Assam’s Dimasa people’s Judima rice wine finally gets a GI tag

The home-made rice wine Judima uses a variety of rice cultivated only by the Dimasa tribe

On Sunday, judima of the Dimasa tribe from the Dimasa Hasao district of Assam won the GI tag. A local fermented drink made with rice, Judima derives its name from ju which means wine and Dima means ‘belonging to the Dimasa’. It is a pale yellow or reddish (depending on the colour of rice) drink that is slightly cloudy in appearance, has a mellow fragrance and is sweet to taste. It is made from three different types of saul (rice): red or white bora (the glutinous sticky variety), non-bora (the everyday non-sticky variety) and finally the bairing rice, a unique variety cultivated in Jhum style (terrace farming only by the Dimasa people. Bairing rice is cultivated solely for preparing Judima.

For the Dimasa people, judima is an important part of their tradition, to be used in ceremonies that celebrate birth and mourn death. Of late, the drink is also offered to guests or simply enjoyed at home to call it a day. It is enjoyed by itself or accompanied by mild non-vegetarian dishes, that are mostly non-fried.

The credit for the GI tag should go to Uttam Bathari, managing trustee of Youth Association for Development and Empowerment (YADEM), who initiated the GI proposal in 2018. “Following suggestions that it would be better to apply through a women’s group (since judima is traditionally made by women), we formed a group called Dimajik Hosom (Dimasa women’s organisation) and reapplied for the tag in 2019 along with YADEM,” explains Uttam.