primitive Bondo (Bonda) tribal women,wearing beads to cover their nakedness,powerwalk 25kms to weekly market in Orissa India


In Orissa one out of every four persons is an Adivasi or Tribal. These tribals are heavily concentrated in the hilly tracts Orissa has 62 distinct tribal groups, making it the largest collection of tribal people in a single state in the country and of particular interest to anthropologists and sociologists Each of these tribal groups have their own indigenous customs and continue to practice them today. Access to some tribal areas is still strictly restricted. The most primitive tribes are Bondas, Gadabas, and Kondhas. Women wrap long stretch of cloth around them and are adorned with ornaments like bangles, armlets, bracelets, necklaces, rings, hairpinsThe BONDOS are fiercely independent and aggressive, and continue to practice shifting cultivation and the barter system of exchanging produce from their fields for their daily needs. Bondo women prefer to marry younger men because they can have someone who will earn for them in their old age. The Bondo's live in the high hill of the forests and are one of the most primitive tribes of India. Their language is called "Remo" which is an Austro Asiatic language belonging to Mundari group Bonda women are noticeable for their lack of clothing except for colourful multi-stringed fine bead necklaces, striking brass and silver necklets and their shaven heads decorated with plaits of Palmyra leaves.


Size: 3413px × 5120px
Location: Eastern Ghats, Orissa, India,Asia
Photo credit: © NORMA JOSEPH / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

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