Chowra Island

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Chowra
Native name:
Sőnenyő / Sanenyo / Sanenya
India Andaman and Nicobar Islands location map.svg
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Chowra
Location of Chowra Island in India
Geography
Location Bay of Bengal
Coordinates 8°27′18″N93°02′42″E / 8.455°N 93.045°E / 8.455; 93.045 Coordinates: 8°27′18″N93°02′42″E / 8.455°N 93.045°E / 8.455; 93.045
Archipelago Nicobar Islands
Adjacent bodies of water Indian Ocean
Total islands1
Major islands
  • Chowra
Area5.85 km2 (2.26 sq mi) [1]
Length2.3 km (1.43 mi)
Width3.3 km (2.05 mi)
Coastline10 km (6 mi)
Highest elevation104.5 m (342.8 ft)
Administration
Flag of India.svg  India
District Nicobar
Island group Nicobar Islands
Subdivisions of India Nancowry Subdivision
Largest settlementSouthern Agency(pop. 750)
Demographics
Population1270 (2011)
Pop. density217/km2 (562/sq mi)
Ethnic groups Nicobarese people
Additional information
Time zone
PIN 744301
Telephone code03192
ISO code IN-AN-00 [2]
Official website www.and.nic.in
Literacy84.4%
Avg. summer temperature32.0 °C (89.6 °F)
Avg. winter temperature28.0 °C (82.4 °F)
Sex ratio ♂/♀
Census Code35.638.0002
Official Languages Hindi, English, Tamil
Chaura (regional)

Chowra is an island in the Andaman and Nicobar islands group of India. It is located to the north of Teressa island and to the south of Battimalv Island in the Indian Ocean. It is also known as Choura, Tatat or Sanenyo. [3]

Contents

History

The island suffered severe damage during the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami. [4]

Geography

The island is generally flat but has a 104.5 m high rocky upland at its southern end. Coral reefs extend about 1.5 miles from the northwestern side of the island. [5]

Demographics

The island has three villages, belonging to 5 clans. Tahaila Beach is located on the east coast, where the jetty is. Northern Agency and Southern Agency are in the middle of the island, and consist of former inhabitants of: Alhiat, Chongkamong, Kuitasuk, Raihion and Tahaila. According to 2011 census, 1270 people lived in the three villages on the island: [6]

Administration

The island belongs to the township of Nancowry of Teressa Taluk. [7]

Culture

Chowra island has five clans. Each year, one of the clans organizes a 3-week festival Panuohonot ("pig festival") according to the rotation system. The preparation for the festival lasts several months, and members of the other clans offer some help with the organization. The festival is celebrated in memory of the ancestors, at the onset of north-east winds. [8] : 131  The festival features singing and dancing, with a canoe race at the end. At the onset of the south-west winds, Kancheuollo ("chicken festival") is celebrated. [8] : 4 

The unpredictable climate of the Bay of Bengal, and the importance of seafaring to the local economy, made accurate predicition of weather vital to Chowra's society. Traditionally, the people of Chowra did not rely on written calendars, instead appointing experts on weather conditions and seasonal change called tamol sahiöh, who was consulted before any significant seagoing activities and decided on the date of every seasonal festival year-on-year. This system of orally-transmitted knowledge, based on long observation of the relation between phases of the moon, the state of the sea, and the weather, allowed for accurate day-to-day weather forecasts; the forecasts of the Chowraites were well known for this. [9]

Canoes

The ap, the Chowraite canoe, has an integral place in the island's culture. Chowraite canoes were known to be of an especially high quality, and the ap was treated as a living force; ritual canoe burials have taken place within living memory. A man who wished to build a canoe would first travel to one of the nearby islands with wood of high quality, such as Teressa, Katchal and Nancowry, where he would perform manual labour in exchange for permission to fell and use a tree of his choice. The master craftsman would select an ideal tree, and fell it with the help of 3 to 4 men, who would crudely carve it out where it was felled. Two coconuts would then be scooped out and filled with a mixture of grated coconut and chicken blood; one would be placed in the stump of the felled tree, and the other in the canoe. The coconut in the stump was thought to distract the spirit of the tree, and thus prevent it from noticing the canoe being taken away.

The roughly shaped canoe would then be moved carefully, by 20-30 men, to the shore, where it would be fully carved out and made watertight. Three masts and sails would be added, and the hull would be widened using heat. When the canoe was sea-worthy, it would be sailed to Chowra at dawn or in the early morning, and there disassembled. Some days later the team that had built it would complete the vessel by fine-tuning and re-assembling it; from this point the canoe is considered a living being, part of the Chowraite community. [9]

Related Research Articles

Nicobar Islands Island group in the Indian Ocean

The Nicobar Islands are an archipelagic island chain in the eastern Indian Ocean. They are located in Southeast Asia, 150 kilometres (93 mi) northwest of Aceh on Sumatra, and separated from Thailand to the east by the Andaman Sea. Located 1,300 kilometres (810 mi) southeast of the Indian subcontinent, across the Bay of Bengal, they form part of India's Union Territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

Car Nicobar One of the Nicobar Islands

Car Nicobar is the northernmost of the Nicobar Islands. It is also one of three local administrative divisions of the Indian district of Nicobar, part of the Indian union territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Annual rainfall is 2800 millimetres.

Nancowry is an island in the central part of the Nicobar Islands chain, located in the northeast Indian Ocean between the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea.

Nicobar Islands rain forests

The Nicobar Islands rain forests is a tropical moist broadleaf forest ecoregion in the Nicobar Islands. The Nicobar Islands are in the Indian Ocean, lying north of Sumatra and south of the Andaman Islands. The islands are politically part of India, although physically closer to Southeast Asia. Millions of years of isolation from the mainland has given rise to a distinct flora and fauna, including many endemic species.

Nicobar district is one of three districts in the Indian union territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The district's administrative territory encompasses all of the Nicobar Islands, which are located in the Indian Ocean, between the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea. The headquarters of the district is the village of Malacca, located on the island of Car Nicobar.

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Nicobarese people Ethnic group of India

The Nicobarese people are an Austroasiatic-speaking people of the Nicobar Islands, a chain of islands in the Bay of Bengal north of Sumatra, forming part of the union territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India. Only 12 of the 19 islands are inhabited. The largest and main island is Great Nicobar. The term Nicobarese refers to the dominant tribes of the Nicobar Islands. On each island, the people have specific names, but together they are the Nicobarese. They call themselves Holchu, which means "friend".

Kuitasuk is a village in the Nicobar district of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India. It is located in the Nancowry tehsil, on the Chowra island.

Jhoola is a village in the Nicobar district of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India. It is located in the Nancowry tehsil.

Tillangchong, also known as Tillanchang, is an island and a village in the Nicobar district of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India.

Payuha is a village in the Nicobar district of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India. It is located in the Nancowry tehsil.

Tapong is a village in the Nicobar district of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India. It is located on the Nancowry Island, around 10 km from the Champin village, and comes under the administration of the Nancowry tehsil.

Champin is a village in the Nicobar district of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India. It is located on the Nancowry Island, around 10 km from the Tapong village, and comes under the administration of the Nancowry tehsil.

Raihion is a village in the Nicobar district of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India. It is located in the Nancowry tehsil on the Chowra island.

Tahaila is a village in the Nicobar district of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India. It is located in the Nancowry tehsil, on the Chowra island.

Chongkamong is a village in the Nicobar district of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India. It is located in the Nancowry tehsil, on the Chowra island.

Battimalv is an island of the Nicobar Islands. It is part of the Indian union territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

Bompuka Island, also known as Poahat, is an island of India, in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

Nancowry Subdivision is one of three local administrative divisions of the Indian district of Nicobar, part of the Indian union territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

References

  1. ↑ "Islandwise Area and Population - 2011 Census" (PDF). Government of Andaman. Archived from the original (PDF) on 28 August 2017. Retrieved 3 May 2016.
  2. ↑ Registration Plate Numbers added to ISO Code
  3. ↑ G. K. Ghosh (1998). Tourism Perspective in Andaman and Nicobar Islands. APH Publishing. p. 26. ISBN   978-81-7024-978-8.
  4. ↑ After the Tsunami: A Scientist's Dilemma by Simron Singh. Science 7 July 2006: Vol. 313 no. 5783 pp. 32-35. DOI: 10.1126/science.313.5783.32
  5. ↑ Sailing Directions (Enroute), Pub. 173: India and the Bay of Bengal (PDF). Sailing Directions . United States National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. 2017. p. 290.
  6. ↑ "District Census Handbook - Andaman & Nicobar Islands" (PDF). 2011 Census of India . Directorate of Census Operations, Andaman & Nicobar Islands. Archived from the original (PDF) on 1 August 2015. Retrieved 21 July 2015.
  7. ↑ "Tehsils" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 28 August 2017. Retrieved 3 May 2016.
  8. 1 2 Geeti Sen (2001). The Human Landscape. Orient Blackswan. ISBN   978-81-250-2045-5.
  9. 1 2 Kumar, Hans; Varadarajan, Lotika (2001). "Ap, the Canoe of Chowra Island". Traversées: 85–102 – via OpenEdition Journals.
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