SHANGMIYANG, the tanghkul giant

"A little book about the gentle, BIG giant who sneezed up a storm..."

The Hindu

(Young World, February 17, 2006)

Shanmiyang-the tangkhul giant by Birendra Kumar Bhattacharya is a part of a larger novel called Yaruingam. This is a story about a little boy who loves his grandmother's house and his grandmother who tells him a story every night. The close-up pictures of the grandmother and his face with the black lettering in the background form a lovely picture of warm camaraderie between the old and the young. Shanmiyang may be a giant, but being one with a difference he is as gentle as can be. His breath is healing and forms the main crux of the story.

The art is what constitutes the main appeal. The colours add to the mood and highlight the fine lines of the drawings.

- Paromita Pain

The New Indian Express

(School Magazine, June 28, 2006)

The story of Shangmiyang - The Tangkhul Giant is a very simple and straightforward story of a giant who sneezed up a storm.

Koncheng loves his grandmother's home the most and loves her stories. But his favourite story is about Shangmiyang, the giant. Shangmiyang is a humongous giant in a place called Tangkhul. The descriptions of the giant the author gives are interesting. A group of potters lose their way and are on the giant and don't realise the fact, thinking they are on land. They find a way into the nostril of Shangmiyang (which looked like caves) and start a fire there to work on their pots. The giant finally is irritated by the fire and sneezes a big one. The powerful sneeze blows the potters in different directions. The author in the story form uses the tale to tell why there are so many Tangkhul potters all over the world.

The book has some very interesting and colourful narrations with very simple narration. The story has no morals but is fun to read, not more than once though.

- Nanditha Suresh.

The author

Eminent Asomiya writer Birendra Kumar Bhattacharya was a poet, a short story writer and a novelist of repute. He wrote twenty novels, sixty short stories, a hundred poems, ten plays and innumerable essays and articles. He has also translated classics from Bengali and English into Assamese. The Story of Shangmiyang, the Tanghkul Giant, is excerpted and retold from his novel, Yaruingam, which fetched him the prestigious Sahitya Akademi award in 1961. He also won the Jnanpith award in 1979.

The illustrator

Suddhasattwa Basu is a renowned illustrator, painter and maker of animation films for television. For The Song of a Scarecrow, a picture book written and illustrated by him, he won the Katha Chitrakala Award 2002 and received an honourable mention at the Bienniel of Illustrations 2003, Bratislava. He has also illustrated Ka: The Story of Garuda for Katha.

Publishers: Katha

32 pages, size 8.25 X 6

Age Group: 4 - 7 years

ISBN 81-89020-37-4

Price: Rs 80 (in India and the subcontinent)