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The Legends of Pensam Dai, Mamang
‘We are not here without a purpose,’ the shaman explained. ‘Our purpose is to fulfil our destiny…All life is light and shadow.’ Like any other place on earth, the territory of the Adis in the mountains of Arunachal Pradesh is ‘Pensam’—the ‘in-between’ place. Anything can happen here, and everything can be lived, and ‘the narrow boat that we call life sails along somehow in calm or stormy weather’. A mysterious boy who fell from the sky is accepted as a son of the village and grows up to become a respected elder. A young woman wounded in love is healed by a marriage of which she expected little. A mother battles fate and the law for a son she has not seen since she lost him as an infant. A remote hamlet gets a road, but the new world that comes with it threatens upheaval. And as villages become small towns and towns approximate cities, the brave and patient few guard the old ways, negotiating change with memory and remembrance. An intricate web of stories, images and the history of a tribe, The Legends of Pensam is a lyrical and moving tribute to the human spirit. With a poet’s sense for incident and language, Mamang Dai paints a memorable portrait of a land that is at once particular and universal.
208 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2006
29 people are currently reading
557 people want to read
About the author
Mamang Dai
21 books61 followersMamang Dai is a poet and novelist writing in English, from Arunachal Pradesh in India’s northeast. Her mother tongue is Adi. Dai is the first woman of her state to have been selected to the IAS/IFS. However she gave up her career in the Civil Service to pursue a career in journalism. Dai was correspondent with the Hindustan Times, the Telegraph and the Sentinel newspapers and was President, Arunachal Pradesh Union of Working Journalists. She also worked with World Wide Fund for nature in the Eastern Himalaya Biodiversity Hotspots programme.
Her first publication River Poems hailed her as one of the most intensely poetic voices from the North East region. In 2003 Dai was honoured with the state’s Verrier Elwin Award for her book Arunachal Pradesh: the Hidden Land that documented the culture and customs of her land. She has featured in several national and international forums to promote the disappearing traditions of her state in the face of modernity and give voice to its people through the imaginative space of prose and poetry.
A long-time member of the North East Writers’ Forum (NEWF). She lives in Itanagar. Her books include: The legends of Pensam (Novel), Stupid Cupid (Novel), River Poems (Poetry, 2nd edition 2014), Midsummer – Survival Lyrics (Poetry, 2014), El bálsamo del tiempo (The balm of time) (Poetry), Arunachal Pradesh – The Hidden Land (Nonfiction), Mountain Harvest- The Food of Arunachal, The Sky Queen and Once Upon a Moon Time (Illustrated folklore for young readers), Hambreelmai’s Loom – (Folklore, 2014), The Black Hill (Novel, 2014).
Her first publication River Poems hailed her as one of the most intensely poetic voices from the North East region. In 2003 Dai was honoured with the state’s Verrier Elwin Award for her book Arunachal Pradesh: the Hidden Land that documented the culture and customs of her land. She has featured in several national and international forums to promote the disappearing traditions of her state in the face of modernity and give voice to its people through the imaginative space of prose and poetry.
A long-time member of the North East Writers’ Forum (NEWF). She lives in Itanagar. Her books include: The legends of Pensam (Novel), Stupid Cupid (Novel), River Poems (Poetry, 2nd edition 2014), Midsummer – Survival Lyrics (Poetry, 2014), El bálsamo del tiempo (The balm of time) (Poetry), Arunachal Pradesh – The Hidden Land (Nonfiction), Mountain Harvest- The Food of Arunachal, The Sky Queen and Once Upon a Moon Time (Illustrated folklore for young readers), Hambreelmai’s Loom – (Folklore, 2014), The Black Hill (Novel, 2014).
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews
March 24, 2019
Continuing my journey of North East Indian reads, I travelled to remote areas of Arunachal Pradesh with Manang Dai's The legends of Pensam.
I always thought this will be a short story collection, and I avoided reading this book for a long time, and I had bought this the first thing after I got my Kindle. After reading this, I regretted not picking it up earlier. This was my first book by Mamang Dai and I look forward to read more by her.
🌹
'Pensam' means in between. The stories and anecdotes written by Dai in this book are interrelated with each other. She takes us through mountains, old legends, spirits and adaptability of the people living in those areas. There are various stories of hardship, people accepting their fate as it is and ofcourse folklore. Each story is beautiful than the other. Dai beautifully narrates the charms and the pros and cons of living in the remote areas. I loved the stories of the shamans. Dai stitches a beautiful tapestry through this book. Dai also described the times when the remote areas had to come face to face with the Japanese and Allied forces during the Second World War. North East India played a crucial role in the fall of the Japanese forces.
I was taken in by the spellbound narration of the beauty of Arunachal.
People narrate stories which they heard growing up and which were passed on orally from generation to generation. We read stories about the forest and river spirits who call out to humans to cast a spell on them. These oral stories will be remembered forever now.
🌹
I would call this book a mix of folklore+fiction. I love you my Incredible India, you never cease to amaze me, with your diversity. So proud.
If you love folktales which have a whiff of magic here and there and want to have a peek in Arunachal Pradesh, definitely read this one. I highly recommend this one. 4⭐
I always thought this will be a short story collection, and I avoided reading this book for a long time, and I had bought this the first thing after I got my Kindle. After reading this, I regretted not picking it up earlier. This was my first book by Mamang Dai and I look forward to read more by her.
🌹
'Pensam' means in between. The stories and anecdotes written by Dai in this book are interrelated with each other. She takes us through mountains, old legends, spirits and adaptability of the people living in those areas. There are various stories of hardship, people accepting their fate as it is and ofcourse folklore. Each story is beautiful than the other. Dai beautifully narrates the charms and the pros and cons of living in the remote areas. I loved the stories of the shamans. Dai stitches a beautiful tapestry through this book. Dai also described the times when the remote areas had to come face to face with the Japanese and Allied forces during the Second World War. North East India played a crucial role in the fall of the Japanese forces.
I was taken in by the spellbound narration of the beauty of Arunachal.
People narrate stories which they heard growing up and which were passed on orally from generation to generation. We read stories about the forest and river spirits who call out to humans to cast a spell on them. These oral stories will be remembered forever now.
🌹
I would call this book a mix of folklore+fiction. I love you my Incredible India, you never cease to amaze me, with your diversity. So proud.
If you love folktales which have a whiff of magic here and there and want to have a peek in Arunachal Pradesh, definitely read this one. I highly recommend this one. 4⭐
December 3, 2021
"Back then, the village heaved with life, and I expected a great welling up of revelations, a web of magic through which we would step lightly like glittering spirits crowned with speech and thought. The years stretched before us like a singing forest; we were always poised to spread wings and float through the cool bamboo."
The best way to describe this book would be as a rich tapestry of living memory, disparate shorts coming together in a spellbinding and vibrant mosaic pictorially depicting the Adis, their life and culture, history and stories. It is not a dry, ethnographic work though. Alive in every sense of the word, an interwoven web of a sufficient overall narrative giving it the appearance of a novel although it isn't conventional by any means. She moulds the form for herself rather than moulding her writing for the dominant mainland audience.
Dai's prose may be straightforward, but it has a subtly serene beauty to it, evoking a poetic sensibility and harking back to oral traditions of the peoples. The slices of life emanate off of a liminal place rife with possibilities where the magical is close beside the mundane. It's not a realm sequestered away from vagaries of modernity. It doesn't resolutely hold on to a sterile past and always negotiates with the forces of advancement, the gifts and curses of "progress". Effortless writing at its best, it falters a bit at first but slowly finds its stride.
February 3, 2024
I read this anthology along with another one (one of this and one of that, mostly) and both these books helped me complete the other.
Pensam means "between" and these stories convey the feeling, the grey area between two realms. Most of these folktales are spoken in the Arunachal Pradesh region. Some of them included living people and that is an aspect that fascinated me the most.
The writing was fantastic - often evocative of Ruskin Bond. I also caught glimpses of William Dalrymple in some stories.
Where the book fell short, according to me, is in the narration. Though we are introduced to several people and their stories, we never get to know them in depth. We brush upon their stories within a couple of pages and then it's over. There was no personal connection with them at any point.
However, this is my first book by a Northeast Indian author (guilty, I know) and it was a refreshing experience. I usually avoid Indian authors except a few such as Ruskin Bond, Vikram Seth, and RK Narayan, but the last couple of years have added plenty of new ones. I am happy to add Mamang Dai to the list, too.
3.5 stars rounded up to 4.
Pensam means "between" and these stories convey the feeling, the grey area between two realms. Most of these folktales are spoken in the Arunachal Pradesh region. Some of them included living people and that is an aspect that fascinated me the most.
The writing was fantastic - often evocative of Ruskin Bond. I also caught glimpses of William Dalrymple in some stories.
Where the book fell short, according to me, is in the narration. Though we are introduced to several people and their stories, we never get to know them in depth. We brush upon their stories within a couple of pages and then it's over. There was no personal connection with them at any point.
However, this is my first book by a Northeast Indian author (guilty, I know) and it was a refreshing experience. I usually avoid Indian authors except a few such as Ruskin Bond, Vikram Seth, and RK Narayan, but the last couple of years have added plenty of new ones. I am happy to add Mamang Dai to the list, too.
3.5 stars rounded up to 4.
May 16, 2022
The Legends of Pensam by Mamang Dai is a short book about 200 pages. This is my second book about North-East India. Being an avid reader, never read any books about this beautiful land which is so rich with greenery, tribes, cultures, traditions, life, folk stories, and many more. The Legends of Pensam is an ode to the memory of a long-gone past, and of people who existed only through stories. All stories are like rivers. Each has an origin and an end and a lot of tributaries. The same way each story is about a person, which is told by another person, and to them, told by their ancestors. Like this, almost all stories are interconnected. Life is a series of moments and events which are turned into memories. Now those memories have become stories. Some stories have become legends. The stories are autobiographical, born out of the author’s life, and experiences. These are stories of beliefs, customs, unrequited loves, ill-timed deaths, the exuberance of people, strength and determination of life, wars, hunters lost in forests, spirits roaming around living, weird events, tasty foods, reverence of our ancestors, love for our successors, a song and dance of living, and a death of tradition, a change of time and an uncertain future. Of title, the word ‘pensam’ means ‘in-between’. These stories are pieces of evidence of humanity’s existence in between life and death, day and night, past and future, and love and hate.
June 13, 2016
I avoided reading this book for a long time. Partly because I thought it was a book of short stories and partly because I do not like reading Indian authors. It’s not that I haven’t tried, I have, but they have been a major disappointment most of the time. That doesn’t mean they are bad, obviously not, it just means that their writing is not to my taste. But recently I have read a couple of books which were really good.
Legends of Pensam is one of them. It is actually a book of short stories which are interconnected so it doesn’t really give you a feel of reading separate stories. Every character and every story is intermingled.
The book is set in the territory of Adis in the mountains of Arunachal Pradesh, India. It is set in Pensam which is known as an in-between place. The book is an intricate web of stories, images and the history of the tribe.
"In our language, the language of the Adis, the word ‘pensam’ means ‘in-between’. It suggests the middle, or middle ground, but it may also be interpreted as the hidden spaces of the heart where a secret garden grows. It is the small world where anything can happen and everything can be lived; where the narrow boat that we call life sails along somehow in calm or stormy weather; where the life of a man can be measured in the span of a song."
It’s a land of mountains, rivers, old legends, spirits, and resilience. The narrator takes us through this region and its stories. Born and brought up here the narrator knows many people and their past and present stories, some true, some legends.
There is a story about Hoxo who was believed to have fallen from the sky. One day his father brings him home and tells his wife and the villagers that the sky has gifted him this boy. In this land of spirits and mountains where anything can happen and everything can be lived, no body questions this.
There are stories of hardship, of men and women accepting their fate and making the best of it.
"And I saw again how their days were passing; the fire burning brightly in the hearth, the dogs curled up close to the flames, the cot in the corner. Life moved on quite normally, except that like so many others in so many unseen recesses all over the world, they hid their pain, while the seasons turned."
Out of all the stories, there is one particular story which I loved. The story of Nenem. Nenem is the only daughter of a respected elder of a village. She makes the mistake of falling in love with an Englishman, David. Obviously it creates a scandal. But David cannot stay there for ever and Nenem cannot leave her mountains, rivers and her land and go with him. So they part ways.
"At night the sky above the village was full of stars, and every night Nenem said to herself,’No one dies of love. I loved him, and now I am enough on my own.’"
After some years Nenem resigns to her fate and gets married to Kao. She has one girl with him. Although she is a good wife to him, she is always distant and detached. As time passes she is finally content with what she has. A home, a husband and a daughter. After some years though when their village is flooded, they have to move to another place. That’s when she cannot take the pain and goes to the river one day only to be found dead.
But what I found most appealing is not the stories, but the language. Mamang Dai is so good with words that I sometimes read the passages twice just to re-experience the beauty of her words. Not a word is misplaced, nor a metaphor unnecessarily added. The description of the mountains, the rivers, and the rain is so beautiful that you feel transported to the place or you at least wish you were there.
"In dreams, my people say, they see the rain mother sitting on the treetops, laughing in the mist. Her silver ornaments clink as she rides the wind, brandishing her sword.
Every time she twirls her skirt, the storm clouds edged with black rush up to cover her."
But these are my most favorite lines from the book.
"The most beautiful thing is that we are all bunched up together on oceans and cities, and deserts and valleys, far apart from each other in so many ways, but we have words, and the right words open our minds and hearts and help us recognize one another."
Originally posted here
http://violetcrush.wordpress.com/2008...
Legends of Pensam is one of them. It is actually a book of short stories which are interconnected so it doesn’t really give you a feel of reading separate stories. Every character and every story is intermingled.
The book is set in the territory of Adis in the mountains of Arunachal Pradesh, India. It is set in Pensam which is known as an in-between place. The book is an intricate web of stories, images and the history of the tribe.
"In our language, the language of the Adis, the word ‘pensam’ means ‘in-between’. It suggests the middle, or middle ground, but it may also be interpreted as the hidden spaces of the heart where a secret garden grows. It is the small world where anything can happen and everything can be lived; where the narrow boat that we call life sails along somehow in calm or stormy weather; where the life of a man can be measured in the span of a song."
It’s a land of mountains, rivers, old legends, spirits, and resilience. The narrator takes us through this region and its stories. Born and brought up here the narrator knows many people and their past and present stories, some true, some legends.
There is a story about Hoxo who was believed to have fallen from the sky. One day his father brings him home and tells his wife and the villagers that the sky has gifted him this boy. In this land of spirits and mountains where anything can happen and everything can be lived, no body questions this.
There are stories of hardship, of men and women accepting their fate and making the best of it.
"And I saw again how their days were passing; the fire burning brightly in the hearth, the dogs curled up close to the flames, the cot in the corner. Life moved on quite normally, except that like so many others in so many unseen recesses all over the world, they hid their pain, while the seasons turned."
Out of all the stories, there is one particular story which I loved. The story of Nenem. Nenem is the only daughter of a respected elder of a village. She makes the mistake of falling in love with an Englishman, David. Obviously it creates a scandal. But David cannot stay there for ever and Nenem cannot leave her mountains, rivers and her land and go with him. So they part ways.
"At night the sky above the village was full of stars, and every night Nenem said to herself,’No one dies of love. I loved him, and now I am enough on my own.’"
After some years Nenem resigns to her fate and gets married to Kao. She has one girl with him. Although she is a good wife to him, she is always distant and detached. As time passes she is finally content with what she has. A home, a husband and a daughter. After some years though when their village is flooded, they have to move to another place. That’s when she cannot take the pain and goes to the river one day only to be found dead.
But what I found most appealing is not the stories, but the language. Mamang Dai is so good with words that I sometimes read the passages twice just to re-experience the beauty of her words. Not a word is misplaced, nor a metaphor unnecessarily added. The description of the mountains, the rivers, and the rain is so beautiful that you feel transported to the place or you at least wish you were there.
"In dreams, my people say, they see the rain mother sitting on the treetops, laughing in the mist. Her silver ornaments clink as she rides the wind, brandishing her sword.
Every time she twirls her skirt, the storm clouds edged with black rush up to cover her."
But these are my most favorite lines from the book.
"The most beautiful thing is that we are all bunched up together on oceans and cities, and deserts and valleys, far apart from each other in so many ways, but we have words, and the right words open our minds and hearts and help us recognize one another."
Originally posted here
http://violetcrush.wordpress.com/2008...
May 15, 2021
All life is light and shadow. Like any other place on earth, the territory of the Adis in the mountains of Arunachal Pradesh is ‘Pensam’—the ‘in-between’ place.
The book takes you to a long journey through the jungle and the settlements of Adis of that land.
Through this breath-taking journey it shows you love and war, life and death situations faced by them. It shows you the perspective of the people living in those areas. Their life filled with hardship and pain and still they strive to live.
The author has intensely captured the beauty and the picturesque scene of Siang valley and other parts of Arunachal Pradesh. She shows the practices Adis follow is woven around forest ecology and co-existences with the natural world. She has perfectly portrayed the difference in view of the elders of the villages to the young generation.
The interconnectedness of the stories and the small faiths on which people live their life are extravagantly explained.
The book takes you to a long journey through the jungle and the settlements of Adis of that land.
Through this breath-taking journey it shows you love and war, life and death situations faced by them. It shows you the perspective of the people living in those areas. Their life filled with hardship and pain and still they strive to live.
The author has intensely captured the beauty and the picturesque scene of Siang valley and other parts of Arunachal Pradesh. She shows the practices Adis follow is woven around forest ecology and co-existences with the natural world. She has perfectly portrayed the difference in view of the elders of the villages to the young generation.
The interconnectedness of the stories and the small faiths on which people live their life are extravagantly explained.
December 27, 2013
Recommend it to everyone!
August 6, 2021
Touching, even moving at certain moments though not immersive or gripping.
A set of stories nestled in this precariously balanced but beautiful place. These stories are of people you meet and of people they know and of people they remember, all conveying simple things about life. The trajectory of this book is held together with the author's own life. I liked some stories more than others, which is how it happens with people also. It was easy to read. While it gave me a glimpse of another, beautiful land, I cannot give this book a higher rating because somehow it only felt ordinary. And I don't mean the legends were ordinary–perhaps it was the writing. I think it conveyed the legends but failed to transport me there, thus leaving me with a more acute awareness of the ordinariness of my life. (gosh, the things we're look for in a book!)
A set of stories nestled in this precariously balanced but beautiful place. These stories are of people you meet and of people they know and of people they remember, all conveying simple things about life. The trajectory of this book is held together with the author's own life. I liked some stories more than others, which is how it happens with people also. It was easy to read. While it gave me a glimpse of another, beautiful land, I cannot give this book a higher rating because somehow it only felt ordinary. And I don't mean the legends were ordinary–perhaps it was the writing. I think it conveyed the legends but failed to transport me there, thus leaving me with a more acute awareness of the ordinariness of my life. (gosh, the things we're look for in a book!)
February 14, 2022
3.5 it is. If you belong to 90s don't read it now (especially if u have live a hard life in villages).
Read it after you have make it in life. May be after 25-30 years from now, the book will explode like a bomb.
Initially lil light & slow, but it gets better from middle part ( to be exact Nenem's Story).
Buy it, keep it but don't read it now for more nostalgia.
Read it after you have make it in life. May be after 25-30 years from now, the book will explode like a bomb.
Initially lil light & slow, but it gets better from middle part ( to be exact Nenem's Story).
Buy it, keep it but don't read it now for more nostalgia.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 23, 2022
I have not come across such a beautiful collection of stories that portray the life and society of a people enchantingly. Mamang Dai's sensitive, profound yet simple prose brings forth a tale of human sensibility that is unique to us. Her slow paced writing, like the river she describes in these stories, takes us on a winding and mysterious journey through the valleys of the Adis.
September 13, 2012
Story is so pure and nostalic. Reading it felt like back in my state again. Love it.
April 19, 2020
I have become a fan of how the author writes..simple subtle prolific. Am gonna read all of her books!
May 7, 2023
Mamang Dai's ‘The Legends of Pensam’ talks about Arunachal Pradesh from the standpoint of its original inhabitants, the tribal populace.
Arunachal Pradesh is the largest of all the states which comprise the North East having an area of 83,743 sq. kms, and one of the larger states in the country. However, it has a population density of 17 per sq. km., the lowest in India, as per the State Census of 2011. The state shares its border with three countries - Bhutan to the west, Myanmar to the east, and China to the north and north east.
The 1080 km. long international border with China is a site of incessant conflict. In her "author's note Dai mentions Arunachal Pradesh as one of the large states in the country, and also one of the greenest. It is the homeland of twenty-six tribes with over one hundred and ten subclans, each with a different language or dialect.
Part of the Eastern Himalaya, the land is criss- crossed by rivers and high mountain ranges running north-south that divide it into five river valleys. The mightiest of its rivers is the Siang, known as the Tsangpe in Tibet, and the Siang valley, stretching northwards to the Tsangpo gorge where the river enters India, is the territory of the Adi tribe who are the subject of this book.
Like the majority of the tribes inhabiting the central belt of Arunachal, the Adis practice an animistic faith that is woven around forest ecology and co existence with the natural world. There are few road links in their territory. Travel to the distant villages still entails cumbersome river crossings, elephant rides, and long foot marches through dense forest or over high mountain passes.
It is this land that Dai talks of as an Arunachalee and an Adi: a land of "Pristine forests and rich bio-diversity" whose beauty makes you "Forget your aches and pains".
This book is "a convoluted web of stories, images and the history of a tribe" set in the territory of the Adis nestled in the mountains of Arunachal Pradesh, the 'pensam', or 'in- between' place: In our language, the language of the Adis, the word 'pensam' means 'in-between'.
It is the small world where anything can happen and everything can be lived; where the narrow boat that we call life sails along somehow in calm or stormy weather; where the life of a man can be measured in the span of a song.
An oft asked question is: How does this book give voice to a whole way of life that is caught in the throes of transition?
This book is a sequence of intersected stories divided into four sections - "A diary of the world", "Song of the rhapsodist", "Daughters of the village" and "A matter of time".
The four parts of the work trace the history of the progression and development of the region.
**The first part deals with the generation that existed before the colonizers came in
**The second part outlines the coming of the colonizers and the changes that followed
**The third part outlines the lives and experiences of the generation that grows up after the advent of the migluns
**The last part has the effect of modernity on contemporary society.
‘The Legends of Pensam’ focuses on an entire community the Adis, instead of focusing on a single protagonist wound whom the story of a novel usually revolves. The primary focus of the author is her desire to chronicle, how an entire way of life changed when it came in contact with the colonial regime in the late 19th and early 20th century.
The stories relate not just to the location called Pensam, but also figuratively to the issue of how the Adi are negotiating this change. The structure of the work shows this indeterminacy.
The book has a "Prologue" in the opening. The prologue mentions a group of six people including the narrator flying from Assam to Arunachal Pradesh. As the helicopter in which they are travelling approaches the hills, the narrator reminiscences her childhood and the stories which sustained the dream-like quality of the early years of her life. She tries to link the ‘disconnect’ between her past and her present.
The narrator describes his return to Gurdum town, where the lived before she moved to the "Big City". Along with her friend Mona, she then travelled to Dayang.
"The village of widows", is also the ancestral village of her mother. Mona is of Arab-Greek extraction and her husband Jules, a famous development scientist, is French.
They have a "Mobile Lifestyle" and travel across countries and continents. The first section, "A Diary of the World", starts with the story of Hoxo, "The boy who fell from the sky" and was found in the forest by Lutor, famous chief of the Ida clan of the Adis, who brought him home.
It’s brilliant, really….
Arunachal Pradesh is the largest of all the states which comprise the North East having an area of 83,743 sq. kms, and one of the larger states in the country. However, it has a population density of 17 per sq. km., the lowest in India, as per the State Census of 2011. The state shares its border with three countries - Bhutan to the west, Myanmar to the east, and China to the north and north east.
The 1080 km. long international border with China is a site of incessant conflict. In her "author's note Dai mentions Arunachal Pradesh as one of the large states in the country, and also one of the greenest. It is the homeland of twenty-six tribes with over one hundred and ten subclans, each with a different language or dialect.
Part of the Eastern Himalaya, the land is criss- crossed by rivers and high mountain ranges running north-south that divide it into five river valleys. The mightiest of its rivers is the Siang, known as the Tsangpe in Tibet, and the Siang valley, stretching northwards to the Tsangpo gorge where the river enters India, is the territory of the Adi tribe who are the subject of this book.
Like the majority of the tribes inhabiting the central belt of Arunachal, the Adis practice an animistic faith that is woven around forest ecology and co existence with the natural world. There are few road links in their territory. Travel to the distant villages still entails cumbersome river crossings, elephant rides, and long foot marches through dense forest or over high mountain passes.
It is this land that Dai talks of as an Arunachalee and an Adi: a land of "Pristine forests and rich bio-diversity" whose beauty makes you "Forget your aches and pains".
This book is "a convoluted web of stories, images and the history of a tribe" set in the territory of the Adis nestled in the mountains of Arunachal Pradesh, the 'pensam', or 'in- between' place: In our language, the language of the Adis, the word 'pensam' means 'in-between'.
It is the small world where anything can happen and everything can be lived; where the narrow boat that we call life sails along somehow in calm or stormy weather; where the life of a man can be measured in the span of a song.
An oft asked question is: How does this book give voice to a whole way of life that is caught in the throes of transition?
This book is a sequence of intersected stories divided into four sections - "A diary of the world", "Song of the rhapsodist", "Daughters of the village" and "A matter of time".
The four parts of the work trace the history of the progression and development of the region.
**The first part deals with the generation that existed before the colonizers came in
**The second part outlines the coming of the colonizers and the changes that followed
**The third part outlines the lives and experiences of the generation that grows up after the advent of the migluns
**The last part has the effect of modernity on contemporary society.
‘The Legends of Pensam’ focuses on an entire community the Adis, instead of focusing on a single protagonist wound whom the story of a novel usually revolves. The primary focus of the author is her desire to chronicle, how an entire way of life changed when it came in contact with the colonial regime in the late 19th and early 20th century.
The stories relate not just to the location called Pensam, but also figuratively to the issue of how the Adi are negotiating this change. The structure of the work shows this indeterminacy.
The book has a "Prologue" in the opening. The prologue mentions a group of six people including the narrator flying from Assam to Arunachal Pradesh. As the helicopter in which they are travelling approaches the hills, the narrator reminiscences her childhood and the stories which sustained the dream-like quality of the early years of her life. She tries to link the ‘disconnect’ between her past and her present.
The narrator describes his return to Gurdum town, where the lived before she moved to the "Big City". Along with her friend Mona, she then travelled to Dayang.
"The village of widows", is also the ancestral village of her mother. Mona is of Arab-Greek extraction and her husband Jules, a famous development scientist, is French.
They have a "Mobile Lifestyle" and travel across countries and continents. The first section, "A Diary of the World", starts with the story of Hoxo, "The boy who fell from the sky" and was found in the forest by Lutor, famous chief of the Ida clan of the Adis, who brought him home.
It’s brilliant, really….
February 10, 2018
From the name of the book, I assumed (very wrongly) that The Legends of Pensam would be a collection of short stories set in a place called Pensam. To my pleasant surprise, Mamang Dai’s book turned to be a magical tapestry of short story like anecdotes and incidents strung together by common characters weaving tales of the unknown, of shamans, remote bountiful nature cut off from the outside world, community ties and how they cope with deaths and murders and violence and love.
There are stories within stories, all magical than the first one that goes back and forth between the present with the author relating the charms and hardships of life in a remote place stitched together by shared grief and memories and legends and then having characters relating stories that they had heard from older generations: about hunting expeditions, about forest and river spirits that calls out to humans to put a spell on them; about the times when the people in the remote area are face to face with members of the Allied Forces and the Japanese Army (Arunachal Pradesh and many parts of the North Eastern region were not just a part of the global phenomenon of the 2nd World War but also played a very critical role in the way things turned for the Allies and the fall of the Japanese).
If you like magical tales, if you want to discover a part of the country that you didn’t know exist, go for The Legends of Pensam. You HAVE to…
There are stories within stories, all magical than the first one that goes back and forth between the present with the author relating the charms and hardships of life in a remote place stitched together by shared grief and memories and legends and then having characters relating stories that they had heard from older generations: about hunting expeditions, about forest and river spirits that calls out to humans to put a spell on them; about the times when the people in the remote area are face to face with members of the Allied Forces and the Japanese Army (Arunachal Pradesh and many parts of the North Eastern region were not just a part of the global phenomenon of the 2nd World War but also played a very critical role in the way things turned for the Allies and the fall of the Japanese).
If you like magical tales, if you want to discover a part of the country that you didn’t know exist, go for The Legends of Pensam. You HAVE to…
January 6, 2022
The Legends of Pensam is my first Mamang Dai and I absolutely love it. This book is a collection shorts stories spanned within three generations. Mamang Dai weaves the stories around lives of the Adi tribe of the Siang Valley of Arunachal Pradesh. As the author explains , Pensam means “middle ground or in-between”, Pensam, the village acts as a middle ground between the spirit world and the reality.
Dai narrates with such ease and perfection that each stories comes alive like magic. The short stories are connected in a way which makes these short stories more like a novel. True to the sense of being a tribal, Mamang Dai exudes essences of tribal life and the tribal world through her writing. The forest spirits; the stories of old; the migluns (britishers) invading tribal areas; a romance that blossomed between a tribal girl and a British officer; the boy who is believed to fall from the sky; of strange creatures that roamed the ancestral land; of life that’s savage and traditional at the same time. Mamang Dai writes it all.
It’s no surprise that when you read a book by tribals you get the feels, you get a sense of belongingness. Dai’s style of writing is charming and subtle. Hers words and narration are a perfect blend of creativity and curiosity. The Legends of Pensam is intriguing and ingenious. Mamang Dai asserts the tribal way in such vivid mode that one is transported to the village of the spirit world while reading this book.
Dai narrates with such ease and perfection that each stories comes alive like magic. The short stories are connected in a way which makes these short stories more like a novel. True to the sense of being a tribal, Mamang Dai exudes essences of tribal life and the tribal world through her writing. The forest spirits; the stories of old; the migluns (britishers) invading tribal areas; a romance that blossomed between a tribal girl and a British officer; the boy who is believed to fall from the sky; of strange creatures that roamed the ancestral land; of life that’s savage and traditional at the same time. Mamang Dai writes it all.
It’s no surprise that when you read a book by tribals you get the feels, you get a sense of belongingness. Dai’s style of writing is charming and subtle. Hers words and narration are a perfect blend of creativity and curiosity. The Legends of Pensam is intriguing and ingenious. Mamang Dai asserts the tribal way in such vivid mode that one is transported to the village of the spirit world while reading this book.
January 26, 2021
The Legends of Pensam by Mamang Dai
Pensam means a world in-between and to me this book talks about the landscape, the quiet serene beauty and the ongoing lives of its dwellers nestled in the mountains separated by pristine river streams.
Taking place in the greenery of Arunachal Pradesh , this is more of a human- nature connection where nature can be both rewarding as well as devastating. Mamang Dai introduces an element of folklore as well by people looking for traditional healing and shamans.
The people living here accept folkore or mystical happenings as chapters of everyday life.. Written as interconnected stories , some stories led to unexplained endings like people falling dead out of nowhere or the simplicity of life to accept everything in their stride.
"But why should you want to understand everything? Stranger things have happened in the world. Let it be"
Sometimes the women are tired of scaling the jagged mountains for their livelihood, sometimes the people think why development would be bad for their villages. Everything comes at a cost..
"By what reason are we here with the rain and the mud and the fungus, can you tell me that?"
More than anything, it is the collected heritage of folk stories and culture which is tying people together, their ways of dealing with incidents and nature may be their only power but they do it well and they do it in peace. They are able to deal with natural calamities , quickly rebuild their life and move on.. Something for all of us to learn. Just like the spider falls down seven times and the eight time manages to spin its web..
I liked the realistic tone of the stories. The sparkling beauty of the rivers, greenery of the forests, the wisdom of people, the narration of stories and the passing them on from generation to generation.. the value of inherited objects not just as trinkets but a talisman and safety to the older generations.
"In towns, rice, lentils, oils, everything could be purchased, but in the far flung villages every stalk of grain, every root of tapioca and every extra luxury like beans and cabbages was raised with backbreaking toil"
This also reminds me of a trek I had done now two years back which shows the resilience of these village people who trek miles everyday and their stone clad demeanor in dealing with things.
"When you look at the a land you forget your aches and pains. And it really is a beautiful landscape."
Pensam means a world in-between and to me this book talks about the landscape, the quiet serene beauty and the ongoing lives of its dwellers nestled in the mountains separated by pristine river streams.
Taking place in the greenery of Arunachal Pradesh , this is more of a human- nature connection where nature can be both rewarding as well as devastating. Mamang Dai introduces an element of folklore as well by people looking for traditional healing and shamans.
The people living here accept folkore or mystical happenings as chapters of everyday life.. Written as interconnected stories , some stories led to unexplained endings like people falling dead out of nowhere or the simplicity of life to accept everything in their stride.
"But why should you want to understand everything? Stranger things have happened in the world. Let it be"
Sometimes the women are tired of scaling the jagged mountains for their livelihood, sometimes the people think why development would be bad for their villages. Everything comes at a cost..
"By what reason are we here with the rain and the mud and the fungus, can you tell me that?"
More than anything, it is the collected heritage of folk stories and culture which is tying people together, their ways of dealing with incidents and nature may be their only power but they do it well and they do it in peace. They are able to deal with natural calamities , quickly rebuild their life and move on.. Something for all of us to learn. Just like the spider falls down seven times and the eight time manages to spin its web..
I liked the realistic tone of the stories. The sparkling beauty of the rivers, greenery of the forests, the wisdom of people, the narration of stories and the passing them on from generation to generation.. the value of inherited objects not just as trinkets but a talisman and safety to the older generations.
"In towns, rice, lentils, oils, everything could be purchased, but in the far flung villages every stalk of grain, every root of tapioca and every extra luxury like beans and cabbages was raised with backbreaking toil"
This also reminds me of a trek I had done now two years back which shows the resilience of these village people who trek miles everyday and their stone clad demeanor in dealing with things.
"When you look at the a land you forget your aches and pains. And it really is a beautiful landscape."
May 8, 2021
Arunachal Pradesh, an in-between place is glorified with such poetic beauty here that you cannot help but fall for the lyrical melody of the prose, the legends and the stories.
It has everything, love, loss, grief, pain, passion, and above all the search of meaning, to find purpose in life. Apart from age old legends of Pensam, Mamang Dai beautifully plots stories about different characters and brings together the inner meaning. In the end, I felt it was all about belonging to the pastoral place, to grow and to accept change even in the place which is just in-between. A struggle to belong and yet to modernize.
Some stories brimmed with smiles and love and nostalgia, while some were hard to fathom. A little problem for me was also the fact that I had a hard time connecting a few, making it a little abrupt. However, the book ends with magnifying and capturing brilliance.
A lyrical melody afrer all.
It has everything, love, loss, grief, pain, passion, and above all the search of meaning, to find purpose in life. Apart from age old legends of Pensam, Mamang Dai beautifully plots stories about different characters and brings together the inner meaning. In the end, I felt it was all about belonging to the pastoral place, to grow and to accept change even in the place which is just in-between. A struggle to belong and yet to modernize.
Some stories brimmed with smiles and love and nostalgia, while some were hard to fathom. A little problem for me was also the fact that I had a hard time connecting a few, making it a little abrupt. However, the book ends with magnifying and capturing brilliance.
A lyrical melody afrer all.
December 12, 2023
This book written in an autoethnographic mode presents a glimpse of Arunachal Pradesh, with a particular emphasis on the myths, traditions, beliefs, customs, and rituals of the Adi tribe. It is a well-written narrative that highlights how the advent of modernity had disrupted the traditional way of life of the Adi tribe. I also liked the fact that Dai, who is also a member of the Adi tribe, has focused on the tribe's intimate relationship with Nature and how it informs their sense of spirituality as well as worldview.
August 19, 2025
for someone who is from odisha, raised in andhra and had her education in rajasthan and maharashtra, the north east has been an enigma to me. this book is about an indian tribe and yet the people and their beliefs are absolutely foreign to me. so i wont call the book insigthful since the stories in the book only seem like a drop in the ocean. rather like any good book on an unknown culture, i read it and went with the flow as i turned its pages and did not question anything, like a quiet observer taking in everything is happening in an extremely remote part of india.
July 30, 2023
My word! The book is everything... Such a beautiful intricate description of nature... Some chapters really made me sooo nostalgic, some did took me in a state of wonderment and some pierced my heart leaving me shattered and speechless.. all in all iam so glad to have invested my time in reading this beautiful precious novel. Mamang dai did an excellent job with this one.. I will be reaching out for her other writings as well
February 4, 2021
What a perfect little book. A series of interlocking stories set in villages and a town in Arunachal Pradesh. Having some knowledge of the region is helpful in appreciating the people and customs but by no means essential. The narrative is beautifully written and evocative of the North East past and present. (Purchased secondhand from an Amazon seller.)
March 9, 2021
An anthology of stories from remote villages amidst snow capped mountains of Arunachal Pradesh. The stories talk of the traditions, customs and beliefs of the local tribes. The author talks of the river, the mountains, the spirits and shamans. An interesting book which helped me in getting acquainted with a part of India I knew little about.
July 19, 2017
my first book by mamang dai.having travelling to arunachal pradesh a lot during this year, i somehow could relate to the tales in the book.well written
April 22, 2022
Engaging tales from the hills of Arunachal Pradesh
July 4, 2024
Her words just flowed so gracefully that I couldn’t get enough of the descriptions and the people and places in the stories. Almost didn’t want them to end.
August 10, 2025
it's a nice collection of anthology cum novel, I couldn't get much essence because of me not being a native. I did felt that these myths and the destiny resembled Greek myths in a way.
June 25, 2008
A very interesting book about Arunachal- a place I saw a tiny glimpse of & would love to go back. This book, still reading, has captured the very heart of the people who love living their own way of life at their own pace & within their own space, that is gradually being invaded and with their beliefs that we urbanites would term superstition for want of not getting deeper into the heart of the ways things are perceived.
Its short stories, with unwoven threads, is like a journey through the dark forest itself, glimpses of light come through, when the word rests upon a silent log.
read it, and find the grace & beauty of life renewed...
Its short stories, with unwoven threads, is like a journey through the dark forest itself, glimpses of light come through, when the word rests upon a silent log.
read it, and find the grace & beauty of life renewed...
April 12, 2012
Partly fable , partly memoir, partly a narration of an oral history - this unusual book is about Arunachal Pradesh, but also tells the story of a tribe. Arunachal is an oral culture, they do not have a written history or written tradition, which means few people even in India know much about this place or its people - Mamang Dai attempts to bridge this gap . I found the story of Pinyar the widow particularly haunting.
April 14, 2010
the author has done a brilliant job of recording the stories of the yesteryears. the oral story telling has been inked and the stories will remain forever!
plus, her way of looking into everyday life and the poetic presentation allows her to represent not just her characters in the book but the living characters from the hills...
plus, her way of looking into everyday life and the poetic presentation allows her to represent not just her characters in the book but the living characters from the hills...
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