A Celebration of Indigenous Tradition: Hornbill Festival and Naga Identity

Nagaland, a state in Northeast India, is home to diverse indigenous tribes with their customs, festivals and lifestyles. In this region, the rich Naga heritage is vividly displayed through the Hornbill Festival. The Hornbill Festival is one of Nagaland's cultural and tourist attractions, showcasing its unique customs. The Hornbill Festival is a renowned celebration of the Naga people's traditions in the region. The festival represents more than tourists visiting—it highlights how the Naga people stay connected to their culture and traditions. Over the years, it has become a place where people preserve their traditional practices, narrate their experiences, play and sing folk music, dance, and teach craft-making skills, passing them on to one another and to the younger generation. It shows how the festival brings together tradition and modernity, giving young Nagas a chance to understand their past while integrating into the contemporary world. This paper will discuss the importance of the Hornbill Festival, emphasizing its role in maintaining Naga cultural identity in the northeast. The objective of the paper is to examine how the Hornbill Festival helps preserve the Naga's cultural heritage. Using the observation method, the focus interview method and secondary data, the paper analyses this cultural event. Furthermore, it investigates the Hornbill Festival as a means of intergenerational knowledge exchange and the retention of traditional practices.

Cultural identity, Naga tribes, Hornbill Festival, Indigenous culture, Cultural heritage

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