abstract - Zomi Online Library

3
Tibeto-Burman family and his folklore savours of the Arabian Nights.(The Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1959)
1.3 _ CHINS
A group of tribes of Mongol origin, occupying the southernmost part of the mountain ranges separating Burma from
India... Chin villages, often of several hundred houses, were traditionally self-contained units, some ruled by council of
elders, others by headmen. There were also hereditary chiefs who exercised political control over large areas and
received tribute from cultivators of the soils... The Chins have much in common with the Kuki, Lushai, and Lakher
people and speak related Tibeto-Burman languages... Domestic animals, kept mainly for meat, are not milked or used for
traction. Chief among them is the mithan, a domesticated breed of the Indian wild ox...Traditional religion comprises of
a belief in numerous deities and spirits, which may be propitiated by offerings and sacrifices. Christian missions have
made many converts...“(The New Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1986)
1.4 _ MIZOS, also called LUSHAI, or LUSEI
Tibeto-Burman - speaking people numbering about 270,00... Like the Kuki tribes, with which they have affinities... Every
village, though comprising members of several distinct clans, was an independent political unit ruled by a hereditary
chief. The stratified Mizo society consisted originally of chiefs, commoners, serfs and slaves(war captives). The British
suppressed feuding and headhunting but administered the area through the indigenous chiefs...“(The New
Encyclopaedia Brittanica, 1986)
1.5 _ KUKI-CHIN-VÖLKER [Kuki-Chin-Peoples]
A collective name for a group of old Mongoloid peoples and tribes (population in 1985, 3. 5 million) in West Burma, East
India and Bangladesh. It covers several other small tribes that are closely linked to the Kukis such as Chins,
Mizo(Lushai) and the Meiteis or Manipuris in the Manipur plains... There was also headhunting. The Meiteis have
become Hindus and there are several Christians among the Mizos and Chins.(Brockhaus Enzyklopädie, 1990)*
1.6 _ THE CHINS*
The Chins, who dwell in the mountainous regions of West Burma and East India, are well-skilled in fishing, hunting and
weaving fine textiles...“(Burma: Weltmission heute Nr. 22/ Evangelisches Missionwerk in Deutschland, 1996). Remark:
This 205-page book on Burma, prepared by the Evangelical Mission Work in Germany, under the title of Burma: World
Mission Today No. 22, devouts only twelve lines or six sentences on the Chins. tzd
1.7 _ THE TERM “CHIN“ IS IMPRECISE
It is a Burmese word(khyang), not a Chin word... No single Chin word has explicit reference to all the peoples we
customarily call Chin, but all - nearly all - of the peoples have a special word for themselves and those of their
congeners with whom they are in regular contact. This word is almost always a variant form of a single root, which
appears as zo, yo, ks u,s u, and the like. The word means, roughly, “unsophisticated“...[p. 3]. Another group of Kuki-
Chin speakers are the Kuki(Shakespear, 1912). Kuki appears to be a Manipuri term. (Manipuri, or Meitei, is the Kuki-Chin
language of a long-Hinduized people who have for many centuries ruled the Manipur Valley.). Kuki peoples inhabit the
relatively low hill country in Manipur, Cachar, Tripura (or Tiperah), and possibly the northern part of the Chittagong Hills
Tracts. The so-called New Kuki, especially the Thado, are Northern Chin who were pushed out of the Chin Hills proper
into Manipur and into the Naga Hills of Burma and Assam by Lushai in the middle of the nineteenth century. Some of the
Old Kuki, such as the Vaiphei(see Carey and Tuck, 1896; Needham, 1959), consist of refugees from the Chin Hills who
were forced out earlier by similar pressure at the end of the eighteenth century...[p. 5]. The 1931 Census of India
reported about 345,000 persons speaking about forty-four distinct Chin and Chin-related dialects(Census of India, 1939,
pp. 183-184, 189). Most of these dialects and languages are mutually unintelligible. Embress and Thomas, 1956(p. 14)