Moyon Women Organisation observes 75th anniversary

Our Correspondent KAPAAM(Manipur), January 11 The Moyon village at Kapaam or Komlathabi in Manipur’s Chandel district, about 55km south of Imphal was filled with the sound of colourful dance and songs as the Moyon Women Organization celebrated its 75th Anniversary of its formation for the last three days under the theme ‘Building our homes for posterity through culture’ . The celebration was started from January 9 this month with the state chief secretary PC Lawmkunga was the chief guest of the second day function while MLA Chandel Nunglung Victor on the concluding day on Sunday. Lawmkunga was the SDO of Chandel in 1982.Though the Moyons or Bujuur happens to be a minority community in the state which houses as many as 33 ethnic groups, they have distinct history, land, territory, governance, and economic, social and religious practice,dresses,folk songs and dances etc. Moyons has a total population of just 5000 in Manipur and Myanmar’s Namlun village. According to MWO’s advisor Dr Gina Shangkham, the Moyon community had converted into Christianity since 1922 onwards and the subsequent impact of the famous World War II has brought a big transformation to the socio-cultural lives of the community. The changes have deeply affected the social priorities so much that the tribal communities have realized the need to revive and preserve the fast decaying the traditional values and cultural heritage. Stating that MWO has taken a key role in preserving Moyon's culture and tradition even though the community have converted into Christianity, Dr Gina said. The Diamond Jubilee celebration hopes to provide the much needed platform for such promotion and preservation activities. The exhibition of Moyon cultural practices, Traditional artifacts, cane-bamboo works, woodcrafts, attires, ornaments, accessories etc marked the 3-day long Diamond Jubilee celebration which concludes on Sunday. The Jubillee celebration also showcases the unique and colourful culture of the Moyons. MLA of Chandel Victor Nunglung also attended the concluding function of the celebration. It may be recalled that the colourful Moyon sarong also known as Tudeen Sarong or Inih I and peen (traditional shawl) in their local tongue were also formally introduced to the jubilee celebration launching gathering by the then Sub-Divisional Officer Chandel Killu Sivakumar Naidu in presence of who’s who of MWO on January 30 last year.