{"id":62319,"date":"2025-01-28T15:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-01-28T09:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/?post_type=ground_up_stories&#038;p=62319"},"modified":"2025-09-03T17:14:14","modified_gmt":"2025-09-03T11:44:14","slug":"forest-guard-by-day-bru-culture-documenter-by-night","status":"publish","type":"ground_up_stories","link":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/kn-in\/ground-up-stories\/forest-guard-by-day-bru-culture-documenter-by-night\/","title":{"rendered":"Forest guard by day, Bru culture documenter by night"},"content":{"rendered":"<?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe title=\"IDR Ground up | Forest guard by day, Bru culture documenter by night\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/JmE8F9kdf88?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Vanlaldika Apeto is a resident of Damparengpui village in Mizoram&rsquo;s Mamit district. By day, he works as a guard with the forest department at the Dampa Tiger Reserve, and like many others from the Bru community in his village, he also practises <em>jhum<\/em> farming. By night, he dedicates himself to documenting Bru culture, much of which is gradually disappearing.<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Vanlaldika is the author of <em>Chini Yapai<\/em> (<em>Our Footsteps<\/em>), a book that explores traditional Bru attire, games, and rituals. It took him six years to complete the book, during which he travelled from village to village in Mizoram and Tripura, speaking to community elders who still retain memories of their cultural past.<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There were logistical challenges too. As Vanlaldika recounts, &ldquo;I started writing in student notebooks and ended up using 30 notebooks. I would go to my day job and visit people&rsquo;s homes at night to take notes. After that, I sent these notes to [a person] to type them out on the computer.&rdquo;<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The entire process spanned six years. Vanlaldika began in 2017 and completed the book in 2023. With his own savings and support from student organisations, he managed to publish and print 100 copies of the book, but was only able to sell 20.<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In this interview, Vanlaldika discusses the unique ways of life within the Bru community, which is spread across Assam, Mizoram, and Tripura in India, and parts of Bangladesh. He explains how this geographical split affects the preservation of traditions, and elaborates on the challenges of documenting an oral culture as well as the irony of writing for a community with limited access to literacy. He also reflects on the decisions he made while writing the book, including his choice to use the script from the Kau Bru (Bru language) Bible.<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Vanlaldika has ambitious plans for the future. He envisions his next book focusing on the daily lives of the Brus and their customary laws, and he also wants to write the history of Damparengpui village in Kau Bru. However, for these projects, he will need funding, which remains difficult to secure.<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>You can buy <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.in\/Chini-Yapai-Book-Language-Vanlaldika-Apeto\/dp\/B0DQDH98QB\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em>Chini Yapai here<\/em><\/a><em>.<\/em><\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><a href=\"https:\/\/idronline.org\/contributor\/rodingliana\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Rodingliana<\/a> is an IDR Northeast Media Fellow 2024&ndash;25<\/em>.<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&mdash;<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Know more:<\/strong> Learn <a href=\"https:\/\/idronline.org\/ground-up-stories\/a-book-cafe-and-publishing-house-in-the-heart-of-mizoram\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">about<\/a> In Lehkha, a book cafe and publishing house in the heart of Mizoram.<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Do more: <\/strong>Connect with the author at <a href=\"mailto:rdaapeto157@gmail.com\">rdaapeto157@gmail.com<\/a> to learn more about and support his work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":62320,"template":"","categories":[20,2892],"tags":[3601,3666,3682],"series":[],"meta-filter":[],"schema-filter":[743],"no-display":[],"class_list":["post-62319","ground_up_stories","type-ground_up_stories","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-diversity-inclusion","category-ne-media-fellowship","tag-community-participation","tag-marginalised-communities","tag-northeast-india","contributor-rodingliana","schema-filter-article"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Forest guard by day, Bru culture documenter by night | IDR<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"For six years, Vanlaldika Apeto travelled the villages in Mizoram and Tripura to document the cultural traditions of the Bru tribe in the form of a book.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/idronline.org\/ground-up-stories\/forest-guard-by-day-bru-culture-documenter-by-night\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"kn_IN\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Forest guard by day, Bru culture documenter by night\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/JmE8F9kdf88 Vanlaldika Apeto is a resident of Damparengpui village in Mizoram\u2019s Mamit district. By day, he works as a guard with the\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/idronline.org\/ground-up-stories\/forest-guard-by-day-bru-culture-documenter-by-night\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"India Development Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-09-03T11:44:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/idronline.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/mizoram-book.webp\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"680\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/webp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Forest guard by day, Bru culture documenter by night | IDR","description":"For six years, Vanlaldika Apeto travelled the villages in Mizoram and Tripura to document the cultural traditions of the Bru tribe in the form of a book.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/ground-up-stories\/forest-guard-by-day-bru-culture-documenter-by-night\/","og_locale":"kn_IN","og_type":"article","og_title":"Forest guard by day, Bru culture documenter by night","og_description":"https:\/\/youtu.be\/JmE8F9kdf88 Vanlaldika Apeto is a resident of Damparengpui village in Mizoram\u2019s Mamit district. By day, he works as a guard with the","og_url":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/ground-up-stories\/forest-guard-by-day-bru-culture-documenter-by-night\/","og_site_name":"India Development Review","article_modified_time":"2025-09-03T11:44:14+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1024,"height":680,"url":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/mizoram-book.webp","type":"image\/webp"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/ground-up-stories\/forest-guard-by-day-bru-culture-documenter-by-night\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/ground-up-stories\/forest-guard-by-day-bru-culture-documenter-by-night\/"},"author":{"name":"Srishti Gupta","@id":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/#\/schema\/person\/d4ff2d3257254b7863a659b363964a6a"},"headline":"Forest guard by day, Bru culture documenter by night","datePublished":"2025-01-28T09:30:00+00:00","dateModified":"2025-09-03T11:44:14+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/ground-up-stories\/forest-guard-by-day-bru-culture-documenter-by-night\/"},"wordCount":408,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/ground-up-stories\/forest-guard-by-day-bru-culture-documenter-by-night\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/mizoram-book.webp","keywords":["community participation","Marginalised communities","Northeast India"],"articleSection":["Diversity &amp; 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