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Tesophenyu menfolk dance during the golden jubilee of “friendship treaty’’ on Nov. 30 at Tuophema on Thursday.[/caption]
Kohima Bureau
Tuophema, Nov. 30: Tesophenyu and Tuophema village, two villages in Kohima district are marking with a celebration of what it is informed to be the golden jubilee of a “friendship treaty’’ between the two villages. The event was conducted at Tuophema on Nov. 30 with Neiphiu Rio, member of Parliament as the chief guest of the programme.
The programme was envisaged to ‘strengthen and uphold the pledge’ undertaken by the ancestors of the two villages, it was informed.
Speaking during the occasion, Neiphiu Rio asked the community ‘to strengthen and uphold their friendship treaty of peace and unity.’
‘Our forefathers with their wisdom have stopped the fight in the community and created friendship which has been upheld to date said,’ Rio. He lauded the initiative to renew their friendship and pass it down to the younger generation ‘to bring peace and unity to the Naga society.’
The former chief minister encouraged the gathering to also ‘spread the message of friendship treaty to every village and tribe so that peace will prevail in Naga society.’ He called upon the community to maintain peace and respect among other communities too.
Levi Rengma, parliamentary secretary for Housing, also addressed the event. In his short address he said “Tradition represents a critical piece of Naga culture. They help form the structure and foundation of our families and our society and remind us that we are part of a history that defines our past, shapes who we are today and who we are likely to become. Once we ignore the meaning of our traditions, we’re in danger of damaging the underpinning of our identity”
Rengma lamented that the role of culture in the society today had been ‘damaged because of forgetfulness of the past and the neglect of our cultural heritage.’ He has called upon the two communities to celebrate their friendship to forgive one another and ‘carry out cultural practices and tradition handed down by the ancestors.’
Further, Rengma called upon the people to fight the menace of corruption in Naga society. “The cry of Nagas today is corruption free government but we are forgetting that to have corruption free and good governance can come if the society can get rid of corruption and start thinking and act positively and responsibly,” Rengma said.
A citizen, CT Rengma, narrated the history behind the event. He said that in order to strengthen and uphold the pledge undertaken by their ancestors, the people of Tesophenyu and Tuophema entered into a formal friendship treaty. Tuophema hosted the friendship treaty on Feb. 16 1967, followed by Tesophenyu on Jan. 17 1969 during the leadership of Guolhoulie Rio, Tuophema and Asfibi Kemp Tesophenyu.
Whenever there was war, a Vitho (ceasefire) was often proposed, it was informed. Khrietho (friendship) is greater than Vitho, the gathering was told.
‘Although there is no written record of the friendship, we have been made known about this friendship through our oral history,’ Rengma observed.
Calling upon the younger generation to continue and uphold the friendship, he said that ‘for years our ancestors have safeguarded and passed on this friendship and goodwill into our hands.’ He said to have done a ‘little research’ and found out that the friendship was built around the 1870s before the British invaded the Naga country.
Earlier a monolith was unveiled at Tesophenyu village to mark the occasion.
