Abort* and Gcdongs : Part III. Personal Narrative of a Visit to Pemakoichen. 



By George D-S-Dunbar. 



[With Plate XU.] 



As the Membas were, until recently, an unknown people, these personal experi- 

 ences on a visit made during June and July 19 13 to Pemakoichen may be of interest. 

 This country is a sleepy hollow in which appear to be crystallized the civilization of 

 Tibet and the customs of Bhotan in a modified form. It is regretted that ignorance 

 of the language and difficulties about an interpreter made systematic investigation 

 impossible ; the results here offered are consequently those of narrowly limited observa- 

 tion during a couple of weeks. With the general description I have included such 

 extracts from my diary that bear upon the country and its people. This diary was 

 invariably written up each day. 



In earlier times the Dihang valley from the gorge, where the Tsanpo breaks 

 through the main range of the Himalayas, down to the foothills of Assam was 

 occupied by the Abors. Of these the Tangam clan held the country on both 

 banks of the river from the gorge to the 29th parallel of latitude. About a hundred 

 years ago a band of emigrants from Darma crossed the main range, it is conjectured 

 by the Doshung-la, and settled in the valley about Marpung, which is probably 

 the oldest settlement. From these adventurers some, at least, of the present inhabi- 

 tants of Pemakoichen are descended. Kinthup calls the people of Pemakoichen 

 " Chingmis ' ' and states that R. N. found them in Bhotan. In calling them Membas 

 we adopt the name by which the Abors know them. 



The colony has gradually spread, ousting the earlier inhabitants from the best 

 land on either bank of the river, but permitting them to remain on their holdings 

 in the unproductive tracts lying immediately below the gorge and about the 29th 

 parallel. Chonying has been a Memba colony for about eight years. In about 1904 

 the Membas came down and drove out the Abors who up to then had lived there. 

 One Abor house still remains in the village It was learnt in Pemakoichen that the 

 ' Ivobas ' used to occupy the left bank as far up as Yarang , but of this colony the 

 solitary house in Chonying alone is left. Puchung, Mongku, Mayum and Korbo are 

 mixed Abor-Memba settlements. The present mixed distribution of Memba and Abor 

 has been further complicated by the occupation of some Tangam settlements on the 

 Yang Sang Chu by Simong colonists in about 1884 and by the founding, about 

 five years ago, of a Po settlement at Nyereng in the same neighbourhood. 



The headman of Nyereng referred to the Tangam people as Lo-karpo, and called 

 the Simong men JUo-nakpo and their women L,o-khapta when he visited our camp at 

 Tuting in 1913. The Membas referred to the Abors as Lobas. The map published 

 by the Survey of India with Kinthup's Narrative shows the Lo-karpo on both banks 

 of the river, in what is the country of the Simong and Bomo-Janbo (Angong) Abors ; 



