Wancho Indigenous Games in Longding honour Shaurya Chakra soldier Agoi Wangsa

LONGDING – The Wancho Indigenous Games were held in Longding, Arunachal Pradesh, on Thursday, November 13, in memory of Lance Naik Agoi Wangsa, a soldier from the area who was posthumously awarded the Shaurya Chakra. The Assam Rifles said 175 people competed in six traditional events.

The games were organised by the Assam Rifles under Headquarters Inspector General Assam Rifles (North), together with the Wancho Students’ Union and the Wancho Cultural Society, according to a release from the force carried by Nagaland Today. The force held the event under Operation Sadbhavana, its civic action programme in the Northeast.

Six events at the Wancho Indigenous Games

Competitors took part in bamboo climbing, bamboo pushing, a bamboo race, shot put, spear throw and tug of war, the release said. About 600 people, among them local residents and young people, turned out to watch.

The organisers said the Wancho Indigenous Games were meant to keep the community’s traditional sports alive among the young. The release did not name winners, give results, or say where in Longding the events took place.

Who was Agoi Wangsa?

Agoi Wangsa served with the 3rd Battalion of the Assam Regiment, an Indian Army unit, which he joined in 1983. On June 16, 1992, during counter-insurgency operations in Amritsar district, Punjab, he advanced under fire on armed militants and shot one dead at close range, according to his official citation as reported when a war memorial in his honour was unveiled in Longding in April 2025.

He was badly wounded in the encounter and died while being evacuated. He received the Shaurya Chakra, India’s third-highest peacetime gallantry award, posthumously in 1993. His widow, Koiman Wangsa, was honoured at the memorial’s inauguration by Arunachal Pradesh Governor Lt Gen KT Parnaik (retd).

The Wancho community of Longding

The Wancho live in the Patkai hills of Longding district, which was carved out of Tirap district in 2012. They numbered about 57,000 in the 2011 Census and are related to the Konyak of Nagaland and the Nocte of Arunachal Pradesh. Their main festival is Oriah, celebrated in spring.

Longding borders Nagaland’s Mon district and Myanmar. Nagaland.News also covers news from neighbouring Arunachal Pradesh, including the recent Parsi-Parlo house fire in Kurung Kumey district.