When the proud expressions masked dihgitur, the elderly Peter Bos in the figures, appears to be mild enough - even race. The apostle reprobates, however, had once been dark for human comprehension of the enemy, to be beheaded, and the dreadful Headhunters Tattoos signs of the truth, they were the faces which are signified.
These are members of a Konyak of the tribe, a group of about 230,000 people who were living in the Indian state of Nagaland, close to Africa, the closure of the. He remained on the top of the mountain villages, known agricultural communities are often used to keep the body checks and a major developer rite of passage.
, Were reserved for the soldiers, the face of the tattoo - is in conflict with their heads in the form of, or be prevented from sallying from the enemy, from them: and returned.
"I never felt threatened or fear - they are very warm, 'he recalled, the Dutch portrait photographer through the phone interview." We do not understand anything about headhunting rough, but just as there was a way of life.
"We were at home and spending time with them asked about his past - the songs and words of the songs - which is easier to feel out of the room for free," said the Frenchman, who shot aging headhunters over four visits to the region.
"But the old man was very fragile, and pain in it."
The eunuch whose body was slowly fading art in general has been kept separately, both literally and figuratively. When Christian missionaries in the region reached in the second half of the 19th century, headhunting and accompanying figures have been gradually accursed sacred history.
And they said, We can profitably be eliminated from the 1970, according to the Phejin Konyak, great-granddaughter of the Headhunter, who, for nearly four years, and for the destruction of the culture of the tribes of documenting the his.
"Every model depicts the state or someone's life cycle," said in a phone interview from Nagaland. "What they have done is to record all existing copies it to be lost. (I also documented) through oral traditions, songs and poems, such as those to capture the moment when it's all vanishing.
"These are the bearers of this tradition and the last day and gone forever."
A "living library;
Konyak's research - and includes examples figures and significant designs - a brick appears cow images of the pair in the book "The Konyaks last and the Tattooed Headhunters." The work also details tribe's customs, rituals and structures in the presence of charting British remains only to missionary shamanism animistic beliefs.
The story of the author's own self-professed "mixed feelings" toward Christianity. His left hand was 700 years ago in the village 4-person learned in the convent Konyak Dimapur in school, almost 300 kilometers away.
"Of course it is conducted education - does not wish for this book, not only on modern education," he said. "But, in Nagaland, by turning to Christ, they were very rapid exposure to whoever has not charity. It just happened suddenly. We went to the headhunting in the space of a few frames (decade). "
There is a certain irony to the mission Konyak Her grandfather, ahon, reportedly helped headhunting in Britain needed to broker peace between the disunited tribes. The author, but with intense use and purpose, so many fears, even more than the whirlwind.
The fate of the traditional tattoos, which tapped by hand sharpened rattan nut skin pigment and the strength of wood is symptomatic of the major cultural erosion, Konyak said.
"The old folk songs ... there does not seem to be important," he added. "If we can not simply take things past and mix well with a new lifestyle.
"I think there should be a balance. Rare We can not stay as it is to adapt to changing times. But if we lose our identity, and for what?"
Konyak believes that there is "no chance" bereft of its traditional three, despite all that had she sees value in what is described as' a living library. " In addition to producing an illustrated children's book version, but it does not work translated into one of three dialects (although it Konyaks' Do not writing, this care, transliterating the language to read the lips, tongue).
"The preservation of the interior, from the local population," he said. "If there's a driver out of three from the inside, then there's little chance of (tradition survive)."
Opposing worlds
For a man, the juxtaposition of old and new material provided a rich visual. Many of their traditional clothing assumed - even by implanting into their ears or horns, tusks - while others are imagination, or wearing sportswear modern equipment.
Often, the images shot inside the bamboo traditional longhouses, which are made of palm branches hills.
"Their longhouses are very beautiful," he said. "There are very dark inside, but the entire wall with hunting, trophy heads of animals. Keep their heads, apart from the (old) allowed human, who are in the church, not more. And the bamboo works pretty well to his mercy. "
The pig was captured everyday life in villages in the country, went through six weeks at that time. However, it was the images - collaborator, which includes its own great uncle, aunt and great - seems to embody the spirit of the book.
Yet there they were, but now they were with them, "said the elderly villagers.
"And this is really the world now."
'And at last Konyaks Tattooed Headhunters"Published by Cambridge University Press, is now.
