Welcome
As a world leader in the study of Africa, Asia and the Middle East, we are putting some of our collections of archives, manuscripts, rare books, photographs, audio and film material on-line, to contribute to world-wide research. All material on this site is freely available for non-commercial use under Creative Commons licence CC BY-NC-ND. For any use other than personal research, including commercial uses or publication in print or online, please contact us: docenquiry@soas.ac.uk
The first collection to be made available was the photographic archive of Christoph von Fürer-Haimendorf (1909-1995). This collection is widely recognised as the world's most comprehensive visual documentation of tribal cultures in South Asia and the Himalayas. We are currently reviewing what further material to add to these webpages.
This Web site is an onging project If you find something that doesn't work or that you think would make a useful addition, please use the Feedback link at the bottom of the page.
Other digitised resources at SOAS
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Treasures of SOAS
Brunei GalleryFeatured Gallery
Ropi ritual
Apatanis conduct a ropi ritual when humans or certain animals are killed in a violent manner. In the past, the hands of a human victim were usually brought back to the killer's village and burned in front of a ritual hut during chanting and dancing. While this ritual is no longer celebrated for human deaths, it is still performed for the killing of jungle cats because Apatanis believe that these animals have close genealogical links with humans. As with humans, the ritual is intended to prevent retaliation by the victim's spirit or descendants.
