{"id":"NAGA-002","label":"Konyak Shiong boys' toy bullroarer","people_or_site":"Konyak / Shiong village","country_current":"India","historic_region":"Naga Hills / present Nagaland","macroregion":"South Asia / Northeast India","local_name":"","source_term":"bull-roarer","source_language":"English","object_description":"Wooden bullroarer with cane handle, notches and incised decoration","function_summary":"A boys' toy at Shiong, becoming obsolete by 1923. In the Konyak villages of Tamlu and Wakching the morung boys whirled bull-roarers to bring thunder and rain.","attestation_type":"museum_specimen","source_key":"NAGA_COL51_C623","source_type":"cambridge_naga_database","source_url":"https://wwwe.lib.cam.ac.uk/nagas/coll/51/records/detail/coll/from_500.html","page_or_plate":"collection listing C623","map_confidence":"medium_high","plot_status":"plot_with_caveat","coordinate_basis":"Shiong village/locality anchor, Mon, Nagaland; GeoNames populated place 8432513, consistent with Shiyong on NESAC (2010) Fig.3; not an exact collection findspot or museum location. GeoNames: CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"When the Konyak wanted rain, the boys made it. At Tamlu, Christoph von Fürer-Haimendorf was told in 1936, there was no real rain ceremony: the boys of the morung, the young men's house, cut bull-roarers from bamboo and swung them, and the sky answered with the same noise — thunder, then rain. At Wakching the morung boys whirled roarers of flat wood. This 43-centimetre blade from Shiong, fitted with a cane handle and worked with notches and incised decoration, was collected by J. P. Mills in October 1923, when the toy was already passing out of Konyak boyhood.","pull_quote":"A boy's toy now becoming obsolete.","pull_quote_translation":"","pull_quote_cite":"Cambridge Naga Database, record R10540 (Konyak, Shiong; coll. J. P. Mills, 18 October 1923; Pitt Rivers Museum 1928.69.606)","term_gloss":"","cls":"play_practical","class_label":"Play / practical","color":"#24766D","is_candidate":false,"flags":["weather","toy_survival"],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":false,"f_women_special":false,"f_snake":false,"sources":[{"citation":"University of Cambridge, The Nagas database, collection listing C623, record R10540, Konyak, Shiong","url":"https://wwwe.lib.cam.ac.uk/nagas/coll/51/records/detail/coll/from_500.html","archive":"https://web.archive.org/web/20261013024023/https://wwwe.lib.cam.ac.uk/nagas/coll/51/records/detail/coll/from_500.html"},{"citation":"Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford, object 1928.69.606, J. P. Mills collection"},{"citation":"Christoph von Fürer-Haimendorf, Naga notebook six, 'Rain making,' Tamlu/Wakching, 28 August 1936, SOAS Library; Cambridge The Nagas, record R70361","url":"https://wwwe.lib.cam.ac.uk/nagas/record/r70361.html","archive":"https://web.archive.org/web/20261013024155/https://wwwe.lib.cam.ac.uk/nagas/record/r70361.html"},{"citation":"Christoph von Fürer-Haimendorf, Naga diary one, 28 August 1936 (trans. Ruth Barnes); Cambridge The Nagas, record R67962","url":"https://wwwe.lib.cam.ac.uk/nagas/record/r67962.html","archive":"https://web.archive.org/web/20261013024138/https://wwwe.lib.cam.ac.uk/nagas/record/r67962.html"}],"source_citations":"University of Cambridge, The Nagas database, collection listing C623, record R10540, Konyak, Shiong; Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford, object 1928.69.606, J. P. Mills collection; Christoph von Fürer-Haimendorf, Naga notebook six, 'Rain making,' Tamlu/Wakching, 28 August 1936, SOAS Library; Cambridge The Nagas, record R70361; Christoph von Fürer-Haimendorf, Naga diary one, 28 August 1936 (trans. Ruth Barnes); Cambridge The Nagas, record R67962","source_display":"University of Cambridge, The Nagas database, collection listing C623, record R10540, Konyak, Shiong; Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford, object 1928.69.606, J. P. Mills collection; Christoph von Fürer-Haimendorf, Naga notebook six, 'Rain making,' Tamlu/Wakching, 28 August 1936, SOAS Library; Cambridge The Nagas, record R70361; Christoph von Fürer-Haimendorf, Naga…","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"Wooden bullroarer with cane handle, notches and incised decoration","function_display":"A boys' toy at Shiong, becoming obsolete by 1923. In the Konyak villages of Tamlu and Wakching the morung boys whirled bull-roarers to bring thunder and rain.","confidence_display":"medium to high","attestation_label":"museum specimen","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"konyak","display_name":"Konyak Shiong boys' toy bullroarer","image":{"full":"assets/objects/BATCH3-004.jpeg","thumb":"assets/objects/BATCH3-004_thumb.jpg","alt":"Konyak Naga bullroarer from Shiong village, PRM 1928.69.606: a pale flat wooden blade, a cord loop at its end and a long slender stick laid beside it.","credit":"Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford (1928.69.606); Cambridge Naga Exploratour","license":"In copyright — Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford; rehosted low-res for non-commercial research","source_page":"https://wwwe.lib.cam.ac.uk/nagas/objects/c623.html","rehosted":true,"representative":false,"caption":"Konyak Naga bull-roarer, Shiong village. PRM 1928.69.606.","additional":[{"full":"assets/objects/review_2026_07_18/NAGA-002_prm_1928_69_607.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/review_2026_07_18/thumbs/NAGA-002_prm_1928_69_607_thumb.jpg","credit":"© Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford (acc. 1928.69.607)","license":"© Pitt Rivers Museum — non-commercial/educational reuse with attribution","source_page":"https://prm.ox.ac.uk/collections-online#/item/prm-object-39611","rehosted":true,"representative":false,"caption":"The complete Shiong rig: notched pale blade and long cane handle, still strung with plaited cord (PRM 1928.69.607)."}]},"slug":"naga-002-konyak-shiong-village"}