[ Tayi Taggu ]
With god, what is not possible, and without god, what is possible?
The Siang is the biggest river in India, which flows all the way from Tibet’s Mansarovar Lake and meanders through the heartland of Arunachal Pradesh, inhabited by the Adis, and their numerous celebration of festivals make them one of the most colourful and vibrant tribe of this frontier state. Their liveliness in such festivities shows no sign of hardship faced by them in their private lives. For the Adis, the Siang is a symbol of vibrant power, energy, and dynamism, and only the almighty god Donyi-Polo has the power to make it flow or stop. No other power can ever do it. To the Adis, the Siang is not only a river, but it gives and shapes the cultural identity of the people as far as their memories can go back. And the Siang river has been the source of folktales, folksongs, folklores, rhapsodies, and lullabies of the people living along the Siang valley.
We call the Siang river Aane or Aane Siang; it means big or large Siang and here Aane means big and not ‘mother’. And the Siang itself is of masculine gender and, for instance, in counting the genealogy, the Siang is the name of the great, great grandfather of the Adis, and it carries the patrilineal culture of the Adi society. And it is not only a mere coincidence that Tibetan, Adis and Assamese consider the Siang river the largest, most turbulent, and most dynamic male river in the Indian subcontinent.
Most interestingly, the Adis call the river ‘Siang’. Etymologically speaking, it consists of two words, namely, SI + ANG: SI means water and ANG means heart in the Adi language, which means water of river’s heart or heart of all rivers. The Siang flows across southern Tibet, then turns north-eastward, then bends down south-eastward to cut through the Himalayas, thereby forming a great gorge, namely, Yarlung Zangpo Grand Canyon, east of Namcha Barwa, the highest peak of eastern Himalayan ranges of Pemako areas of Nyingchi prefecture of Tibet.
The Siang in its long journey covering different topography has got multiple names, viz, the Yarlung Tsangpo or Zangbo in Tibet, Dihang in the periphery of Arunachal and Assam, the Brahmaputra in Assam, Jumna, Padma, and Meghna in Bengal and Bangladesh. From its sources to the point of entry into Arunachal Pradesh it is called Tsangpo, which means a purifier. And the Siang river, which originates from Angsi glacier on the northern side of the great Himalayas in Burang county of the Ngari prefecture of the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), is considered a sacred river by the Adi people because its water is used in the ordeal to purify man’s sin and also to punish for guilt. People suffering from all kinds of skin diseases, weakness, and scurvy are advised to take bath in the Siang river to cure their diseases. The Siang is a river of healers, but sadly, in the last more than seven years, the Siang river is flowing with muddy torrents and its water turbidity is very high, and is not fit for bathing and swimming activities. To our deep, agonizing pain, survival of aquatic life in the Siang is in great danger due to the reckless damping of the muck of dams/road construction in the Tibetan region by China in the upper ridges of the Siang river.
In an ordeal, the accused has to collect water from the Siang in a bamboo tube, and boiled over a high-intensity bonfire. Sometimes there is no bubbling of the water in the tube to indicate the innocence of the accused person. However, if an opposing party is not satisfied, then the accused is asked to dip his/her hand to prove his/her innocence in the bone-crushing boiling steam.
In ancient times, if any person committed any serious offence regularly and put other clan members’ lives in serious danger or let them go into great economic losses often, and if a person failed to reform, then the punishment was to drown him in the Siang river by clan brothers, and no one questions them. The punishment seems to be very cruel, but this is how the Adis control social setup and crime in their society. The epic story of Nibo and Robo carries the same message of punishment in our system.
In our dream, if we swim across the Siang river, we are likely to succeed in our mission or win a case hands down; if we cannot, then we may fail or lose a case or work on hand. To see the Siang river in flood, there is likelihood of dispute among people and a war-like situation may crop up. On the other hand, if a person draws out a husking rice mate (epu/epo) from the Siang, then it could mean that the person shall be very prosperous in life. To catch a big fish signifies the prospect of getting huge cash or property. The eerie, awesome whirling or roaring sounds of the Siang indicate that a person may soon drown in it. The dead body of a person shall be never recovered or found if the soul of the Siang desires the person. On the other hand, the drowned dead bodies recovered are presumed to be an accidental case. This is how the Siang river shapes the belief and faith system of the Adis.
The Siang river also signifies beauty and purity, because of which the young boys and girls during their effort to win over the love of their life compare the beauty of a girl with the beauty of the Siang. They often joke, taunt, and mock girls with praises: “Hi Siang girl, are you as beautiful as Siang?” And on this, the girls would reply in chorus: “Hi Siang boy, are you as strong as Siang, if not keep your mouth shut.”
The Siang, since time immemorial, carries our hopes and dreams and it shall continue to inspire the generations to come. To a songwriter, it signifies the beauty of timeless love, a symbol of energy and power and its banks are places where people rendezvous.
I have witnessed it like all things in life, the Siang is not always lovable, kind, and beautiful, but its fury and power of destruction is immeasurable. The Siang Pumu, the great flashflood of 11 June, 2000, was a heart-numbing, nerve-racking, spine-chilling experience for one and all, rice fields after rice field, houses, and granaries were swallowed in a few seconds in the wink of an eye. Bamboo groves and orange gardens were destroyed in a matter of not minutes but seconds. Many people, including hundreds of domesticated animals, wild animals, snakes, etc, drown in it on the day of a massive flashflood.
In retrospect, the Siang alone can’t be blamed for the vast devastation and destruction of properties, because greed blinds people and makes them go against nature’s law, which is god’s first law for existence. Timeless valuable word of advice from elders and parents to never encroach into river area is not adhered to properly. It is a well-known fact that rivers are known to research out their old course how long it might take to flow again, and in turn people are bound to suffer from the nemesis of their ill actions. People should understand cursing or bad-mouthing Siang would be a mistake. Instead, they need to introspect their action and vow not to encroach upon the river’s domain. Now people have understood the Siang better as it has clearly spoken in a language understood by one and all and we are bound to respect it. The basic principle of life is, if people want mankind to survive on this Earth, they should give space to others. “Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect,” as the Native American words of wisdom go.
The legend goes that the Brahmaputra is the son of Lord Brahma, the god who created the world and everything and is believed to be the creator of the universe. According to Hindu mythology, he is the first god of the Trinity (Brahma, Vishnu, and Mahesh). Brahma has four heads and it is believed that from these heads came the four Vedas and he is referred to as self-born.
It is said that once Lord Brahma was mesmerised and spellbound by the beauty of Amodha, the wife of great sage Shantanu. This was love at first sight and he was infatuated by her beauty and demeanour and asked for her hands. Amodha ignored his infatuation and rejected his approach of love. But out of his love and great excitation, he could not control his emotions and his semen came out in excitement. The moment Shantanu came to know about this, he immediately collected the fallen semen of Brahma and inseminated into the womb of Amodha. And this was how our Siang (Brahmaputra), the great river, was born.
It is well known to the world that Lake Manasarovar is a famous place of pilgrimage, attracting religious people from Nepal, India, Tibet, and other neighbouring countries. Pilgrims come to take ceremonial baths in the water of the lake which is supposed to cleanse all of their sins. This is a high-altitude freshwater lake fed by the Kailash glaciers of the Kailash mountain, where Lord Shiva took his meditation. The lake is revered as a sacred place by the Hindus, the Jains, and the Bons, as well as by the Buddhists. According to Hindu belief, the lake was first created in the mind of Lord Brahma, after which it manifested on Earth. Hence, it is called ‘Manasa Sarovaram’, which is a combination of the Sanskrit words for ‘mind’ and ‘lake’. And it is a personification of purity, and one who drinks water from it will go to the abode of Shiva after death, as it is believed to cleanse all sins one committed over his/her lifetimes.
Lake Manasarovar is also called Mapum Yamco in Buddhist literature, which means ‘Invincible Jake Lake’ in Tibetan, while ‘Mapum’ means undefeatable. Reportedly, the Buddha stayed and meditated near the lake on several occasions. And the Manasarovar is called ‘The Jewel of Tibet’ because Tibetan traditions of meditation, narrations, and descriptions were made popular here. Not surprisingly, it is the oldest and most sacred lake for the Buddhist, the Hindu, and Bon religions.
Rivers are the lifelines of our civilisation. The beginning of all civilisations started on the banks of rivers, viz, Indus Valley Civilization on the Indus river, Huang Ho civilization on the Huang Ho or Yellow river, the Egyptian civilization on the Nile river, so on and so forth. True, rivers are/were always the backbone of human civilisation. Our cultures, arts, music and lifestyle have been deeply influenced, shaped, and guided by the rivers.
We are because of rivers and rivers are not because of us. To honour the Siang river, the Ganga Manohar programme was conducted by the Sanskar Bharati Arunachal on 25 December, 2018 in Pasighat, on the auspicious day on which Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the Bogibeel bridge – the bridge which not only connects both the states but the hearts and minds of people of Arunachal Pradesh and Assam, which they had eagerly waited for the last 70 years to happen. The Bogibeel was a dream-come-true over the Brahmaputra river, which is really a game changer for the people of upper Assam and Arunachal Pradesh.
The Siang river spreads its wings to carry messages of music, drama, dances, folk dances, and traditional art forms to preserve the cultural heritages of the Adi tribe, Arunachal Pradesh and India and to showcase the cultural beauty, and brotherhood message of Arunachal to the world at large.
The Siang is our pride, which can be accepted as ‘treasure’ as it represents our tangible and intangible cultural heritages. If we don’t care about our treasure, in times to come there is the likelihood of scarcity of potable water in the world due to the mindless destruction of the environment as a result of people’s greed. Some experts have predicted that the third world war, if it ever happens, will be for river water. For instance, China has already built five dams on the upper course of the Siang river, and if the rumour is to be believed, the Chinese government is planning to divert water from the Yarlung Zangbo to the arid region of Xinjiang province, where there is a huge scarcity of water. If the turbidity of the Siang river in the last seven years is any indication of the shape of things to come, people might face unprecedented environmental disasters on a scale that have never been witnessed before. The onus lies on the government of Arunachal Pradesh and India to take rightful steps to approach this issue with the Republic of China at the earliest.
When viewed with a different perspective over-democratising of decision-making sometimes turns into meaningless gossip. The best example is our people have been debating the merits and demerits of hydropower dams for almost half a century without any outcome. Our people seem to love debating, whether that debate bears fruit or not. And the Chinese people must be very happy and satisfied, because while our people are engrossed in meaningless debating, they built multiple mega-dams across the same river without a whisper from anti-dam groups. And now is time. If we don’t allow building a dam over the Siang river, our claim of right to use the water shall hold not much weight in any international water dispute tribunal. The dam protestors of India have no words to say about China’s mega dams construction and sadly, now the Chinese are said to be going ahead by cutting the tunnel hole equivalent to running two trains simultaneously to divert the water of the Yarlung Zangbo to Xinjiang province, to the loss of our pride.
Rivers are roots of human civilisation, and let the Siang river continue to be mellifluous with lullabies and rhapsodies of the Adis and be a source of inspiration for the generations to come. Siang is the river of our hope and aspiration; our culture and traditions flows with it. (The writer is Deputy Commissioner, East Siang district)
