - our rich organic vegetables by our Naga women ... All the best exemplary values under one roof for all of us to learn, appreciate and emulate!  

Use bamboo, learn bamboo architecture and spread this science across the world for the most advanced civilizations to learn and adopt our indigenous contribution towards a sustainable future!  

Ask yourself | Wake up | It's time for a change

Nikope Koza: Why are we studying outside our state? Only to get higher education? Work for a company and get settled somewhere else where home is never like home anymore? Are we all leaving behind our poor Nagaland which is soon in a verge to be overtaken by the IBIs?   Look around you, most of the then and now toppers are somewhere working hard to get hold of a better job outside. Are we only going to keep running after the printed digits and keep commenting on the issues being faced by our dear brothers and sisters and parents back home?  

Nagaland today is badly poisoned by corruption starting from our own roots. We say boldly, "Naga manu khaan toh khun gorom ase" but how are we tolerating this mental and physical torture being put upon us by our beloved leaders just for their selfish acts. It's really disheartening when you come back home from your vacation just to see our Nagaland getting more dusty and old. We won't want our children to grow up in such a place, will you? And I don't want our future generations to face the same situation like we're all facing now.  

This is my humble request to all my brothers and sisters (including myself) studying outside to get experience, come back home and work for a change, create opportunities for our employed and talented youths. The present system running our Nagaland is not at stack and it may cause serious damage sooner or later. The only hope I see now is in the hands of our present generation.  

I know it'll be hard to bring new changes to our society but it's not impossible though. If we don't struggle and face the reality soon then our kids will grow up following the same footsteps in the future and our poor Nagaland will get much poorer.  

The first and important change we students can bring is to start identifying yourself as a Naga and not only by your tribe. When people ask you, "twi ki manu ase?" be bold enough and say, "Mui Naga manu ase". Tribalism can be a big threat in future if given a thought deeply. Can't we all stay together-united as one and enjoy our beautiful culture during festivals, events and programmes? Tense competition can be competed between different tribes through games and sports and not by summing up the highest number of employed persons from one's own tribe and create more division amongst us. We already have parted our ways from west to east and north to south. It's time we all come together as one and work for a better tomorrow, so that we can create a save place for our children to live in.  

Let us all struggle together and bring a change soon. It is better to be remembered by our good deeds than the sum of good money we may earn because only our well-doings will get us into the gateway of heaven but money won't get you and me a ticket to heaven.