A TRIBE in north-eastern India has invited two Oxford schoolboys to help light the torch in their very first 'Olympic' games.

The Zeme Olympics are being held by the Zeme Naga people this week in Nagaland, India.

Brothers Seth and Lukas Kahn, aged 10 and seven, made the 'once in a lifetime' trip from Risinghurst to the opening ceremony.

Their mum Alison Kahn, anthropologist and director of the Oxford Documentary Film Institute, was invited on a filmmaking expedition to document the inaugural games.

She was asked to bring her boys so they can have a role in the opening parade, lighting the Olympic torch with the Naga children.

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Dr Kahn said: "It's quite an adventure. It's an amazing place and it's got massive connections with the Pitt Rivers Museum.

"It's going to be a massive sporting event with hundreds of people.

"These people are one of the last tribes that have not been completely Westernised, they don't have internet and most don't have roads to their villages.

"It's a real expedition, it's a once in a lifetime thing."

She said the boys, who are pupils at St Joseph's Catholic Primary School in Headington, are 'really excited' to take part.

The school granted leave for the boys, after Jeremiah Pame, president of the Zeme Olympic Association, wrote to Dr Kahn.

He said: "We hope the school authority will understand how much it means to our people.

"We shall be so grateful to the school authority for letting them fulfill the wish of our tribe."

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About 10 years ago, Dr Kahn discovered old film rolls from the 1930s and 40s in the Oxford museum's archives, created by Ursula Graham Bower, about Nagaland.

Her efforts to uncover the work have resulted in Ms Bower being celebrated in the Pitt Rivers exhibition Intrepid Women.

The Zeme people, aware of her work, approached her to attend the Zeme Games.

She said: "I want to help them - I don't want to sit in an ivory tower in Oxford, I want to get out and do something meaningful.

"It's a way of saying [to my sons] that you can make a difference in the world, even if you don't come from a really privileged background."

The family, including dad Aaron Kahn, who is also joining the adventure, took part in several sponsored 10km runs to help pay for travel to India.

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The games began yesterday and run until Tuesday, uniting the Zeme people from more than 210 villages spread across three states of India - Assam, Manipur and Nagaland.

Games will include Western sports such as athletics and volleyball, as well as some indigenous sports.

In the letter to Dr Kahn, Mr Pame added: "The flame of Zeme Olympics will be jointly lit by different people belonging to different villages, tribes and races.

"Since we have shared history with people from the US and England, who came and lived among our people in the form of Missionaries, scholars and administrators, we hope to re-walk a path of history by lighting the flame together."

He said the games aimed to 'promote talent among the youth, enhance peace and unity and to build brighter future for the Zeme tribe'.