Culture and Indigenous Knowledge: Native Tea among the Nocte Tribe of Tirap District, Arunachal Pradesh

Indigenous cultural practices often function as repositories of historical memory, identity, and ecological knowledge. This article examines the practice of native tea among the Nocte tribe of Tirap district, Arunachal Pradesh, using The Native Tea by Wangtum H. Lowang (2022) as a secondary indigenous narrative source. Employing qualitative interpretive analysis, the study explores how tea practices transmit cultural memory, reinforce collective identity, and sustain cultural continuity amid colonial encounters and missionary interventions. The findings reveal that native tea constitutes a symbolic cultural identity shaped by indigenous agency, selective engagement with missionary influence, and resistance to colonial domination. Through everyday practices of preparation and consumption, native tea emerges as a living archive of indigenous resilience and cultural continuity.