Zogam

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ZogamLand of the Zo people
Map of Zomi-inhabited areas.jpg
Zo-inhabited areas
Language Kuki-Chin-Naga Languages
Location Chittagong Hill Tracts, Bangladesh; Manipur and Mizoram, India; Chin State, Myanmar [1]
Today part ofFlag of India.svg  India
Flag of Myanmar.svg  Myanmar
Flag of Bangladesh.svg  Bangladesh
Population1.5 million (2003) [2]

Zogam (or Land of Zo People) known as Zoland, [3] Zoram, Lushai Hills, [4] 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. [1]

Contents

Culture

One Zo folksong delineates the area of Zogam as follows:

Penlehpi leh Kangtui minthang,
A tua tong Zota kual sung chi ua;
Khang Vaimang leh tuan a pupa
Tongchiamna Kangtui minthang aw

Translation:

(The famous Penlehpi and Kangtui
Between the two is the Zomi country
The Southern King and our forefathers
Made an agreement at the famous Kangtui)

This old folk song tells of the area of the Zomi ancestral homeland, for Penlehpi is a Burmese word for the Bay of Bengal and Kangtui is identified with Tuikang (Chindwin River). [5] [ better source needed ]

See also

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The Zomi, also called Tedim Chins and Tiddim people, are a Zomi ethinic group, part of the Zo people, primarily inhabiting the Tedim District in the Chin State of Myanmar. They speak the Zomi language, a northern Kuki-Chin language.

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The Zo people is a term to denote the ethnolinguistically related speakers of the Kuki-Chin languages who primarily inhabit northeastern India, western Myanmar, and southeastern Bangladesh.

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Zomi nationalism is an independence movement in Chin State, 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

  1. 1 2 Zou, David Vumlallian (3 April 2010). "A Historical Study of the 'Zo' Struggle". Economic & Political Weekly. 45 (14): 56–63.
  2. Pau, Pum Khan (2007). "Administrative rivalries on a frontier: problem of the Chin-Lushai Hills". The Indian Historical Review. 34 (1): 187–209. doi:10.1177/037698360703400108.
  3. "Chin Hills (Approved)" Zogam at GEOnet Names Server, United States National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency
  4. See Colonel T. H. Lewin, Wild Races of N.E. India (1870); Lushai Hills Gazetteer (Calcutta, 1906).
  5. ST Hau Go, 'Our People, Our Language, and Our Culture', Rangoon University Chin Cultural and Literature Sub-Committee by the Mizo Union, Aizawl, 26 April 1947, p.8