Peyam Thai
Traditional slate roofing of the Khiamniungan tribe
Khiamniungan
Peshu village, Noklak District, Nagaland, India
This project documents the traditional slate roofing technique practiced by the people of Peshu village, under Noklak District in Nagaland. Once a hallmark of the region, this distinctive building method – known to neighbouring groups as Kalyo Kengyus, meaning the “legendary stone house dwellers” – is no longer commonly used and faces imminent disappearance. As noted by the anthropologist Christoph von Fürer-Haimendorf in 1936 during his visit to a Noklak-area village, “dark grey slates cover the flat roofs of small houses, which stand close together and side by side”. In modern times, this observation no longer holds; however, the method is not yet completely lost, and this project aims to document it before it disappears.
A slate roof house at Peshu village, Noklak.
The roofs of pig houses are constructed using slate.
An image of the crew that went to extract the slate.
The lone slate house at Thang Nyukyan Village, Noklak district, Nagaland.
Kui (L) and Peyan (R) during their trip to extract slate.
Pungo and Shiampai narrating the story about the Khiamniungan slate house at Thang Nyukyan Village, under Noklak district, Nagaland.
How the slate is arranged and tied up on the roof.
Buhiu B Lam narrates the story about the slate house that he received from the elders through oral means at Noklak Village, Nagaland.
Sutem (L) and Peyam (R).
Peyam (L) filming the crew as they extract slate from the site known as Lungpaikhan.
The extracted slate ready to be used for roofing.
A pile of the collected slate at the extraction site.