-: Orissa Tribes :-

Tribes of orissa:

BONDOs:

The high hills located towards the remote south western tip of malkangiri uplands and the north west of river machkund in the district of koraput are inhabited by sparesely populated primitive tribes .The bondos are one of them and the hills on which they live are called the bondos hills. Though few in numbers the tribes have successfully retained the distinctive features of its culture , chiefly on account of geographical isolation and more perhaps due to its stubborn and independent spirit.Their language is called remo which comes under Austro -asiatic language belonging to mundari group.

Some of the most srikking feature of the Bondo tribes are
rude and ruthless manner of expression , spirit of independence and sense of freedom, dormitory organisation, excessive drinking of palm wine, criminal propensity and unconventional dress pattern.

The bondos women with their clean shaven head decorated with headband of palmyra strips and plated fillets of caryota fibre stand out in sharp contrast with women of other tribal groups having long hair arranged in attractive buns.Mass of coloured beads and shell strings, brass neck rings and necklace hanging down even below the naval and the brass bangles covering the whole of the lower arms in both the hands are the typical ornamentations of the bondo women.

The bondos use scanty clothes to cover the lower private parts of the body only. The dress of a bondo women is remarkable ."Gosi" a loin cloth of three feet in length and 1.5 feet in width is used by a male, where as a female use "Ringa" or "Nadi" of about two feet in length and one ft in width .It is striped and coloured cloth tied to the waist thread(Thumiya).The bondo women using their indegenious loom weave ringa out of karenga fibre collected from the forests.Urprisingly enough the bondos women present a great similarity in their adornment with the Turkana women who live miles and miles away in a desert to the west of lake Turkana in Ethiopia.

In sharp contrast to all other tribal communities the bondo lay major emphasis on individual and its character and personality.They live in a hard unyielding hilly region and exhibit a great skill in keeping themselves to themselves.They love independence to the core of their heart.A bondo regards himself as equal to any man on earth.In contrast to such an independent laden personality the bondos have a few negetive virtues.They are dreaded for their ill mannered aggressiveness , bad temper and homicidal tendency.They are very fond of drinking and it is only when a bondo is fully drunk that he bubbles in fury , becomes unmannerly to the extreme and hurls his knife and draws the bowstring to release his arrow at t he target.

Marriage is the most important stage of the life cycle of the bondos.In the bondo society the boys and gals go to their respective dormitories to sleep at night.The bondo dormitory is chiefly a sort of matrimonial agency.Young boys are allowed to visit the girls's dormitories of different villages at night and join in fun music and dance with

girls of such villages that gives them an opportunity to establish intimacy with marraigeable girls and select their sweet heart . The most interesting features in a bondo marriage is that the wife is older than the husband.When the wife grows old the husbands are found at times intriguing with the younger brother's wife.This leads to family quarrel and divorce.Disparity in age also leads to polygamy in some cases in later years.The bondos religion at present is a mixture of hinduism and animism.They have firm faith in their supreme deity " patakhanda mahaprabhu" whom they consider to be the creator of universe.

The bondos believe in the efficacy of magic and sorcery.Shamans are the oracular practisioners who with the help ofrice -divination detect the spirit , communicate with them in trance and offer ritual and sacrifices.They also practice black magic secretly.These shamans have their individual guardians spirits whom they appease with periodical offerings. THe bondos observe various festivals like BONDAPUN or KUREE in the month of generally june and july, push parab in the month december -january,magha parab in the month of january- february and chaita parab in the month of march-april.The bondos are mostly agriculturist .It is required to obtain special permit for visiting the bondo tribes

Orissa Tribes

1.The Kondhs

2.The Parajas

3.The Bondos

4.Souras

5. Gadabas