DNA SPECIAL: This Naga village with 'Myanmar voters' blurs borders

People of Lungwa, a village on the India-Myanmar border in Nagaland, do not believe in man-made boundaries that divide countries. It is a road that runs through the village that acts as the border separating India and Myanmar.

With Indians and Myanmese co-existing peacefully in this village, which has nearly 3,400 registered voters, the demarcation is so blur that the people on the Myanmar side often end up voting in elections on either side.

Tuesday's Assembly election in Nagaland may see voters from the Myanmar side.

Separate identities based on nationality mean little to these villagers belonging to the fierce Konyak tribe, known for their warrior and hunting skills.

It's not just voters who are scattered all over and across the border, one of the candidates from Lungwa, too, has his home falling in Myanmar.

Yepa Konyak, a 32-year-old Lungwa resident whose house falls in Myanmar, is excited to vote this Assembly election.

"I voted in 2015, when the election in Burma (Myanmar) was held," he says nonchalantly.

Alai, a 27-year-old woman who has also voted on both sides in the past, seems comfortable with her dual identity.

Lungwa also has a Myanmar government-run school that has classes up to the fourth standard.

Yepa says he went to school in Mon, the district headquarters 40 km away.

"India-Myanmar is the same. If I work in India, my address would be Lungwa, India, and if I decide to find a job in Myanmar, it will be Lungwa, Myanmar," he says.

From Mon, it takes a two-hour bumpy drive on a rickety road that snakes through bamboo plantations to reach Lungwa, the drive interspersed with frequent sights of children waving to passing vehicles.

The place has become a pilgrimage for writers and documentary filmmakers working on ethnic origins of the Naga people straddled between India and Myanmar.

The house of the village chief, Angh (King) Tonyie Konyak, is divided between two countries. He owns 42 villages, 30 of which fall in Myanmar.

Tonyie proudly says he recently gave 20 hectares of land to build the International Trade Centre to facilitate business at the border.

A large room in his house, where a group of men have got together for their dose of 'kanni', (opium), falls in Myanmar. He points to the corridor outside, running through the family home, and explains, "Where you are sitting right now is Burma. Across is India."

Others in the room are more interested in heating small pieces of opium-soaked cloth over fire and extracting the liquid that is then filled in chillums (smoking pipes).

The men sip black tea as they smoke, disinterested in the Angh narrating the family history.

The main hall of the house, where a feast is on as part of the election campaigning, is divided between two countries.

At 47, Tonyie has two wives and nine children. His father had 14 brides, giving him more than 40 siblings.

"The eldest son of my first wife will be the next king."

His younger brother was part of the Myanmar Army till a few months ago; he has returned to the village and has decided to stay at the family home.

Under a Free Movement Regime (FMR) clause signed between the two countries, residents living in the border areas are allowed to move up to 16 km into India and Myanmar.

The residents of Lungwa attend family functions and meet friends on the other side regularly, but with poor or absent roads, the commute is slow.

The nearest villages in Myanmar from here are Yangchok and Khamoi. While it takes up to two hours by foot to reach there, a bike can cover the distance in 30-40 minutes, locals say.