The Angh

The Angh.

An “Angh” rules each village. He is the sole authority in the village and held in high esteem by his villagers and hold immense power in his village and other subordinate villages. There are altogether seven “Chief Anghs” within the Mon District, namely (a) Mon (b) Chui (c) Shengha Chingnyu (d) Longwa (e) Shangnyu (f) Jaboka and (g) Tangnyu. The Chief Anghs of these villages rule over a group of sattelite villages under them, some of which are in Arunachal Pradesh with 54 villages and 87 villages in Myanmar. All these villages are Konyak villages having strong customary and traditional relationship with the rest of the 110 villages of the Mon District having no land dispute

between the villages and are all under the umbrella of the Konyak Union. The Angh of a village is assisted in his task by the Deputy Anghs of each Morung (Pan) and the elders or Gaon Burras. Each village has a ruling clan and commoner clan or the “Pen” clan. The members of a clan are bound by blood-ties and so inter-marriage is prevented. But they can marry a boy or a girl of other clans. The Anghs belong to the ruling clan. A heir to the post can take any girl from other clans as his wife, but he has to marry a princess of another village as his real wife. The other wives are treated as his concubines and their children cannot claim to become the Angh. The Anghs practice polygamy and can have a number of wives. But only the eldest son of a real princess has the right to inherit his paternal property and to be adorned as the Angh after his father’s death. The village has a strong administrative body – the Village Council. The members of the Village Council administer law and maintain order in the village.

For administrative convenience, each village is divided into a number of “Morungs” or “Pan”. It is an institution for training youths in discipline, nationalistic feelings, safeguarding the village from intruders and for efficient execution of tasks during emergencies etc.

Morungs are men’s dormitory, which is in hierarchical order. The unmarried youths assemble in the evenings and discuss about important matters pertaining to their socio-economic, political and day-to-day aspect of life.