Temsüla Ao Biography, Age, Height, Wife, Net Worth and Family

Speaking Tiger published her last book of short stories The Tombstone in my Garden: Stories from Nagaland in early 2022. The book blurb on the back cover describes the collection of five stories as holding ‘a mirror to the lives of everyday people beyond the headlines.’

On 9 April 2022, Nagaland Director General of Police, T John Longkumer, released the book in Dimapur.

At the start of her tenure as the chairperson, she had initiated dialogues between the apex bodies of all tribes of Nagaland in this regard. Five years later, in 2018, she lamented that work around giving women a share in their parental property still remained half-done.

On 28 May 2017, at a programme on Human Trafficking in Phek district of Nagaland, she emphasised the vulnerability of Nagas youth to being trafficked. She called the society to be vigilant. She called people to report cases of abuse and ill-treatment of minors living as maids and domestic helps in Nagaland. She believed that the evil had to be investigated and addressed urgently. At another meeting early in the month, she referred to police data that showed that a person went missing every fourth day in Nagaland. Of these, 83% of missing people were minors. She pointed out that customary law are not well-equipped to deal with practices of human trafficking and police needed to intervene and play a role. She also insisted on proper links between police, child rights agencies, labour department, social welfare departments, mental health agencies, and NGOs to curb human trafficking.

In January 2013, she was appointed as the Chairperson of the Nagaland State Commission for Women. As the chairperson, Ao was very vocal for women’s rights in the state often challenging traditional status quo and legal stalemate.

In 2013, at one of her first public meetings holding the position, she called women and girls to play their part with conviction in the bid to make statutory laws for gender justice work. She was addressing a legal awareness campaign at Kohima College. She called the campaign to acquaint young students to not only give security to their ‘physical selves but to ensure their intellectual growth.’ While appreciating that certain social evils prevalent elsewhere in the country does not exist in Nagaland, she articulated that prevalent gender injustice in the Naga society is due to men persisting in their rigid stance that “governance, like the village council and decision making in the family for instance, is the prerogative of men.” She also chided women for accepting their traditional role despite education. Ao made clear her support for customary law and practices and hailed them for providing “continuity and strength” to the Naga society. However, her critique lied in the inherent gender bias in customary law practices in cases of marriage, divorce and inheritance. She called for open deliberations on these issues for “incorporating changes and fair adjustments in a modern set-up which will be beneficial to women, and where men and women can work together as equals in all respect.” She spent a significant part of her tenure relaying this message to different tribes of Nagaland in their respective districts. In August 2013, at a seminar on gender sensitisation among police personnel, judiciary, and civil society members, Ao boldly stated, “Only when the basic human rights of the Naga women get due acknowledgement from the family, clan, village, and the overall societal framework, can we say that the process of gender sensitisation has truly started in Nagaland.” She recalled that several accounts of gender injustice exist in the Naga society due to the “cultural and traditional norms prevalent… [often impinging] on women’s rights, for being of a different gender.” She called for articulation and protection of women’s identity at “the very existential level.” She called for instituting shelter homes in every district in Nagaland for survivors of gender violence to deal with trauma, provide counselling, and teach livelihood skills. In September 2013, drawing from her experiences, she noted that cases of marital discord in Nagaland mostly go unheard and unattended as the woman is often too traumatised.

Ao received the Padma Shri Award in 2007. She is the recipient of the Governor’s Gold Medal 2009 from the government of Meghalaya. She was widely respected as one of the major literary voices in English to emerge from Northeast India along with Mitra Phukan and Mamang Dai. Her works have been translated into German, French, Assamese, Bengali and Hindi.

Temsüla Ao has published three short story collections. These Hills Called Home: Stories from the War Zone, Zubaan (2005), Laburnum for my Head, Penguin India (2009) and The Tombstone in my Garden: Stories from Nagaland, Speaking Tiger Books (2022).

When she was in the University of Minnesota as a Fulbright fellow, she came in contact with the Native Americans. She learned about their culture, heritage and especially their oral tradition. This exposure inspired her to record the oral tradition of her own community, Ao Naga. After returning from the University of Minnesota, she worked on the oral tradition for about twelve years. She collected the myths, folktales, folklore, rituals, law, custom, belief system. This ethnographic work was published in 1999 as the Ao-Naga oral tradition from Bhasha Publications, Baroda. This book is the most authentic document about the Ao-Naga community.

From 1992 to 1997 she served as Director, North East Zone Cultural Centre, Dimapur on Deputation from NEHU, and was a Fulbright Fellow at the University of Minnesota 1985–86. In 2010, Ao retired as a professor and dean of the English Department at NEHU.

She published a book of literary criticism Henry James’ Quest for an Ideal Heroine. It was published in 1989 from Writers Workshop.

Ao began teaching English in NEHU as a lecturer from December 1975. She completed her PhD in May 1983 under the guidance of Dr. D. P. Singh. Titled The Heroines of Henry James, her thesis examined female protagonists in James’ stories who emerge victorious in their sophisticated and civilised society. For this, Ao analysed the following works of Henry James: The Madonna of the Future, Daisy Miller, Madame de Mauves, Washington Square, The Portrait of a Lady, The Wings of the Dove, and The Golden Bowl.

Temsüla Ao (25 October 1945 – 9 October 2022) was a Naga poet, fiction writer, and ethnographer from India. She was a Professor of English at North Eastern Hill University (NEHU) from where she retired in 2010. She served as the Director of the North East Zone Cultural Centre between 1992 and 1997 on deputation from NEHU. She was awarded the Padma Shri award for her contribution to Literature and Education. Her book Laburnum For My Head received the Sahitya Akademi Award for English writing in the short story category. Her works have been translated into Assamese, Bengali, French, German, Hindi, and Kannada.

On 25 October 1945, Temsüla was born to Imnamütongba Changkiri and Nokintemla Longkumer in Jorhat. She had five siblings. When her youngest brother was only beginning to crawl, her parents died within nine months of each other. Thereafter, her youngest two siblings were taken to their ancestral village Changki village in Mokokchung district to live with their father’s younger brother. The four eldest siblings–Khari, Tajen, Temsüla, and Along–stayed at Jorhat under the guardianship of Khari who was temporarily employed in Jorhat Mission Hospital. Soon, the youngest among the four, Along, was also taken to Changki. When Tajen got appointed as an assistant teacher in the village primary school, he took on the responsibilities of the younger siblings at Changki. Ao summarises her difficult childhood and adolescene in her memoir Once upon a Life as ‘fractured childhood.’ Her ancestral family were involved in the early settlement of Changki village and her visits and affinity to the village helped her “reaffirm the sensibilities that have given me my intrinsic identity.”