Mokokchung, October 9 (MTNews): Padma Shri Dr. Temsüla Ao passed away on Sunday night at around 9: 40 PM in Eden Medical Centre in Dimapur, sources close to the family confirmed.
The renowned poet, scholar, novelist and ethnographer was 80.
Born in Jorhat, Assam, she graduated from Mokokchung’s Fazl Ali College, obtained her Masters from Gauhati University and PhD from the North Eastern Hill University, Shillong from where she retired in 2010 as Professor, Department of English, and Dean of the School of Humanities and Education.
She was awarded Padma Shri in 2007. Two years later, in 2009, she received the Nagaland Governor’s Award for Distinction in Literature. Same year, she was awarded the Governor’s Gold Medal by the Government of Meghalaya.
In 2013, she was the recipient of the Sahitya Akademi Award for her collection of short stories Laburnum for My Head.
From 1992-97, she served as Director of North East Zone Cultural Centre, Dimapur on Deputation from NEHU, and was Fulbright Fellow to University of Minnesota, 1985-86. Her works have been translated into German, French, Assamese, Bengali, Kannada and Hindi.
Temsüla spent 12 years recording the rituals, customs, laws, folktales, myths, belief systems and the like, which was published in 1999 as the ethnographic work The Ao-Naga Oral Tradition.