Dimasa Erotic

The Dimasa, also called Dimasa Kachari, are a Bodo-Kachari people of Assam in northeast India, living mainly in the Dima Hasao district and parts of Cachar and Nagaon. They speak Dimasa, a Bodo-Garo language of the Sino-Tibetan family, and number several hundred thousand. Their name is often glossed as children of the big river.

Society and subsistence

The Dimasa once ruled a substantial kingdom in the Assam plains and hills, with capitals including Dimapur and later Maibang and Khaspur, before its absorption in the nineteenth century. The old Kachari or Dimasa kingdom is remembered in ruins and tanks at Dimapur and Maibang, and today many Dimasa live within an autonomous council area that gives them a measure of self-government. Society is organised into a dual system of male clans (sengphong) and female clans (jaddi or julu), a double-descent structure through which land, ritual and inheritance are traced. Subsistence combines wet-rice and shifting cultivation, weaving and rice-beer brewing, with fishing in the hill rivers and the rearing of pigs and poultry adding to the diet. Traditional religion centres on household and clan deities (Madai), with Hindu practice also widespread. The Busu Dima harvest festival, with its group dances and drumming, is the major annual celebration.

Appearance and adornment

Dimasa dress is woven by women on the loom. Women wear a bright wraparound skirt (rigu) and a matching chest cloth (rijamphain and rikaosa), typically in green, yellow and cream with patterned borders, together with silver coin necklaces, bead strings and brass and silver ornaments. Men wear woven dhotis and chest cloths with a turban for ceremony. The Busu Dima harvest festival brings out full traditional attire for line dances accompanied by drums, flutes and cymbals, while modern clothing is usual in daily life. Handloom weaving remains a prized household skill, with each design and colour combination carrying clan and regional meaning.