Culture
The Aka share strong cultural affinities with the Miji, and intermarriage with the Miji is prevalent. Centuries of Vaishnava and intermittent Tibetan influence from the Sherdukpen has shaped the Aka culture into its modern form. Handicrafts, basket weaving and wood carving are the principal arts among the Aka tribe. Intermittent Tibetan contacts is evidenced by the fact that the Aka and Mishmis are known as "Khakhra" (meaning barbarians) to the Tibetans.
One of the most notable features of Aka arts is the Chinese design of the Jana flower, which can be often found on many of the indigenous haversacks. It is a known legend that the Jana flower represents the commemorate an ancient Tibetan king, who was believed to have led his entire life through daily reincarnations. It was also believed that he lived in an open giant palace that grew the Jana flowers every time the sun sets.
Indigenous festivals under the guidance of a village shaman such as those of the four-day Nechido festival, held in January, involves the affiliation with the natural world and community.
Read more about this topic: Hruso People
Famous quotes containing the word culture:
“Asia is rich in people, rich in culture and rich in resources. It is also rich in trouble.”
—Hubert H. Humphrey (1911–1978)
“Children became an obsessive theme in Victorian culture at the same time that they were being exploited as never before. As the horrors of life multiplied for some children, the image of childhood was increasingly exalted. Children became the last symbols of purity in a world which was seen as increasingly ugly.”
—C. John Sommerville (20th century)
“Any historian of the literature of the modern age will take virtually for granted the adversary intention, the actually subversive intention, that characterizes modern writing—he will perceive its clear purpose of detaching the reader from the habits of thought and feeling that the larger culture imposes, of giving him a ground and a vantage point from which to judge and condemn, and perhaps revise, the culture that produces him.”
—Lionel Trilling (1905–1975)