The Nah people is a small tribal group residing in the higher reaches, below the great Himalayan ranges in Upper Subansiri district of

Arunachal Pradesh Arunachal Pradesh (, ) is a state in Northeastern India. It was formed from the erstwhile North-East Frontier Agency (NEFA) region, and became a state on 20 February 1987. It borders the states of Assam and Nagaland to the south. It shares int ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. Within the district, they are found in the villages within Taksing circle: Gumsing, Taying, Esnaya, Lingbing, Tongba, Yeja, Reding, Redi, Dadu villages. As of 2000, the tribal population stood at 1,500. However, in all official censuses the Nga are classified together with the Tagin, who are ethnically related to them. They speak the

Na language Na (or Narua, Mosuo) is a language of the Naish subbranch of the Naic group of the Sino-Tibetan languages. Varieties Yongning Na, which is spoken in Yongning Township, Ninglang County, Lijiang, Yunnan, China China, officially the P ...

, a member of the

Sino-Tibetan language family Sino-Tibetan, also cited as Trans-Himalayan in a few sources, is a family of more than 400 languages, second only to Indo-European in number of native speakers. The vast majority of these are the 1.3 billion native speakers of Chinese languages. ...

, in which the population's literacy rate is 30%. The Na language has an affinity with the

Tagin language Tagin (Tagen), also known as West Dafla and Bangni (incl. Na) is a Sino-Tibetan language Sino-Tibetan, also cited as Trans-Himalayan in a few sources, is a family of more than 400 languages, second only to Indo-European in number of native ...

. They also use Hindi or English. The Nah were believed to have migrated South from the north in Tibet following racial persecution from the Tibetans, but later engaged in trade with the

Tibetans The Tibetan people (; ) are an East Asian ethnic group native to Tibet. Their current population is estimated to be around 6.7 million. In addition to the majority living in Tibet Autonomous Region of China, significant numbers of Tibetans live ...

after the Nishi served as a mediator between the two groups until recent times. However, relations with their neighbors were often unstable; for instance, the shift of preference of their northern Tibetan trading partners in a 1906 incident resulted in a massacre which claimed many lives from their tribal group. The Nah are adherents of

Tibetan Buddhism Tibetan Buddhism (also referred to as Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, Lamaism, Lamaistic Buddhism, Himalayan Buddhism, and Northern Buddhism) is the form of Buddhism practiced in Tibet and Bhutan, where it is the dominant religion. It is also in majo ...

but are also influenced by pre-Buddhist Shaman practices. Both Buddhist Lamas and traditional Shamans, known as Nyibu in the native tongue, are employed for religious occasions. Like most tribes living in higher elevations, they build permanent houses made of stone and cultivate the usable land. One can see villages with terraced fields growing maize, millet, barley, etc. They breed domestic animals including

yaks The domestic yak (''Bos grunniens''), also known as the Tartary ox, grunting ox or hairy cattle, is a species of long-haired domesticated cattle found throughout the Himalayan region of the Indian subcontinent, the Tibetan Plateau, Kachin Sta ...

and sheep, and their clothes are made of spun wool. The Nah are more closely related to the Tagin both ethnically and linguistically than to Tibetans, but they claim to be a separate group, like the Mra who live in Limeking. However, both tribes acknowledge that they share a common ancestry with the Tagin.

References

External links

Ethnologue profile of Nga
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nga People Tribes of Arunachal Pradesh Buddhist communities of India