Author: Carolina NΓ©methy, reviewed by Michael Heneise
Documenting the Karbi Kecharhe Alun Oral Epic in Assam, India
During the Anthropology Research seminar on March 1st, Michael Heneise, an anthropologist and associate professor in the department of Religious Studies at UiT, presented the paper π«ππππππππππ πππ π²ππππ π²πππππππ π¨πππ πΆπππ π¬πππ ππ π¨ππππ, π°ππ ππ.
This seminar was an account of Michaelβs own serendipitous encounter with a rainmaker and dirge singer that evolved into an inspiring collaborative project of literally epic proportions with the Centre for Karbi Studies. The result is a book which will soon be published and launched this November with Highlander Press.
During a trip to Eastern Assam, Michael was approached by his friend Dharamsing Teron about the possibility of recording an extensive repertoire of funerary songs sung by the well known dirge singer and rainmaker Kasang Teronpi. She specifically requested that Michael and Teron take up the project and record her singing over the course of several days. In response to her request, and with support from the Firebird Foundation, Michael and Teron embarked on the project in collaboration with a group of young Karbi researchers that Teron had assembled into the newly formed Centre for Karbi Studies. Having found a spot in a secluded meadow in Karbi Anglong district in Eastern Assam, Kasang sat down on a straw mat and started to sing. She sang and sang, and minutes turned to hours, and hours turned to days. It turned out to be no ordinary song.
The singing in fact continued for many days.
After four days, the team took a break to recharge batteries and download audio and video files. Little did they know they were only halfway through the funerary epic. In the end, the team calculated that she had sung for over thirty-two hours, from memory, line by line, virtually flawless. In written text, it amounted to well over 1500 pages of text.
The epic, called the Kecharhe Alun, or βfunerary songβ, speaks of ushering the soul of the deceased through vast Himalayan landscapes, on the way to the village of ancestors – a village of a thousand households, all awaiting the arrival of the soul.
The epicβs details include, among other things, the ritual life of the Karbi indigenous people, their elaborate funerary preparations, the various artefacts, plants, and special arrangements in the funerary event, in addition to special genealogical knowledge, special kinship knowledge about the five main Karbi clans, and their relations with neighbouring nations. Each chapter in the vast funerary epic allows for some adjustment and variation depending on the story of the deceased person for whom this Kecharhe Alun is performed. The epic is one example of a range of Karbi oral literatures that reveal the Karbi peopleβs rich tradition.
Once recorded, the team transcribed, and transliterated the song into text, involving highly skilled indigenous historians, anthropologists, linguists, and poets. A poetic English translation is currently being worked on.
The following discussion with the audience included comments on the anthropologist as a facilitator, rather than as someone who intrudes β a common feeling anthropologists share when doing fieldwork among other cultures. What has been emphasized is the collaboration and the need to respect the desires of the local community when facilitating such projects.
Further discussion included reflections on the rainmakerβs/dirgeβs consultation as paid work that is both expensive and decreasing in demand. Furthermore, considerations for the question of secret knowledge, extent to which audio-visual recordings reveal particular details, and the various ethical dilemmas of the researchers. Researchers witnessed how secrecy was seen as less important when marginalised. This sense of disappearance is felt by the rainmaker-dirge herself as she does not have many apprentices.