NAGA JEWELLERY

Nagas are various ethnic groups native to the northeastern India and northwestern Myanmar. The groups have similar cultures and traditions, and form the majority of population in the Indian state of Nagaland and Naga Self-Administered Zone of Myanmar; with significant populations in Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh and Assam in India; Sagaing Division and Kachin State in Myanmar.

The Nagas are divided into various Naga ethnic groups whose numbers and population are unclear. They each speak distinct Naga languages often unintelligible to the others.

The Naga people love colour as is evident in the shawls designed and woven by women, and in the headgear that both sexes design. Clothing patterns are traditional to each group, and the cloths are woven by the women. They use beads in variety, profusion and complexity in their jewelry, along with a wide range of materials including glass, shell, stone, teeth or tusk, claws, horns, metal, bone, wood, seeds, hair, and fibre.

According to Dr. Verrier Elwin, these groups made all the goods they used, as was once common in many traditional societies: "they have made their own cloth, their own hats and rain-coats; they have prepared their own medicines, their own cooking-vessels, their own substitutes for crockery.".Craftwork includes the making of baskets, weaving of cloth, wood carving, pottery, metalwork, jewellery-making and bead-work.

Naga jewelry is an equally important part of identity, with the entire tribe wearing similar bead jewelry.

Traditional Naga Jewellery

Both Naga men and women love to enhance their beauty with rich and vibrant tribal jewellery.  Their love for colour and design is evident in the way these pieces are created, which reflect the synergistic relationship of humankind and nature. They are crafted with a variety of beads, feathers, brass, bronze, shells, claws, wood, glass, bone, precious stone, boar tusk, claws, horns and ivory. Such components are also regarded as currency in and of themselves. Traditional Naga ornaments are large and bold, where each piece of their jewellery is unique in its customs, traditions, accompanying attire, and symbolic of the land’s ancient heritage.

Naga Beaded Jewellery

The origin of Naga beads is not known, though it has been written about extensively. Naga people consider beads to be talismans, equivalent in value to gems. The beads are entwined in cultural practices and celebrations to date because Nagas believe that the beads contain all prayers that are made and sustained under the gleaming mountain sun. Among the Nagas, necklaces that are thick with many strands are ordinarily worn by womenfolk. They believed that the thicker the neckpiece, the higher the presumed wealth of the wearer and her family.