{"id":"NAGA-008","label":"Tangkhul Naga","people_or_site":"Tangkhul Naga","country_current":"Myanmar","historic_region":"Somra Tract, Naga Hills","macroregion":"Southeast Asia / Mainland","local_name":"","source_term":"","source_language":"","object_description":"Mortuary board (PRM 1934.61.1 / 1934.61.2) with twelve bull-roarers suspended alongside wooden blade-ornamented children's skulls; from Somra village.","function_summary":"Twelve bull-roarers form part of a mortuary/skull-display assemblage with ritual character.","attestation_type":"museum_specimen","source_key":"mining2026","source_type":"museum","source_url":"https://prm.ox.ac.uk/collections-online#/item/prm-object-97687","page_or_plate":"acc. 1934.61.1 / 1934.61.2","map_confidence":"high","plot_status":"plot","coordinate_basis":"approximate territory centroid (mining 2026)","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"Among the Tangkhul Naga, a death far from home did not have to remain there. The missionary William Pettigrew recorded that when a person died where the body could not be carried back, the skull was brought to the village, and \"in place of the trunk left behind a piece of wood, generally the wooden pillow of the deceased, is attached to the skull,\" wrapped in cloth \"to represent the whole person.\" A board in the Pitt Rivers Museum keeps that logic close: it carries two children's skulls, each ornamented with a wooden blade, and a fringe of twelve bull-roarers. J. C. Higgins brought it from Somra Khulen, an eastern Tangkhul village on the Burmese side of the Manipur border, and gave it to the museum in 1934.","pull_quote":"The board carrying heads, with row of bull-roarers to rattle in the wind, was found on a ledge on the outside of a wooden house front.","pull_quote_translation":"","pull_quote_cite":"Henry Balfour, caption to a photograph of the board, Pitt Rivers Museum 1998.221.54.1","term_gloss":"","cls":"sacred","class_label":"Sacred / spirit","color":"#8A5A2B","is_candidate":false,"flags":["spirit_voice","death_rebirth"],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":false,"f_women_special":false,"f_snake":false,"sources":[{"citation":"Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford, accession 1934.61.1","url":"https://prm.ox.ac.uk/collections-online#/item/prm-object-97687","archive":"https://web.archive.org/web/20260917174840/https://prm.ox.ac.uk/collections-online#/item/prm-object-39663"},{"citation":"Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford, accession 1934.61.2"},{"citation":"T. C. Hodson, The Naga Tribes of Manipur (London, 1911), pp. 146-147"},{"citation":"Henry Balfour, photograph caption, Pitt Rivers Museum 1998.221.54.1"}],"source_citations":"Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford, accession 1934.61.1; Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford, accession 1934.61.2; T. C. Hodson, The Naga Tribes of Manipur (London, 1911), pp. 146-147; Henry Balfour, photograph caption, Pitt Rivers Museum 1998.221.54.1","source_display":"Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford, accession 1934.61.1; Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford, accession 1934.61.2; T. C. Hodson, The Naga Tribes of Manipur (London, 1911), pp. 146-147; Henry Balfour, photograph caption, Pitt Rivers Museum 1998.221.54.1","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"Mortuary board (PRM 1934.61.1 / 1934.61.2) with twelve bull-roarers suspended alongside wooden blade-ornamented children's skulls; from Somra village.","function_display":"Twelve bull-roarers form part of a mortuary/skull-display assemblage with ritual character.","confidence_display":"high","attestation_label":"museum specimen","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"tangkhul naga","display_name":"Tangkhul Naga","image":{"full":"assets/objects/expansion_2026_07/roy1928_naga_bullroarer_plate.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/expansion_2026_07/thumbs/roy1928_naga_bullroarer_plate_thumb.jpg","alt":"Roy’s 1928 plate of six bull-roarers in use among the Nagas of Assam.","credit":"S. C. Roy, Oraon Religion and Customs (Ranchi, 1928), plate; specimens supplied by J. H. Hutton; scan archive.org dli.ernet.107911","license":"Public domain","source_page":"https://archive.org/details/dli.ernet.107911","rehosted":true,"representative":true,"caption":"Roy’s 1928 plate of six bull-roarers in use among the Nagas of Assam."},"slug":"naga-008-tangkhul-naga"}