Villagers of Jajikona Village introduce themselves and describe the festival, Jali Putuli Haba, or 'wedding of fake idols'. This is a traditional festival of the Bodo community, but not so common nowadays. It is still found in the Kamrup District of Assam, for example in Jajikona (Jarkona) village. The villagers believe that this festival is still rewarding. Here, two idols, bride and groom, made of straw are decorated with new clothes, colors, and garlands. Certain rituals are performed by the elderly people accompanied by music, song and dance while decorating the idols at one of the households. The main celebration takes place the next day when the idols are placed auspiciously within a cage specially built with banana trees and its barks. It is celebrated in an open field where all the villagers gather, offer prayers, and sing and dance in merriment to invoke and seek blessings from God. They believe that this particular ritual is performed in the name of Rain God, Deba Bwrai and Debi Burwi, Rawna and Rawni (Thunder and Lightening) for sufficient rain and good crops before they start farming activities in Summer.

Photograph of two Srinagar Burushaski speakers: Hasina (left) an Zamrooda Begum (AKA 'Mimi')

Photograph of Dr. Sadaf Munshi with Raja Jamsheed Ali Khan, a Srinagar Burushaski speaker.

Photograph of Raja Jamsheed Ali Khan and Hasina, two Srinagar Burushaski speakers.

Photograph of Dr. Sadaf Munshi with Hasina Safdar, a Srinagar Burushaski speaker

Photograph of Raja Jamsheed Ali Khan, a Srinagar Burushask speaker.

Photograph of Srinagar Burushaski speaker Hasina with field assistant Abul Hassan

Photograph of the neighbourhood in Srinagar where majority of the Burushaski speakers are settled. The historic Hariparbat Fort is visible on the horizon.

Photograph of Mahrukh Zahra, a young Srinagar Burushaski speaker.

Photograph of Safdar and Mehboob, Srinagar Burushaski speakers Raja Safdar Ali Khan and Raja Mehboob Ali Khan.

This document outlines the framework between the United States and India in relation to security and defense. Shared interests are discussed in the documents which include: maintaining peach and security; defeating terrorism and violent extremism; preventing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction; supporting a rule-based order, protecting the free flow of commerce.

Season dance performed at festivals

Houjahen Haokip, a male speaker from Manipur (currently living in Lambung) explains the belief of God and the various spirits. He is 85 at the time of recording. The Thadou believed in the existence of both the supreme God who is in control of everything and the various spirits who inflict sickness when they are instigated by human beings who cannot see the spirits with their naked eyes.

Houjahen Haokip, a male speaker from Manipur (currently living in Lambung) explains birth ceremonies in Thadou. He is also a speaker of Manipuri. He is 85 at the time of recording. When a baby is born, friends and relatives visit and give gifts. A priest blesses the child and gives them the name of their grandfather, whichever of their grandfathers lived the longest life.

Houjahen Haokip, a male speaker from Manipur (currently living in Lambung) explains marriage ceremonies in Thadou. He is also a speaker of Manipuri. He is 85 at the time of recording. The man must approach the parents of the bride with a pot of wine and ask permission to marry their daughter. Then they set a date, and the families offer an animal (often, a mithun) for the ceremony.

Group discussion about ongoing language documentation activities in the Rabha community.

Syllable Tapping Experiment with speaker Dina Sankhil Lamkang and Melissa Robinson as the experimental lead. The experiment was intended to determine speaker intuition about syllable structure in words with multiple prefixes.

Melissa Robinson eliciting minimal pairs with Rengshing Dilbung, Koko at Hyderabad.

Melissa Robinson eliciting compound words with William Shilshi. Recorded at the Indian Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad, India.

A conversation about directional words and various other constructions in Lamkang at IIIT-Hyderabad.

Tyler Utt eliciting the paradigm of the verb 'know' with Sumshot Khular.

Syllable Tapping Experiment with speaker Jessie Sankhil Lamkang and Melissa Robinson as the experimental lead. The experiment was intended to determine speaker intuition about syllable structure in words with multiple prefixes.

Recording of Dina Shankhil Lamkang telling her version of the Pear Story.

Recording of Rengshing Dilbung and William Shilshi's version of The Pear Story, recorded at Hyderabad.