Itung Tapheng: Ritual for good harvest of cardamom, millet and maize (12/7/07)

Preparing to offer the first chicken


Holding the three chickens together


The altar with offerings of the two (of three) chickens


Examining a corn cob whilst chanting

Extract from fieldnotes (12/7/07)

Itung Tapheng (ituŋ taphεŋ)
When I arrive he is in the corn/millet terrace closest to his house facing the mountains (east wards) on the same level as the house. He has sprinkled soil on a large stone that lies on the edge of the terrace. On the soil he places four strips of banana leaf. He calls out to Indra B to make sure it is 4 and not 6. He did the puja last year but can't remember perfectly well. He has brought a plate with rice on it, and a bowl with ground corn. There is a bowl of water and he makes a wand with the remaining banana leaf and leans it on the bowl.
The rice is sprinkled on the leaves, an egg is placed on the first leaf (from the left), and corn flour has already been sprinkled on the earth below the leaves in small amounts.
A seat is prepared for IndraB the Pma, on a stool and a woven mat. He sits down, examines the wand and seems satisfied with it. He coughs to clear his throat and begins.

What he does is call in the three spirits that this puja is for. Two males and a female. A big chicken for the mountain spirit of toksombo (male) , and small chickens for tambhungma (female) and siring (male). I'm not sure I have it clear as to who the male and females are.
In any case, during the puja at a certain point he asks Tikka-sir where his alaichi are, he names about 6 places, and IndraB adds another two that Tikka-sir has missed out. He mentions "AlAichi bAri" a few times, as well as mandok and maki (millet and corn). The puja is done around the time of the breaking of corn, where the stems are broken and the corn fruit is picked. This will take place in around a week from now.
During the puja IndraB shakes severely and is almost unable to speak thrice. He puja lasts around 10 minutes outside including the actual killing of the chickens. This is done quickly by holding the neck down against the blade (which faces outwards) of Tika-sirs bampok and quickly cutting the neck whilst holding the body and head apart.
The head is placed on the banana leaf, three heads on the three leaf-strips excluding the one with the egg on it. The body is held up side down to let some blood trickle on the leaf, and then it is let go to run around the field for a few minutes. It is then recovered and aninner feather is pulled out and put on the altar with the chicken heads. The puja then is short, a few more words chanted, and IndraB heads up to the house to drink a tongba (it's absence about which he had jokingly complained about earlier: "they don't give tongba or raksi here....kasto mAnche!".

In the house the chicken feathers are plucked off using hot water and it's innard examined. This tells something about the year to come. There is gland behind the liver, is this the gall-bladder? kwiying (L); पित्ता (N) (which I think is the gallbladder, bile-making gland!). If this is green then all is well. If it is white then the season will be bad. If it is big, good; and small, bad again.
Equally, the small intestine, tomrum (L), is also examined, and if along it's length there is a split, or the intenstine is marked with black lines or a black spot, "there will be a death".