Phaneng: A journey into personal engagement

Samar Jodha first came across members of the Tai Phake tribe in the winter of 2004, while driving along the historic Stilwell road from Southwest China into India’s cloistered northeast on a documentary project. Over the years he has spent a large part of his engagement with members of this community in Phaneng, a small village in upper Assam. Due to various reasons, their numbers a mere 1500 today and is on the verge of extinction.

His involvement in Phaneng has been with an education project, rebuilding a monastery, and a unique eco-tourism project that has built local capacity as well as raised incomes. His proximity to the Tai Phake community, their trust in him, the years spent documenting various facets of their life, all this gradually led him towards this large format portraiture project.