THE TRADITIONS OF NSAR NGAT AMONG TAROK PEOPLE:

Culture has been defined as the sum total of peoples way of life. The World English Dictionary defines culture as the total of inherited ideas, beliefs, values, and knowledge which constitutes the shared bases of social action, or the total range of activities and ideas of a group of people with shared traditions, which are transmitted and reinforced by members of the group: the Mayan culture. 

According to Dictionary. com traditions means the handing down of statements, beliefs, legends, customs,information, etc., from generation to generation, especiallyby word of mouth or by practice: a story that has come downto us by popular tradition.

From this background, it is certain that human behavior like dressing, belief, language, economic activities, marriage, procreation, socialization, agricultural practices and host of social responses to dominating the harsh environment for survival can be summarize as culture. This concept has been ascribe fetish value among modern tarok people. As a result cultural practices are fast paving way for western values. Traditions which is the peoples way of doing things over a long period of time is not spared by this way of thought. The focus of this write up is to attempt to do justice to one of the significant tarok traditions that have survive modern western thoughts of some scholars and public commentators.

Ngbat is a multi colours belt with a predominant white colour use by the tarok people on different occasions and different purposes. This traditional belt is local weaved by the people and has the following values:-

1. whenever a person lose any of his parents, the maternal uncles known as okyan will tie the belt around the waist of the last child of the deceased meaning that they share with them their moments of grief and that the demise of any of their parents does not end their social ties. It also way of conveying the maternal family's condelense to the bereaved family. The nsar ngat tradition is done immediately after the deceased with have been committed to more earth.

2. Another occasion when ngbat is used among tarok is whenever a person excels in his endeavors. Here, ngbat is tie as mark of honour and it is usually at a gathering of the community or family. At this occasion the most senior member of the family or society performs the traditions, where he is too old or indisposed he can delegate the responsibilities to another person. The significance here is that the community or family is expressing their joy for making them proud. Usually it is a celebration of success and the person may be dressed with other traditional costumes like leopard skin, bow and arrow as mark of victory. Tarok people has lot of respect for the leopard skin, according to oral narration it was the commonest animal the people subdued to occupy their present location. It is also believed that the tarok people equates their behavioral pattern to than of the leopard. Of course, the unassuming disposition of the leopard that usually leave surprises with damaging consequences whenever it faces challenges is a tarok attribute.

3. The third occasion when tarok people use ngbat is when a person is to face challenging assignments, the community leader will tie ngbat around his waist signifying courage of confronting the situation. Here, the person is assured of his peoples support in whatever challenges he will undergo.