Introduction

This is part two of 'Ethnic origin of North Naga' to discuss the plausibility of the 'Dayak' theory implanted by some people.

It is important to understand that the South Naga have a different origin and culture from the North Naga.

Let's compare the similarities or differences between North Naga and Dayak.

Hornbill festival

In ancient times, people usually use the body parts of animals that they hunted for their clothing or head-dress.

The head-dress of North Naga usually includes two pieces of animal tusks whereas the Dayak usually don't include.

Although both North-East India and Borneo have native hornbills but the hornbill types in North-East India are mostly different from the hornbills in Borneo.

The hornbill feathers worn in North Naga head-dress are from the native birds of North-East India and not from the native birds of Borneo.

Another major difference is that when doing the hornbill dance, the Dayak have never held the hands of their dancing partners but the North Naga hold their hands when dancing together; their dancing moves and costumes are also quite different from the Dayak.

Therefore, it can be concluded that the Naga hornbill dance didn't develop from the Dayak hornbill dance.

Headhunting

Headhunting is a primitive culture and shared by many genetically unrelated tribes in the world.

This includes South American native tribes like the Shuar and some European tribes like Scythian and Montenegro. The Shuar people also practice head-hunting and face tattoo.

Shuar tribe with facial tattoo in Amazon River basin

Theoretical migration route

Supposed the Dayak sailed to North East India in ancient times but wouldn't it be nearer to live in Andaman islands, coastal region of North East India or western coast of Myanmar where they traditionally can do fishing like in their homeland in Borneo.

However, there were never any Austronesian tribes found in the imaginary migration path through Andaman islands, coastal region of North East India and western coast of Myanmar recorded in history which refutes this theory.

In ancient times, the Austronesians travelled by boats so they must travel via the sea-route from Borneo to Singapore which is about 1500 km; Singapore to Andaman island which is about 1700 km; Andaman island to Assam which is about 1600 km. Therefore, the total distance from Borneo to Assam is about 5000 km.

Compare this long distance to the short distance from the homeland of the proto-Sino-Tibetan (eastern Qinghai) to Brahmaputra River basin which is only around 1000 km.

Ancient Austronesian live in coastal region

Furthermore, living up in the Naga hills doesn't make sense when the coastal region was supposed to be nearer to their homeland and would be a better place to live in terms of livelihood and weather.

Ancient Austronesians typically live in the coastal areas before modern roads were built. Until recently, Borneo has a lot of empty land far from the coast where it is sparsely populated. The Austronesians prefer to sail far away to the coastal region of the islands of Indonesia(Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi) and New Zealand where there is plenty of sea water and fishes.

Typical Austronesian villages in ancient times

Language family

Many Austronesian people have migrated far but they still retain their language after many thousand of years like the Cham people in Vietnam, the Utsul people in Hainan for more than 1000 years.

Supposed there is a slight chance that the Dayak adopted the language of the Boro-Garo people; however, there are no Austronesian substratum found in the North Naga languages so the absence of any Dayak words refutes this theory.

Furthermore, why would the Austronesian adopt an obscure minor Sino-Tibetan language such as Naga language instead of more dominant languages such as Burmese, Tibetan or Chinese which would be more logical.

The North Naga language belongs to the Sino-Tibetan language family whereas the Dayak language belongs to the Austronesian language family. The North Naga languages are closest to the languages of the Boro-Garo people who are the natives of Brahmaputra River basin in close proximity to Naga hills.

The Naga's early recorded homeland before they went up the hills is consistent with fact that the Boro-Garo-Northern Naga people were the earliest natives of Brahmaputra basin.

Traditional places

In ancient times, all the Sino-Tibetan people traditionally live on the mountains of Tibetan plateau and migrated along the many rivers flowing from it. Whereas the Austronesians traditionally live on islands and along coastal region of mainland.

Sino-Tibetan versus Austronesian distribution

Log-drums

Boats made from tree trunks are common among various genetically unrelated cultures around the world as a mean for transport along the sea and rivers; and also to make some drums.

The log drum in Nagaland is considerably different and larger from the log drum in Borneo which is much smaller. The beat and rhythm are also different.

The video below shows the Dayak log drum.

Compare with the long log drum of the North Naga.

Physical genetics

From the physical genetics such as facial features, the North Naga are closer to the subrace of Central East Asian whereas the Dayak are closer to the subrace of South East Asian. Refer to the article on 'Subraces of East Asians'.

Conclusion

Let's look at which factors the North Naga match in the table below.

Factors	North Naga	Dayak
Language	Sino-Tibetan	Austronesian
Distance from homeland to Nagaland	1000 km (homeland western Sichuan)	5000 km (homeland Borneo)
Traditional places	Mountain people	Sea people
Head-dress	Indian hornbill	Borneo hornbill
Subrace	Central East Asian	South East Asian

The North Naga matches more factors with the Sino-Tibetan people than the Austronesian people.

In conclusion, primitive cultures could develop independently of each other based on their natural environment among genetically unrelated tribes in the world.

However, some people have the misconception of a Dayak origin for the North Naga based on superficial similarities without looking at its language classification, history, legend, detailed aspects of its culture, facial features and plausible migration route.

East Asian origin, history, language, culture

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Ethnic origin of North Naga Part 2 in Northeast India