Hornbill Festival is a celebration of unity between the 16+ tribes here in Nagaland.
in NorthEast India.
And don't worry. These tribal people are not like the North Sentinelese
They are friendly. We are gonna be fine.
You might have seen this in the news recently.
And I find that NorthEast India is often overlooked by tourists and by Indians alike.
Because it's remote. It's hard to travel.
But these things come with their benefits, right?
So it's the most untouched part of India.
It's the most natural part of India.
Some will say it's the most beautiful part of India.
And it's also the most culturally different part of India.
It's so different to North and South India.
You will be really surprised when you come here, how different it is.
So let's go celebrate the tribal culture.
Let's get sucked into the food, let's get sucked into the dance and whatever else we can find.
So there's a government official: the tourist police.
And what they are doing is.. they are handing out Bibles to every single person who enters Hornbill Festival
and I've heard about Christians converting people in the NorthEast India.
But I didn't know it was like that. I didn't know the government was involved in it as well.
So.. yeah I took the Bible and I was like, "what is this?"
And I realized what it was and I gave it back to them so they can give it to somebody else who would actually read it.
But like I said in my other video, my schooling was all Christian and Catholic schooling so..
I never studied anyway.
Wait, why did you take the Bible? You are a Hindu.
Manu: I didn't know it was the Bible. I thought it was a tourist brochure or something.
Karl: How do you feel about them giving out Bibles here? To you...
Manu: It should not be the government officials doing it. I mean, if someone else does it, fine but...
Karl: India is secular, right?
Manu: It is. Karl: So they say. So they say.
We are in the tribal village right now
and this whole Hornbill Festival is separated up into three or four different kind of parts
So there's the craft market, there's the food court, there's a performance stage and then there's a traditional Nagaland type village.
Each of the tribes has been given their own house
where they can sell their own wares or cook food or dance and can just show off their culture.
So you can see them right behind me, right now.
This is one of the tribe's houses before me.
Because we are so high up in the mountains here in the NorthEast of India, it gets cold so quickly.
And the sun sets at like 5 pm. It feels so weird to be that dark at 5 pm.
It feels like 10 pm at 5 pm. It's a really strange feeling.
I'm gonna put a jumper on now. It's freezing.
Hornbill Festival is such a unique experience to discover all these unique Indian tribes.
Like a lot of people don't even realize that there are tribal people here in India.
And the way they do things is just so different and nice and so interesting to see.
Their ** is different. Everything is different.
And the girls.. don't tell my girlfriend this, okay? They are cute here.
Okay so I found the Government of India here at Hornbill Festival.
and one thing I noticed that was different here in Nagaland was the amount of equal opportunity here.
So I saw a lot of women and I just don't see it that much in Delhi so...
Like I saw women who are mainly controlling the traffic here in the city of Kohima.
And you have got a lot of women tourist police as well.
Yeah, just noticed a real balance in the genders here when it comes to work.
And I'm told that is.. it's not unique to Nagaland but it's something that you will notice here straightaway.
They here in Nagaland are also promoting all the different sectors like IT, medical
and they are trying to upskill the Nagaland people here as well.. the Government of India.
So on the first day of Hornbill, not a lot actually happens.
There's mainly speeches all afternoon from government people and it's really really boring.
Then they receive the chief guest who comes in with a big pomp and this sure is a BJP politician.
So yeah if you are coming, you don't need to arrive until the second day.
That's when it all really kicks off.
And Hornbill, it goes on for another 9 days. It's a 10 day long festival.
How did you guys like that dancing? It's so unique.
and this is the only place where you're gonna find all these tribes performing together, here at Hornbill. You've got to come here.
They are letting off muskets behind me.
Karl: Hi. How are you? Local: Fine. Karl: Where did you get these guns from? Tourist: These are ancient guns. Karl: Ancient guns?
So they are loading the guns with these gunpowder
He is making sure the powder goes down the.. I guess you call it muzzle.
And the trigger's gonna hit and explode the gunpowder basically.
Then you got to compact the gunpowder with this.. these old school English type guns... rifles.
Hang on. Guns are gonna go off guys. You're gonna get a fright.
Okay so those aren't British guns. These are Indian made guns.
The tribes are making them here.
Karl: Hi. Which tribe are you from? Women: (inaudible). Karl: Which tribe? Women: Phom. Karl: Phom? Women: Yes.
Karl: Okay. Jai Phom! (Victory to Phom)
Karl: And what is this? Rice beer? Women: (inaudible and laughing)
Karl: Food.
Everything is funny to these women.
I think they had a little bit too much to drink, eh?
Okay. A little bit only. Very nice.
Everything's funny. I love it.
Cheers!
They are so so smashed. Good for them. They are enjoying.
It's lunchtime here at the moment and this is a small village hut.
And they are eating chicken, rice, a kind of spinach
Then they've got a couple of grapes and this porridge kind of a rice mixture.
And I think it's called gholar but don't quote me on that.
Karl: Marijn, I need your review of Hornbill Festival. How was it? Do you recommend it?
Marijn: It's totally tribal.
Yeah.. I don't know. So many people and colors and.. beautiful.
Karl: Have you ever seen anything like this before? Marijn: No, never.
Karl: It's unique? Marijn: Yeah yeah, definitely. I mean look at that.
Just.. I have no idea what they are doing. Making a canoe kind of thing? Karl: Looks like.
And just tell me I got one more question for you. Marijn: Yeah.
Karl: Is India incredible? Marijn: Oh yeah. It's more than incredible. It's mind blowing.
Let's do some shopping now, friends. Let's see what kind of crafts we can find here.
So craft wise, you've got a lot of flax work. You've got a lot of bead work in the jewelry, you can see.
And then we've got a lot of wood work here as well.
These earrings here are my favorite. Check out how beautiful these are.
Try the short red ones.. these ones. Right?
Manu: Her mom made them. Karl: Wow.
These are traditional kind of Nagaland earrings. I've seen a lot of girls wearing these.
As soon as you put them on, you start looking like a Nagaland chick.
Ay, it's cute.
So these tribal crafts, they consist of a lot of wood work.. a lot of bead work in the jewelry.
Then they've got a lot of shawls, warm shawls, because it's really cold here.
Then you've got some flax work as well.
Baskets made of flax and it's all made from the vegetation that you can find here in NorthEast India.
This is also something special from Manipur and this is black clay pottery.
It really.. it feels like metal. I don't know if that's because it's so cold here but doesn't feel like clay at all.
It is really really sturdy, really strong.
So there is a reason it feels so strong. It's clay and black stones.
I'm guessing where the black comes from: the stone. And that's why it feels so strong, this pottery.
What do you like here, Manu? What's your favorite thing that you found?
These are cool na? Like let me show you how smooth they are inside.
Super smoothly carved inside there. And they are actually usable. They are not just for ornaments.
Karl: What are these for?
Local: For chopping meat, cutting trees, machetes...
Karl: Machetes na? Local: Yes
What did you just say to me?
You are crazy. She is crazy. She just said she is gonna slice my throat with this.
I'm not an animal. You can't eat me.
This is the hornbill bird which the festival is named after and it's actually endangered.
Very very beautiful. Hope we get to see one.
I'm not usually that good a shopper. I hate shopping so
I'll always, you'll find me sitting in the corner of the mall like, wherever I could find a chair so I don't have to walk around and watch people try clothes on.
Boring. I had to send her on her own shopping. I don't go.
I've had an amazing and totally unique time here in Hornbill Festival.
You can't find this anywhere else. This is Incredible India.
And I really hope that Indian tribes are protected, that their culture is protected
and that it grows and that it's not destroyed by modern life, by modern ways of living, by modern construction
Despite modern everything, I really hope they can preserve their light and their culture.
And we can continue to celebrate and enjoy it with them. Jai Hind!