About Mising Culture
Folk songs
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Mibu A:bangs
Mibu A:bangs, the earliest variety of Mising folk songs, are rhapsodic chants of a Mibu, the medicine man amongst Misings. Such chants tell us tales of creation of the universe, of living and non-living things on earth, of human and supernatural beings, of early humans, of Mising genealogy, etc. At the time of Mibu dagnam, i.e. a performance by a Mibu, he invokes supernatural spirits through his chants to help him go through his performance smoothly and
successfully and goes on to narrate stories of the past, describing also the events and environment of his journey to the supernatural world to learn about the past, the present or the future of individuals, families or the community. A Mibu used to be requested to perform for a village community as a whole on occasions of festivals such as Po:rag, but mostly he used to be requested in the past to perform to undertake a communion with supernatural spirits when a person was seriously ill, and his function on the latter occasion was to see if he could woo back the yalo, the soul-like life-supporting entity of a human being, which is supposed to be on a journey to the world of the dead, as a person falls seriously ill. The invocation part of a Mibu A:bang is usually non-rhythmic, followed by rhythmic singing to the accompaniment of a jingling yoksa, the sword of the Mibu. Parts of the diction of Mibu A:bangs are a little obscure for present-day speakers of the Mising language, and need careful interpretation. It may be noted that the Adis of Arunachal Pradesh and the Misings share much of the repertoire of Mibu A:bangs. |
