26/05/2026
“𝐓𝐚𝐢 𝐁𝐢𝐝𝐚 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐎𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐢𝐧 𝐨𝐟 𝐆𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐚 𝐋𝐚𝐤𝐞.”
The folk tale of Tai Bida tells how a man’s greed and a mithun’s sorrow led to the creation or discovery of Ganga Lake (Gekar/Geykar Sinyi) near Itanagar in Arunachal Pradesh. It is a Nyishi tribal story that explains why this forest lake is sacred and why the mithun is treated with special respect .
𝗦𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱
Ganga Lake, locally called Gekar (Gyekar/Geykar) Sinyi or Sinyik, is a natural forest lake about 6 km from Itanagar, within the Itanagar Wildlife Sanctuary. In Nyishi tradition, Tai Bida is remembered as the man associated with the origin or first discovery of this lake, and the story is told as an important local folk tale.
𝗧𝗮𝗶 𝗕𝗶𝗱𝗮 𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗱𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗶𝘁𝗵𝘂𝗻
In the story, Tai Bida is a Nyishi man (often said to be from a village near today’s Sagalee–Toru area) who once went deep into the forest to hunt. There he came across a wild mithun, clearly without any owner, and managed to catch it and bring it home, tying it in his courtyard and raising it with care.
𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗶𝘁𝗵𝘂𝗻’𝘀 𝗴𝗶𝗳𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗧𝗮𝗶 𝗕𝗶𝗱𝗮’𝘀 𝘄𝗲𝗮𝗹𝘁𝗵
Over the years, this mithun turned out to be extraordinary: it produced an unusually large number of healthy offspring, far more than a normal animal would. Thanks to this one mithun and its many calves, Tai Bida’s herd grew until he had hundreds, even “a thousand” mithuns in some versions, making him a very rich man in the village.
𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗱𝗲𝗰𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗼 𝘀𝗮𝗰𝗿𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗰𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗶𝘁𝗵𝘂𝗻
One day, Tai Bida decided to perform a ritual or feast that required the sacrifice of a mithun, and he chose, ungratefully, the original forest mithun that had brought him all his prosperity. That night, while tied in the courtyard, the mithun overheard Tai Bida and his family discussing that it would be killed the next day.
𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗶𝘁𝗵𝘂𝗻’𝘀 𝗲𝘀𝗰𝗮𝗽𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗹𝗼𝗻𝗴 𝘀𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵
Hurt and frightened, the mithun struggled free from the rope around its neck, escaped, and went out into the night, calling its calves. Hearing their mother, all its offspring followed, and by morning the entire herd had left, leaving only their hoofprints leading away from Tai Bida’s house.
When Tai Bida awoke and saw his prized mithun and herd missing, he set out to track them, following the trail of hoof marks through hills, forests, and difficult terrain. He walked a long distance, far from his village, always following the mithuns’ footprints deeper into the wilderness.
𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗶𝗿𝘁𝗵 𝗼𝗿 𝗿𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗼𝗳 𝗚𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗮 𝗟𝗮𝗸𝗲
At last, Tai Bida reached a large, still forest lake where the trail simply ended at the water’s edge: the hoofprints went right up to the lake and then disappeared. In many tellings, people say the mithun and all its children plunged into the lake and vanished, choosing death in the water rather than returning to the master who planned to sacrifice their mother.
Another version says the lake itself was formed from the tears of the betrayed mother mithun, whose sorrow filled the basin and created Ganga Lake. Either way, Tai Bida is remembered as the first person to come upon this lake while following the trail of his lost animals, and so he is linked to its “discovery” and to its mythic origin.
𝗟𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗯𝗲𝗹𝗶𝗲𝗳𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲
Today, Ganga Lake (Gekar/Geykar Sinyi) is a well-known scenic and tourist spot, but among Nyishi people it is also a heritage site tied to the story of Tai Bida and his thousand mithuns. Local accounts say traces like “footprints” on rocks and nearby places such as Budum Langne are connected with Tai Bida’s journey, keeping the memory of the tale alive in the landscape.
The folk tale is often told to teach that greed and ingratitude lead to loss: Tai Bida’s decision to sacrifice the very mithun that made him wealthy causes him to lose not just that animal, but his entire herd. At the same time, the story explains why mithuns are treated as special, almost sacred animals in Arunachal Pradesh, and why the green, enclosed water of Ganga Lake (Gekar Sinyi) is seen as a place with deep emotional and spiritual history.
Video source: Tribal Mythos Al
