Lummer Dai, a pioneer in Assamese writings from Arunachal inspired Padma Shri awardee Yeshe DorjeeThongchi,who loves to wear Arunachalijackets, speak in his mother tongue Sherdukpen, a dialect spoken by a few thousand people in Arunachal Pradesh and loves to scribble in Assamese. In 2005 he was awarded Padma Shri for his Assamese novel Mauna OuthMukharHriday. A pass out of Gauhati University and the then Cotton College Yeshe ThongchiDorjeehas contributed profusely to the Assamese language and literature. His poetic debut was Jonbai. His first poem Jonbai was published in 1967 in an Assamese children’s magazine of the same name He gains immense popularity amongst the readers for the unique background of his writings. In 1977 he was appointed as Arunachal Pradesh Civil Service Officer.He was inducted to the Indian Administrative Service in 1992. Bottom of FormThongchi, a prolific writer from the West Kameng district of Arunachal Pradesh, took up writing in Assamese since his childhood days. The 66-year-old started his literary career with an Assamese poem called Jonbai which was published in 1967 in an Assamese children’s magazine, followed by several works of literature and one-act plays in Assamese.
He has also been honoured with several awards including the prestigious Sahitya Akademi Award, It is really wonderful that a writer from a different culture embraces another wholeheartedly. Quite naturally recognitionsdeluged him. He won the Kalaguru Bishnu Rabha Literary Award from Asam Sahitya Sabha in 2001. The Government of Assam conferred on him Sukapha Award- Govt of Assam 2021. Assam Valley Literary Award was given to him by Williamson Magor Educational Trust Kolkata in 2017. Bhasha Bharati Award was presented to him by the Central Institute of Indian languages (CIIL) Mysore in 2005.Besides theAcharya Hazari Prasad Dwivedi Samman from Hindi Parishad, he got theBodosa Award-Special Achievement Award (Literature)-Buddhist Cultural Preservation Society Sadin-PratidinGosthi Special Achievement Award (Literature and Journalism). DrBhupen Hazarika Sanhati Bota 2016 by Dr Bhupen Hazarika Trust, Kolkata-Guwahati RangbangTerangSamanyay Award-2018, DrMaidul Islam Bora literary Award, 2014, LakhiminathBezbaruah Literary Award 2018, Phulchand Khandelwal Sanghati Bata award, Basudev Jalan Award from Asam Sahitya Sabha, Bhupen Hazarika National Award 2017 from Sarhad (a Pune based NGO) and Dibrugarh University conferred on him DLitt (Honoris Causa)
Thongchi has to his credit more than 13 books of multiple genres– including eight novels, three folk tales, travelogues autobiography and the novel Sonam, was converted to state’s first celluloid film. He is also working on his four short story collections. Sonam, Lingjhik, BihKanyardeshat,Saw kata Manuh,Mishing,Moi Akoujanamlom, Paporpukhuri translated as A Sinful of Pond, Bah FularGundh translated as The Smell of Bamboo Blossoms for which eminent writer Aruni Kashyap recently won South Asian Literary Award, ,Anya Ekhanpratiyugita,Dhar aru AnanyaGalpa, KamengSimantar Sadhu, SherdukpenJanajatirItibritya,DhuniyaManuharDhuniyaDeshat (Travel to South Korea).He was also popular for his translation -Sainikar Senapati (Translation of Gen. JJSingh's autobiography `The Soldier's General') Prabahat Mukta Jiwan (Translation of His Holiness Dalai Lama's autobiography Freedom in Exile with his foreword),Bodhucharyavatara (Translation of Acharya Shantideva's Sanskrit Buddhist classic of sixth century in poetic form) Heart to Heart (Translation of Lummer Dai's Assamese novel Mon aru Mon)His autobiography HanhiaruSakulorSaisav (First part of autobiography) was widely read.
Arunachal, with its rich folksongs, folklores, songs and dances has enough depth and variety to encourage creative writing, drama, fiction, poetry, novel.
According to Thongchi, “The art of writing Assamese literature is dying a slow death in Arunachal Pradesh” Here he seems to ruminate on the bygone days when Arunachal Pradesh was in Assam. At that time Assamese literature was enriched by writers of Arunachal Pradesh and today youngsters are choosing English and Hindi as their language of preference over Assamese for their literary ventures. The Northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh was once known as North-East Frontier Agency (NEFA), which was created in 1954, and was later renamed as Arunachal Pradesh in 1972. Interestingly, Assamese was the medium of instruction in NEFA schools in those days and acted as a lingua franca among the illiterate masses, which explains the reason behind the people belonging to the 1950s being fluent in Assamese.Invasion of Hindi which is recognised as the medium of instruction pushed back Assamese in the cultural field in Arunachal Pradesh. Thongchis are the few lone writers struggling to popularize Assamese literature in Arunachal Pradesh. ‘Nefamese’, a local style of Assamese unique to Arunachal is now becoming popular. Thongchi always loves to admire the literary zest of Assamese litterateurs
Yeshe DorjeeThongchi, was born 71 years ago on June 13 in 1952 to TashiPhuntsuThongchi and RinchinChojomThongchi of Sherdukpen community in remote Jigaon village in West Kameng district.Though he began his career as a circle officer in 1977 and EAC in 1980 to be inducted into IAS in 1992, he became the second longest serving deputy commissioner of India. Even today one recalls his landmark judgement that “No outsider can own land in Arunachal other than indigenous Arunachalees.”Thongchi gained immense popularity among the readers for uniqueness of his writing style of using simple language followed by the masses. That was why Thongchi was instrumental in forming Arunachal Pradesh Literary Society and was its founder president in 2006.No one ever dreamt that Yeshe DorjeeThongchi, would turn into one of the greatest literary lights of India. Arunachal Pradesh is a unifying abode of diverse ethnic communities following their own distinct tongues and cultures. There are 26 major tribes and hundreds of sub tribes with more than 90 languages being spoken. But amidst this plurality, there is one common feature among all the communities, that is that they are great storytellers They do not have any authorised script of their own, they preserved their stories of time in their memories and disseminated them through oral tradition. This is how they were passed down to subsequent generations..Out of these ThongchiDorjee rose to prominence as a story teller and his contribution to literature was recognised countrywide.Following the great event of conferring of DLitt,in an interview with B.C Borah Joint Registrar of Dibrugarh University,Thongchi said that he had to overcome many problems of communication and conveyance and it was his deep love for Assamese literature that made all his writings possible. As a student of Gauhati University he read Assamese literature. He also referred to one incident during his study of Law while he was a government official at Itanagar. He was asked for anexplanation as to why he did not take prior permission for studying law under a college of Dibrugarh University.. That time he was discriminated but he was very happy in getting the highest degree of Dibrugarh University. In a lighter tone he said many that many addressed him as Doctor though he was not so, but now he was the winner of an Honorary D.Litt. degree.
The diversity of Arunachal Pradesh was seen by him from very close quarters and this was also a secret of his success as a writer.Carl Sagan once wrote,“ Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people who never knew each other, citizens of distant epochs. Books break the shackles of time.“Thongchi proved that “A book is a proof that humans are capable of working magic in this binding together.”
Dr Ratan Bhattacharjee, an International Visiting faculty USA, is a trilingual columnist and poet. Hecan be reached at profratanbhattacharjee@gmail.com