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Moa Subong
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Science & innovation · Nagaland

The man who taught bamboo to hum

Searching for a new sound for his music, Nagaland's Moa Subong spent months experimenting with bamboo. The result, the Bamhum, became an instrument, a small enterprise and a way to carry Naga culture into new music.

Moa Subongमोआ सुबोंग
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Moa Subong receives the Padma Shri, 2023. Photo: PIB

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Born
8 September 1960
Home
Dimapur, Nagaland
Known for
Bamhum and Tikzik; band Abiogenesis
Honours
NIF award 2017; Padma Shri 2023
2005Bamhum launched in Shillong
2014Tikzik unveiled
2023Padma Shri

Between music and engineering

Moa Subong’s work sits in an unusual place between music and engineering. He developed a bamboo wind instrument called the Bamhum, later created the Tikzik, and with his band Abiogenesis carried forward “Howey music”, an approach that links Naga folk sensibility to modern performance.

How the Bamhum was born

According to official profiles, the name Bamhum comes from “bamboo” and “humming”. The instrument took months of trial and error. It was launched in public on 3 May 2005 at the Shillong International Bamboo Festival. The aim was a bamboo instrument that could be played across different genres while keeping the identity of Naga material culture.

The Bamhum did not come out of an instrument factory. It came from one musician’s search for a new sound, and from trying bamboo again and again until it worked.

From instrument to enterprise

The Bamhum did not stay a stage novelty. The National Innovation Foundation (NIF) supported it with design improvements, finance and help in selling it. Over the years NIF has reported sales of thousands of Bamhums, which links craft, music and a small grassroots enterprise.

Tikzik and Howey music

In 2014 he unveiled another instrument, the Tikzik. With his wife and band-mate Guru Arenla Subong, his band Abiogenesis developed a fusion of Naga folk elements and contemporary sound that they call “Howey music”. The Indian Express and institutional profiles describe this as central to his story of cultural innovation.

Recognition

In 2017 he received the National Grassroots Innovation Award and was an Innovation Scholar-in-Residence. In 2023 he was awarded the Padma Shri. The official award profile records him as a musician, composer, actor, editor and inventor.

His story shows that tradition and innovation are not opposites. Culture can be kept alive not only by playing old instruments, but also by making new things in the language of that culture.

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