Peter Bos and Phejin Konyak.
Morung Express News
Kohima | December 5
A well researched book which took two years to complete with endless journeys to over 60 Konyak villages sometimes by foot, carrying one’s ration, ‘The Konyaks: The Last of the tattooed headhunters’ a book by Phejin Konyak and Peter Bos was released on December 1.
The book is considered as one of the first intensive research and documentation on Konyak tattoo art which captures the almost vanished practice of tattooing culture among the Konyak Nagas.
The book provides an insight of the unique Konyak people, their society and their way of life deeply connected to the art of tattooing. It further gives detailed description of tattooing, its techniques, materials and resources required with personal stories.
“It was practiced for generations as a way of life, a cycle of life and associated with headhunting. Because it was a torturous affair and because people did not have a say in it, the Students Union disallowed tattooing in the 1960s,” says author Phejin Konyak. However the art of tattooing also vanished with the advent of Christianity, where such indigenous rituals were considered sinful, as Konyak posited that Christianity became a strong force which ‘put a stop to all our traditional ways’.
“There is no possibility of reviving this art again. You have to be in, following the lifestyle to learn the art of tattoo making. For Konyaks, to follow every pattern of tattoo on their body is like a cycle of life from one stage of life to another- from childhood, to puberty, to adolescence. The people we captured in the book are the last people. Once they die, you will never see a Konyak tattooed person again. The culture has died with them,” said Phejin who started researching in 2014, August.
Unlike the west, the art of tattooing among the Konyaks was beyond aesthetics. “Tattoo (among the Konyaks) is deeply connected to culture; it is a way of being, of living. In the West, tattoo is just for decoration but here it more than that, it is more to do with life and philosophy. The depth of tattoo goes much further than we think” said Peter Bos.
The significance of tattoos among Konyak Nagas was deeply rooted to their being and existence, where Phejin pointed out that for the female, the significant phase of their lives was marked by tattoos. Moments such as reaching puberty, engagement, marriages, motherhood were all marked by tattoos. While for men, it was a rite of passage from boyhood to manhood. Tattoos were closely associated with headhunting, where facial tattoos were considered one of the highest marks of achievements signifying courage.
Conversing with tourists at Kisama while displaying her tattoo made by an 86 years old Tattoo artist in a Konyak village last year, Phejin Konyak comments, “I prefer to join my ancestors in the afterlife instead of what modernity says. My culture is what defines my identity.”
Phejin Konyak is the granddaughter of a tattooed headhunter Ahon who was a prominent member of the Konyak tribe and one of the first interpreters to travel with British Ethnographer J.H Hutton.
Peter Bos is a portrait photographer from Eindhoven, Netherlands. ‘The Konyaks: The Last of the tattooed headhunters’ is available online at Amazon and priced at 3500.
