Tattooed Women of Naga #2
archival digital print
22” x 26” (framed)
2008
$495
Tattooed Women of Naga #4
archival digital print
22” x 26” (framed)
2012
$495
In a location, between nowhere and somewhere, live villages of hill people that belong to the Sino-Tibetan classification of mankind. For ease of conversation, often these people are called the Nagas. Their environment is the Arakan Mountains. The Arakan Mountains run from Cape Negrais in the south to the Manipur State of India in the north. They include the Naga Hills and the Chin Hills. Because of the arbitrary lines drawn when India was given its independence, the Seven Sister States of NE India are at a cultural loss being as they are of Tibetan-Burmese heritage. As for Burma, Chin State also is not ethnically aligned with the largest segment, the Bamar. In 2008, I was planning a trip to Burma/Myanmar. In the Lonely Planet guidebook there was one sentence that spoke of the existence of tattooed women in the state of Chin. Being an ever-curious person, I decided I needed to go there.