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MIZO: MYTHS AND LEGENDS

The term Mizo is a generic term that includes diferent tribes whoinhabit the entire land o Mizoram, whose culture, traditions, dialect etc. aresimilar and commonly designated by the term Mizo. They are all closelyrelated to one another in physical eatures and in their socio- culturalpractices, orming a distinct ethnic unit. For a number o reasons such asenironment, geographical location, cultural in!uences, administratieconenience etc. many o the said Mizo clans lost their identity as Mizo. The"usei clan is the dominant clan among the arious clans o the Mizo and hasten commoners clans. The "usei or #uhlian $now called the Mizo tawng%, isthe dialect o the "usei&Mizo clans and is now the lingua francaunderstoodthroughout the state o Mizoram.

'acially, the Mizo are said to be o Mongoloid origin and are groupedunder the Tibeto-(urman amily, spea)ing a Tibeto-(urman language. The

Mizo are belieed to hae migrated rom the southern part o *hina,particularly +ze-*hwan and the northern portion o unnan proince. t issuggested that +outhern *hina and the entire ringe o the astern perimetero the plateau between /ansu and (urma may be considered as the originalhome o the tribal people liing in northeast ndia as well as in *hin hills o(urma including the Mizo. Then the *hin groups including the Mizo graduallymoed southward arriing at the alley o *hindwin in (urma $now Myanmar%in the 0th century 1#. n the ne2t century, they occupied the /abaw alley oMyanmar where they lied or a number o centuries. t is here that theyorganised themseles into clans assuming distinct identities. #ue to the+han inasion, the Mizos were gradually pushed rom the /abaw alley to the

*hin 3ills o (urma. The *hin 4roups $including the Mizo% were the earliestimmigrants that occupied the *hin hills o (urma beore the (urmese arriedand settled in the plains. The *hin groups are said to hae arried in the *hinhills o (urma during the 5rst hal o the 67thcentury 1#.

Chhinlung Myths :

1 common theory o origin which the Mizo sub-tribes inariably share isthe *hhinlung legend. (ut it aries in details ro one tribe to another andpeoples o eery group o Mizolanguage amilies hae the same traditionthat all are originated rom *hhinlung.

Lusei version8 all the peoples and all clans emerged rom a cae called*hhinlung, and that the people were streaming out two 'alte people cameout chattering so noisily that the guard o the entrance shut the gate withstone shutter thin)ing too many people had come out.

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Old u!i "l#ns$1imol, 1nal, *hiru, /olhen, /om lam9ang, :urum, Ti)hup and;aphei ersion 8 all assert that they are descended rom couples who issuedout o the earth, the *hhinglung o the "ushais being replaced by /hurpui

Th#do u!i %replaces *hhinlung by /hul

Hr 8 < /huo sinlungah )ot siel ang )a zuong suo) a, mi leh nel lo tam ie,hriemmi zingah $"i)e a sial, hustled out o *hhinlung town, and beheld aast number o people amongsat the human races this ballad is belieed bysome , composed 9ust beore the coming out o the *hhinlung cae. (uttoday, many o the scholars argued that it is composed at a later period.

L#i version $ Tradition ascribe that the "ais originally came out o*hhinlung, not a mythical roc) as said by some, but a hole in the groundcoered with a stone, in the east o the +han +tate, in the Falam+ub-#iisiono the *hin 3ills #istrict in (urma $Myanmar%. t was belieed that "ai tribes

originate rom somewhere in *hina. *hindwin ;alley and the *hin 3ills and5nally came to the present "airam. The areas inhabited by the "ai arecontiguous to one another although they are at present in diferentadministratie units. Their concept o *hhinlung is something li)e a caerom which all o the Mizo language amily came out. The Tradition goes thatthe progenitors o the "ai came out o the cae that was belieed to besomewhere in =orthern *hina, or between *hina and Tibet. The limitation othis theory is that human came out o the cae is biologically impossible.Thereore, the "ai and all other Mizo language amily were belieed to haecome out o the 4reat >all o *hina due to heay wor)load that was beyondtheir ability to bear.

There arose ?uestion whether *hinlung is a place name or a personsname, but di@cult to decide. The signi5cance o the *hhinlung legendcannot be underestimated despite seeral di@cult ?uestions inoled with it.

a% t is the only liing oral tradition o the people and thus seres to helpall the Mizo sub-tribes to hae a sense o their common origin and towor) towards maintaining their ethnic homogeneity. 1ll the sub-tribesaccepted that they are *hhinlung chhua) $people coming rom*hhinlung%

b% This theory hints at the system o chietainship in Mizo society rom

anti?uityc% t indicates the ast as the original home o the Mizo-underlining their

common origin with seeral peoples in east and southeast 1siad% This oral tradition coincidentally agrees with the theory lately

established by social anthropologists that the hills and plains peopleshae moed about within the general region o southwest *hina andsoutheast 1sia oer considerable distances or many centuries untilrecent centuries

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