Indian Journal of Traditional Knowledge Vol. 6(1), January 2007, pp. 106-110 Ethnological observations on fermented food products of certain tribes of Arunachal Pradesh S C Tiwari 1 * & Debajit Mahanta 2 1 Department of Forestry, Wild Life & Environmental Sciences, Guru Ghasidas University, Bilaspur, 495009, Chhattisgarh 2 Arunachal Pradesh State Council for Science & Technology Vivek Vihar, Itanagar 791 113, Arunachal Pradesh E-mail: sct_in@yahoo.com Received 31 May 2006; revised 28 September 2006 The Northeastern region of India, with various ethnic groups, offers an excellent opportunity for ethnological studies. The paper deals with the observations of ethnological significance of traditional fermented food products prepared by some tribes of Arunachal Pradesh. Fermented foods are important and inseparable constituents of food consumed by these tribes and play a vital role in their indigenous traditional life style. Keywords: Indigenous Knowledge System, Fermented foods, Tribes, Arunachal Pradesh, Monpas tribe, Adis tribe, Nyishis tribe, Apatanis tribe IPC Int. Cl. 8 : A61K36/00, A01G1/00, A01G17/00, A47G19/00, A23L1/00, A23L1/06 The Himalayan state of Arunachal Pradesh situated in the Northeast extremity of the country, having geographical area of 63, 743 km 2 , and population of 10.91 lakh has been the traditional habitat of tribal people of Paleo-Mongoloid stock, speaking mostly the Tibeto-Burman group of Sino-Tibetan language 1 . The state has international frontiers with Bhutan in the West, China in the North and North East and Myanmar in the East, while it borders the states of Nagaland and Assam in the South East and South. 25 major tribes and about 125 sub-tribes inhabit the state. The ethnic populace of the state leads an intimate life with nature in perfect harmony depending on forests and environment surrounding them. This coexistence of living together since time immemorial has contributed to accumulation of rich knowledge base in respect of utility of various plants and other natural resources for their day-to-day needs of food, fuel, medicine, housing and various other domestic needs. The traditional food habits of the tribal populace of the state are very simple and have to do with the festival and rituals, which forms a mosaic of ethnic cultural combinations. Fermented foods are important and inseparable constituents of the daily source of delicacy for the tribal people of Arunachal Pradesh. The countable number of fermented foods varies among the tribes along with practices of preparation and its uses as ingredients in their daily recipes. Alcoholic beverages of different tribal communities have received attention of several ethnobotanists and anthropologists 2 . Various tribal communities of the state generally use traditional beverage drink prepared from rice, called Apong by Nyishis, Adis & Apatanis and Tchang by Monpas. It is traditional that whenever a visitor comes, he usually gets showers of Apong / Tchang from the host. During festivals, marriages or other social occasions, it is heavily consumed. The traditional rice beer is the favourite drink of the local populace and also has immense myth, ritualistic values of the tribal societies attached to it 3-4 . Methodology Ethnological survey was undertaken in Tawang, West Kameng, lower Subansiri and West Siang districts of Arunachal Pradesh. First hand information were recorded on preparation, uses of various traditional fermented food products of the Monpas, Adis, Nyishis, and Apatanis tribes through personal interviews with elderly villagers. Some important traditional fermented food items, viz. Churapi, Churkham, Pikey Pila, Tapyo, Apong, Ennog, Ipoh, and Bamboo Tenga, etc. prepared by certain tribes of the state and the Indigenous Knowledge System associated with its preparation (Table 1) are described herewith. ____________ *Corresponding author