Honey hunting has been a pivotal part of the Shertukpen community of Arunachal Pradesh. There was a time when honey was in demand and the honey-hunters of the community were widely respected. However, as it became easily available in the markets with modernization, the demand for the traditionally extracted honey decreased.
Over the time the tradition of the honey hunting lost it earlier charm. And the new generation too, didn’t find it amusing enough to pursue it. Now, the number of honey hunters are down to less than 10 in the community.
Out of concern Kezang D Thongdok, an independent film maker of Arunachal decided to change it. He decided to document the tradition of honey hunting before it’s totally wiped off from his Shertukpen community.
With a team of four people, Kezang set out to his village Thongri with a goal to preserve and document this unique tradition. Camera, editing and direction was done by him single handedly. The documentary was shot during the month of June-July in 2018 at the summer expedition of honey hunting.
Shooting for this project was not easy for Kezang as the forest was dense and they had to deal with bees . Heavy rainfall would often halt their shooting. Kezang’s assistant got stung by bees and hence he had to look after him as well as finish the shooting. Because if the shooting was not done at that time in summer, they would have to wait for the next expedition in winter.
After fighting all the odds, Kezang was finally ready with his debut documentary Chi Lupo : The Shertukpen Honey Hunters
which came out as a wonderful endeavor to portray and preserve this age-old custom of honey hunting among the Shertukpens.
Through this documentary, an attempt has been made by Kezang to capture the different activities that goes around before, during and after the process of honey hunting. And also preserve a tradition which is on verge of extinction.
His documentary won the Best Documentary award at the prestigious Dada Saheb Phalke Film Festival 2020.
