When Karchung sings at Monpa weddings, he comes away with a portion of cooked lamb for his services. His musical rendition is said to honour the marriage ceremony, and it’s the bride’s family that invite him.
When two members of the Monpa community agree to marry, they observe a two-day ritual that starts with the groom going to the girl’s house where the local brew ara, is drunk, and family members sing and dance at a grand feast. It is here that Karchung performs without the aid of any instrument. The next day the groom returns home with his new bride.
Karchung originally went by the name Rinchin Tashi, but soon his nickname ‘Karchung’ stuck. He runs a small grocery shop on the Changpa road in West Kameng district of Arunachal Pradesh. His love for music shows in the radio music that plays hit numbers in the background while he works. Karchung can also sing a song about ara. “I sing it while farming or chatting with friends,” he says.
The 53-year-old lives with his wife, Pem Jomba who he says is the ‘boss’ in the family. It is Pem who farms their roughly one acre of land in the fertile valley. “We grow rice, maize, brinjal, bitter eggplant, lai saag (mustard leaf), onion and cauliflower,” he says. The family consume most of the rice, millets and vegetables they grow, and sometimes sell any extra produce in the weekly market of Rama camp in Dirang block.
