Former chairperson of Nagaland Women Commission, Padma Shri Dr. Temsüla Ao passed away on Sunday night at Eden Medical Centre, Dimapur. Born on October 25, 1945, Dr. Temsula leaves behind one son, three daughters and grandchildren.
According to family sources, the funeral service will be held on October 10 at 1 p.m. at family residence, Lengrijan Dimapur.
Wife of former MLA late Assamwati Longkumer and mother of incumbent DGP Nagaland TJ Longkumer, late Temsula also served as director of North East Zone Cultural Centre. She was also the recipient of the Governor’s Gold Medal (Meghalaya 2009) and Sahitya Akademi Award. She is widely respected as one of the major literary voices in English to emerge from Northeast India and her works have been translated into German, French, Assamese, Bengali and Hindi.
A renowned short story writer and ethnographer, late Temsula also served a professor of English at North Eastern Hill University (NEHU) and was a Fulbright Fellow at the University of Minnesota, USA (1985–86). Till date she has published five poetic works, one book on Henry James Quest for an Ideal Heroine, a book on Ao-Naga Oral Tradition and two short story collections– These Hills Called Home: Stories from the War Zone and Laburnum for my Head. Her second book of short stories Tombstone in My Garden was published in 2022.
Some of her poems are prescribed texts in the M.A. English syllabus of Nagaland University and M. Phil English Syllabus of NEHU.
She has an entry on Folklore of Nagaland in the Greenwood Encyclopaedia of World Folklore and Folk Life, Westport Connecticut.
Thursday, July 31, 2025