Ahom Bogori (Peach)

Ahom Bogori (Assamese আহোম বগৰী) in English is called Peach. It's scientific name is Prunus persica. Peaches resembles and closely related to apricots and plums. Peaches are soft when ripened and are very delicious. Unlike apricot and plum, peaches have one large middle seed. As I googled I found that peach fruit was domesticated and cultivated for the first time in Northwest China. It's a summer fruit and largely available in Assam.

It is believed that the name 'Ahom bogori' is derived from the Kingdom of Ahom. It may be because the Ahoms have brought with them the seeds of peach. Ahom is a large community originally from the Chinese province of Yunnan, which is located on Southwest China. From Yunnan, they migrated into Myanmar and then after crossing the Patkai Mountains entered Assam. The Ahoms have established their dynasty and ruled the Ahom Kingdom, the present day Assam for about 600 years.

We call this fruit as ahom bogori from childhood. But according to some, this fruit is called 'Nora Bogori', which is derived from the Kingdom of Nora. There is a conflict between these two names and I don't know which one is right. I can presume that either Ahoms or Noras brought with them the seeds of peach. Nora or Tai Khamyang, popularly known as Shyam, a small group of indigenous Assamese tai community were also originally migrated from Yunnan province of China and then settled down in Myanmar for some time and then crossing the Patkai mountains entered Assam. As both the groups came from the same place, both of them may have brought with them the seeds of peach and then they may have planted the seeds of peach in Assam. The Nora community is not so popular in Assam and many even doesn't know about their existence in Assam. But I have a close relationship with them as my mother belongs from Nora community.

We had a peach tree at our childhood home. It was a northeast frontier railway quarter house. My mother was an employee there. We had a little garden on both sides of the quarter. In Assamese we call it 'baari'. In one side of our baari we had a guava tree and on the other side we had a peach or ahom bogori tree. My father's job posting was at Guwahati. So we three means my younger brother, my mom and me stayed at Dibrugarh. There was a government primary school near our quarter. When my brother and me were at school and my mom at office, the students of that government primary school used to trespass our baari and used to pluck guavas and peaches. The peach tree was a little shorter than the guava tree and therefore was very easy to pluck peaches with hands. The peach blossoms were light pink in colour and were very beautiful. My mother used to make pickles of peaches.

Now we don't have any peach tree at our home. Now we buy peaches from market. My kids love to eat peach. The picture below is of a simple peach salad I made for my kids.