Hornbill Festival Kohima Nagaland Sixteen Tribes

The Hornbill Festival held every December in Kisama Heritage Village near Kohima brings together all sixteen officially recognised Naga tribes to perform traditional dances, display indigenous crafts, and share tribal cuisine. Named after the hornbill bird revered across Naga cultures as a symbol of bravery and beauty, the festival showcases Naga morungs (tribal community houses), war dances, stone pulling rituals, traditional wrestling, and traditional music performed on log drums and bamboo flutes. Naga women display intricate shawl weaving in tribal patterns. The festival is a living archive of Naga identity that was fractured by decades of insurgency and connectivity challenges. Craft cooperatives sell genuine Naga shawls, beadwork, and smoked pork directly to festival visitors.