Trapezoidal shield of buffalo hide, the corners ornamented with tufts of red-dyed hair. The lower edge has two rows of brass conical bosses stitched on. [LM 21/03/2007]

Collection type: Object
Description: Trapezoidal shield of buffalo hide, the corners ornamented with tufts of red-dyed hair. The lower edge has two rows of brass conical bosses stitched on. [LM 21/03/2007]
Long description: Trapezoidal shield of buffalo hide, the corners ornamented with tufts of red-dyed hair. The lower edge has two rows of brass conical bosses stitched on. Four skin loops are threaded through pairs of slits in the hide. A grip of plant fibre string is threaded through the loops on the back of the shield. [LM 27/03/2007]
Geographical reference: India
Asia > Southern Asia > India; Assam Nagaland Arunachal Pradesh Mizoram Meghalaya
Cultural groups: Thado
Person: Field collector John Henry Hutton; PRM source John Henry Hutton
Date / Period: Date made: Before 1918
Date collected: 1918
Acquisition information: Donated: 1929, uncertain
Materials and processes: Material Animal Hair, Material Pigment, Material Brass Metal, Material Buffalo Cattle Skin Animal, Material Plant Fibre, Material String, Material Cattle Skin Animal, Process Dyed, Process Stitched
Dimensions: Width: max 520 mm, Length: max 630 mm
Object numbers: Accession number: 1923.85.951
Research and responses: The Thado clan of the Kuki people derive their name from that of their ancestor, which means That – to kill, and Doh – to make war. The Thado Kuki collected heads of slain men and animals to place on the graves of their fathers, in order that they might become their slaves, livestock and hunting quarry in the afterlife. The Thado dominated their Naga and Manipuri neighbours for much of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, keeping them in a vassal state, or driving them out of the lands they claimed. The Kukis were historically a martial people, considering war and hunting to be noble pursuits for a man. They live in the states of Manipur and Assam in north-eastern India, as well as northern Burma. Even though Assam only came under British rule in 1826, as early as 1835, the High Court of Bengal was making rulings on distant Kuki raids and aggressions, and it appears that the Kuki and British were in conflict from the start of colonial rule. Various means were tried by the British to control the independent power and warfare of the Kukis – notably arming and settling groups of Manipuris along the Indo-Burmese border, in order to divide the Kuki geographically. Armed with firearms when their neighbours were not, the Thado expanded eastwards into Naga lands in the early 20th century. The British instituted a policy of disarming Kuki when they encountered them, and collected 1,195 indigenously-made flintlock muskets in the decade 1907-17. The situation was tense, and the Kukis were substantially independent (i.e. ungoverned) under British rule. This tense and uneasy situation came to an abrupt end in 1917. The Raja of Manipur had offered his full support to the colonial regime in the Great War of 1914-1918, and the Raj had requested he raise as many labourers as possible, who would be shipped to France to support the war effort. Two thousand Kuki and other Manipuri men were conscripted and sent, and then the Raja instituted a second wave of conscription. Under the leadership of chief Chengjapao of the village of Aisan, the Pipa (paramount chief) of the Thado, the result was the Kuki Rebellion 1917-19. It is recorded that this rebellion followed the traditional course of Thado warfare, and involved the Shajam Iha rite, where a Mithun was slaughtered and its meat shared in a communal meal by the willing chiefs. Then a smouldering piece of wood from the cooking fire, wrapped in red chillies, was circulated around the villages to signal war. Twenty three Kuki villages rebelled forcibly. The British put down this rebellion with a massive display of force through the Punitive Expedition. Colonel L.W. Shakespear led three thousand men in systematically sweeping back and forth across Kukiland, sacking all hostile villages. This shield was collected in one such sacking, of a village called Aitho. Several chiefs were arrested and jailed in Assam, Burma, and the remote Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The Kuki area was broken up into three distinct colonial administrative zones, with Subdivisional Offices. Naga were consistently favoured over Kuki by the colonial regime, and their power slowly eroded. Note: This shield is made from the hide of the Mithun or Gaur (Bos gaurus gaurus) - not buffalo as stated elsewhere. Relevant Reading: Gait, E.A. (1905) A History of Assam. Calcutta: Thacker, Spink & Co. Shakespear, J. (1912) The Lushei Kuki Clans. London: Macmillan & Co. Hutton, J.H. (1928) The Significance of Head-Hunting in Assam. In: Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain & Ireland, Vol.73, No.1, pp.101-6. Singh, K.S. (1998) India’s Communities: H-M. Delhi: Oxford University Press. Research Conducted for DCF Cutting Edge 2006/2007 [AM].

Search terms: Weapon, Shield