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Chin State is a state in western Myanmar. The 36,019-square-kilometre (13,907 sq mi) Chin State is bordered by Sagaing Division and Magway Division to the east, Rakhine State to the south, the Chittagong Division of Bangladesh to the west, and the Indian states of Mizoram to the west and Manipur to the north. The population of Chin state is about 478,801 according to the 2014 census. The capital of the state is Hakha. The state is a mountainous region with few transportation links. Chin State is sparsely populated and remains one of the least developed areas of the country. Chin State has the highest poverty rate of 73% as per the released figures from the first official survey. The official radio broadcasting dialect of Chin is Falam. There are 53 different subtribes and languages in Chin State. There are nine townships in Chin State: Hakha, Thantlang, Falam, Tedim, Tonzang, Matupi, Mindat, Kanpetlet and Paletwa townships. In 1896, Mindat and Kanpetlet were placed under Pakokku Hill Tracts District of British Burma later emerged into Chin hills. Only Paletwa Township became a part of Arakan Hill Tracts of British Burma.
The Chin people are an ethnic group native to the Chin State of Myanmar, and India's northeast states. Strictly speaking, the term "Chin" only refers to the 53 sub-tribes of the Chin ethnic group, divided and recognized by the Burmese government. They speak the Kuki-Chin–Naga languages, which are often mutually unintelligible but are closely related.
The Mizo language, or Mizo ṭawng, is a Kuki-Chin-Mizo language belonging to the Tibeto-Burman branch of the Sino-Tibetan family, spoken natively by the Mizo people in the Mizoram state of India and Chin State and Sagaing Division in Myanmar. The language is also known as Duhlian and Lushai, a colonial term, as the Duhlian people were the first among the Mizos to be encountered by the British in the course of their colonial expansion. The Mizo language is mainly based on Lusei dialect but it has also derived many words from its surrounding Mizo sub-tribes and sub-clan. Now, Mizo language or Mizo ṭawng is the lingua franca of Mizoram and its surrounding areas and to a lesser extent of Myanmar and Bangladesh and in India in some parts of Assam, Tripura, Manipur, Meghalaya and Nagaland. Many poetic languages are derived from Pawi, Zomi, and Hmar, and most known ancient poems considered to be Mizo are actually in Pawi. Mizo is the official language of Mizoram, along with English, and there have been efforts to have it included in the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of India.
Tedim (Burmese: တီးတိန်မြို့; MLCTS: ti: tin mrui., pronounced [títeɪ̀ɰ̃ mjo̰], (Zo: Tedim Khawpi, pronounced ; is a town in and the administrative seat of Tedim Township, Chin State, in the north-western part of Burma. It is the second largest town in Chin State. The town's four major boroughs are: Sakollam, Myoma, Lawibual and Leilum. The population is primarily Zomi.
The Zou people are an indigenous community living along the frontier of India and Burma, they are a sub-group of the Zo people (Mizo-Kuki-Chin). In India, they live with and are similar in language and habits to the Paite and the Simte peoples. In Burma, the Zou are counted among the Chin people.They are a hill people, "Zou" may plainly means "Hills" denoting the Zous are "people of the hills" or "of the hills", and "Zou" has also a different meaning in Zou language that is "complete" or another word for it is "finish". But, the Zou people believed that they incepted the name 'Zou' from their forefather 'Zou' or 'Zo', believed to be the progenitor of the broad Chin-Kuki-Mizo people.
Zo is a Northern Kuki-Chin-Mizo language originating in western Burma and spoken also in Mizoram and Manipur in northeastern India.
Vangte or Vangteh is a large village in southern Tedim Township, Falam District, Chin State, in Myanmar. Vangteh is also the name of the village tract where Vangte lies.
Guite is the progenitor clan of Mizo people He is also said to be the Older Brother of Thadou progenitor of the Thadou people. Mostly the Guite clan speak mizo language. Some known as Zomi and few also as Kuki in India and as Chin in Myanmar (Burma). Depending on local pronunciation, the clan was also called differently such as Nguite, Vuite, and was also recorded even as Gwete, Gwite, Nwite. In accord with the claim of their solar origin, the Guite clan has been called nampi, meaning noble or major or even dominant people, of the region in local dialect in the past.
Goukhothang, Raja was a prince from the Guite family of Zomi also known as Tedim Chin in Myanmar (Burma) and Paite in India. He was known as the then leader of all Zo people as Carey and Tuck also noted him as the Yo Chief of Mwelpi he was later capture by meetei Maharaj Chandrakirti and died in Imphal jail unconditionally. According to his documentary video presentation released in 2006, he was born in Tedim-Lamzang of present Chin State (Myanmar-Burma), one of the then political centers of the Guite dynasty. He succeeded his father, his lordship Prince Mang Suum II, in 1855, and moved the capital to fortified city of Mualpi of present Tonzang township of Chin State. In commemoration of his lordship, a football tournament is bi-annually held in Lamka (Churachandpur) by Ropiang Foundation Trust.
Zogam known as Zoland, Lushai Hills, Kuki Hills, lies in the northwest corner of the Mainland Southeast Asia landmass. This is the traditional ancestry homeland of the Zo people or Zomi who lived in this area before the colonial period under British rulership.
The Kuki-Chin languages are a branch of 50 or so Sino-Tibetan languages spoken in northeastern India, western Myanmar and southeastern Bangladesh. Most speakers of these languages are known as Mizo in Mizoram and Manipur. Also, as Kukī in Assamese and Bengali and as Chin in Burmese; some also identify as Zomi. Mizo is the most widely spoken of the Kuki-Chin languages. The Kuki-Chin language has official status in both Chin State and Mizoram as Chin and Mizo respectively.
The Zo people are an ethnic group which inhabit areas of India, Myanmar and the Chittagong hill tracts of Bangladesh. The word Zohnatlâk/Zo is used to describe an ethnic group, which is also known as the Chin, the Mizo, the Kuki, or a number of other names based on geographic distribution, that speaks the Kuki-Chin languages. They are from same origin which is known as Sinlung. They spread throughout the northeastern states of India, northwestern Myanmar and the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh. In northeastern India, they are present in Tripura, Nagaland, Mizoram, Manipur, Meghalaya and Assam.
The Tedim or Zomi language is spoken mostly in Myanmar and India. In Chin State (Khamtunggam), it is spoken in Tedim and Tonzang townships, while in Sagaing Division, it is spoken in Kalay and Mawlaik townships (Ethnologue). Dialects are Sokte and Kamhau.
Rih Dil is a natural lake located in northwestern Chin State in Myanmar. It lies at about 3 kilometers from Zokhawthar, the nearest village situated at an Indo-Burma border. It has a heart-shaped outline. It is about 1 mile in length, half-a-mile in width, about 3 miles in circumference and about 60 feet in depth.
The Neihsial is an ethnic group found in northeastern India. Members of this group are largely concentrated in the Churachandpur, Senapati, Chandel District and Tamenglong district of the Indian state of Manipur. There is also a sizable population in the neighboring Chin State of Myanmar.
Khai Kam was a leader of the Chin people in Myanmar. Two years after the British Indian Army invaded and conquered Chin State's Chin Hills in the late nineteenth century, he headed an insurrection against British rule. His campaign was unsuccessful, and he was captured and sentenced to life imprisonment on the Andaman Islands. He returned to his homeland in 1910 when the British authorities granted him early release.
The Khup Lian Inscription is a bi-lingual inscription located at the top of Lophei village in Chin State, Myanmar. It is located 5 miles from the well-known Fort White which in turn is located at halfway between the 48-mile Tedim-Kalaymyo motor car road. The inscription is a brief autobiography of him, including his genealogy, the capture of a semi-automatic rifle in a hand-to-hand combat with a British soldier during the first British invasion of Chin Hills in the year of 1888-1889, his involvement in the Sizang-Gungal rebellion of 1892-94 and also about his hunting trophies. The inscription is written in both Burmese and English.
Hrianghmun, also known as Hiangmun, is a village in the Champhai district of Mizoram, India. The villagers speak Tedim language which found its root in Myanmar. It is located in the Ngopa R.D. Block. It is inhabited by the Zomi people. Some villagers particularly Naulak boy who are currently residing in Aizawl are advocating to change Hrianghmun to Hiangmun.
Fort Siallum, is a defensive fort in Chin State, Myanmar, built during the British annexation of Chin Hills, Myanmar. The fort was built by the Chin (Sizang) in the year of 1889 and located near Voklak village in Tedim Township, Myanmar.
Northern Kuki-Chin is a branch of Kuki-Chin languages. It is called Northeastern Kuki-Chin by Peterson (2017) to distinguish it from the Northwestern Kuki-Chin languages. VanBik (2009:31) also calls the branch Northern Chin or Zo.
References
- Carey, Bertram S. and Henry N. Tuck. The Chin Hills: A History of the People, Our Dealings with Them, Their Customs and Manners, and a Gazetteer of Their Country. Rangoon, Burma: Government Printing, 1896.
- Goswami, M. C. & H. Kamkhenthang. ‘Clan Among the Paite.’ In Bulletin of the Department of Anthropology, Vol. IV. Guahati University, 1975: 22.
- Khai, Sing K. Zo People and Their Culture. Lamka, Churachandpur, India: Khampu Hatzaw, 1995.
- Sinha, Surajit. Tribal Polities and State Systems in Pre-Colonial Eastern and North Eastern India. Culcutta, India: Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, K. P. Bagchi & Co., 1987.
- Zam, Ngul Lian (Guite), B.A. Mualthum Kampau Guite Hausate Tangthu (Chronicle of Guite Chiefs the Sovereign Lord of Three Mountain Regions). Amazon/CreateSpace, United States, 2018, ISBN 978-1721693559.