Why Apatani women were forced to live with plugs in their noses

In the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, in the northeastern part of the country, in an unusually fertile valley at an altitude of about 1.5 kilometers above sea level, the amazing Apatani people live. They do not use money, and products are still a measure of value here, they pray to heavenly bodies, believe shamans and grow carps in rice fields. Since ancient times, these people took care of their valley and gained fame as the best farmers in Arunachal.

The size of the tribe is small and amounts to about 26,000 people. They all believe in the pagan religion of Donji Polo, in which the Sun embodies the feminine essence, and the Moon - the masculine.

Apatani women have always been considered the most beautiful in Arunachal, and once men of neighboring tribes got into the habit of stealing their wives directly from the fields. Then the elders of the people decided to fight the theft of brides. They forced the girls to apply tattoos on their faces, as well as make incisions on their nose and insert plugs called Yaping Hullo. According to legend, when the abductors saw a woman with such a disfigured face, they did not touch her.

This ancient tradition operated in Apatani until the 1970s, gradually fading away. However, the photographer Cesari Wyszynski was able to visit the tribe and take stunning pictures of women who made a long tradition. Together with these elderly women, an entire era of the life of an amazing people will disappear in history.