WOOD-CARVED HUMAN FIGURES: THE REMAINS AND ITS SIGNIFICANCE

WOOD-CARVED HUMAN FIGURES: THE REMAINS AND ITS SIGNIFICANCE

            In the days of yore, head-hunting was glorified in the Naga society. About 400 years ago at Lozaphuhu village of Phek district, Nagaland, there was an eccentric practice of wood-carving of human figures with premium genus of woods. Those figures were erected in the ‘resting place’ between the village and the field. A resting place is firmly built with stones and mud fillings and arranged with tiers of stone in a semi-circular manner but without the use of mortars which was unknown to Nagas in the olden days. 

Remains of wood-carved human figures at Lozaphuhu

            A person’s chivalry as to how many heads of the enemy were brought to the chief of the village was chronicled meticulously. After his death, those figures were put up in series amounting to the number of heads taken in his lifetime. Startlingly, the figures of pregnant women were also carved and erected portraying that the warrior had also taken the heads of women. 

-      Niekhoyi Rhakho

Email: niekhorhakho@gmail.com