Katung Wahge

Founder

Founder of Donyi Polo Cultural & Charitable Trust

Katung Wahge is the founder of Donyi Polo Cultural & Charitable Trust [1], an Indian non-profit working on arts & culture, education and tribal welfare.

Katung Wahge is an Indian engineer and community leader from the Nyishi community of Arunachal Pradesh. After a career in the state's Public Works Department, from which he retired as chief engineer in 2021, he founded the Donyi Polo Cultural and Charitable Trust, which works to preserve the languages, traditions and knowledge of the state's indigenous communities and to run schools in which these are taught alongside a modern curriculum.

Career

Wahge was the first officer of his generation from the Nyishi community. He joined government service in 1985 as an engineer with the Central Public Works Department and was first posted to Anini, then several days' travel from the state capital. He served in various parts of Arunachal Pradesh, with his longest posting in the Itanagar capital region, and retired as chief engineer of the Public Works Department on 30 July 2021.

The Donyi Polo Cultural and Charitable Trust was established in 2019 by a group of social workers from indigenous communities, guided by Wahge's proposal, and registered under the Indian Trusts Act. Wahge is its founder and chairman.

In 2020 he established the Nyibu Nvwgam Yerko at Rang in East Kameng district, a school intended to combine modern academic teaching with the rituals, language and cultural identity of Arunachal's indigenous communities. Three further institutions followed the same model: Nyibu Nwgam Yerko at Mwya in Keyi Panyor district, Menjwk Menqkok Rwguu at Basar in Leparada district, and Nilung Tungko at Komsing in Siang district.

Recognition

In October 2025 Wahge was conferred the Sant Eshwer Samman at a ceremony at the Bharat Ratna C. Subramaniam Auditorium in New Delhi, for his contribution to education and the preservation of indigenous values.[2][3][4][5]

Donyi Polo Cultural & Charitable Trust

DPCCT works with the indigenous communities of Arunachal Pradesh to preserve and promote their unique cultures. It runs Gurukuls that blend traditional indigenous knowledge with modern academics across multiple locations, alongside indigenous-language development, cultural centres and community health initiatives reaching over 5,000 families.

Donyi Polo Cultural & Charitable Trust reports the following, on its own site: