The Lushei Kuki Clans — Themes and Context

Lushai or Dulien, Grammar, Word for word translation.

Families and Branches of Lushei Clan 125

Division of Clans into Five Groups 129

Clans included in the term Lushai 130

Chawte, Chongthu, Hnamte, Kawlni, Kawlhring, Kiangte, Ngente, Paotu, Rentlei, Vangchhia, Zawngte.

Clans which, though not absorbed, have been much influenced by the Lushais 136

Fanai, Ralte, Paihte or Vuite, Rangte.

The old Kuki Clans 148

The old Kuki Clans of Manipur, Aimol, Anal, Chawte, Chiru, Kolhen, Kom, Lamgang, Purum, Tikhup, Vaiphei. Other old Kuki Clans, Khawtlang and Khawchhak.

The Lakher or Mara Clan 213

Resemblances between languages of clans, Change of certain letters, Comparative vocabulary.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Khamliana, Sailo Chief (Coloured Plate) Frontispiece Lushai Weapons, Ornaments, &c 10 Lushai Men's Hair Ornaments To face 12 Zawlbuk, or Young Men's House To face 22 Plan of a Lushai's House 26 A Rest by the Way--on the Way to the Jhums. Lushais and Pois To face 32 Lushais Threshing Rice (Coloured Plate) To face 33 Zataia, Sailo Chief and Family (Coloured Plate) To face 44 Lushai Girls To face 53 Copy of a Map of the Route to Mi-thi-khua, drawn by a Lushai 63 Khwatlang Posts Erected to Commemorate the Slaying of Mithans at a Feast To face 65 Chief's House showing "She lu Pun," the Posts Supporting the Skulls of Mithan Killed at One of the Feasts To face 90 Cane Suspension Bridge To face 110 Fanai To face 136 Memorial Stone in Champhai, Known as Mangkhaia, Lungdawr To face 140 Vuite Memorial To face 147 Rangte Grave To face 147 Aimol Nautch Party. The Youth is Holding a Rotchem To face 152 Heads of Kuki Clans To face 184 Memorial to a Man who has Performed the Ai of a Tiger 206 Memorial to a Woman who has Performed the Buh Ai 206 Lakher Chief and Family (Coloured Plate) To face 215 Lakher Baskets To face 223 Map At end of Volume

This monograph was originally intended to deal only with the inhabitants of the Lushai Hills, but on my transfer to Manipur, I found so many clans living in the hill tracts of that curious little state that I suggested that the scope of the monograph might be enlarged to include all clans of the Kuki race as well.

This term Kuki, like Naga, Chin, Shendu, and many others, is not recognised by the people to whom we apply it, and I will not attempt to give its derivation, but it has come to have a fairly definite meaning, and we now understand by it certain closely allied clans, with well marked characteristics, belonging to the Tibeto-Burman stock. On the Chittagong border the term is loosely applied to most of the inhabitants of the interior hills beyond the Chittagong Hill tracts; in Cachar it generally means some family of the Thado or Khawtlang clan, locally distinguished as New and Old Kukis. In the Lushai Hills nowadays the term is hardly ever employed, having been superseded by Lushai. In the Chin Hills and generally on the Burma border all these clans are called Chins.

The term Lushai, as we now understand it, covers a great many clans; it is the result of incorrect transliteration of the word Lushei, which is the name of the clan, which, under various chiefs of the Thangur family, came into prominence in the eighteenth century and was responsible for the eruption into Cachar of Old Kukis at the end of that century and of the New Kukis half a century later.

The Lusheis, however, did not eject all the clans they came in contact with, many of them they absorbed, and these now form the bulk of the subjects of the Thangur chiefs. In this monograph Lushai is used in this wider sense, Lushei being used only for the clan of that name. Among the people themselves the Lusheis are sometimes spoken of as Dulian, at the derivation of which I will hazard no guess, and the general population of the hills is spoken of as Mi-zo. Among inhabitants of the Lushai Hills are found a very considerable number of immigrants, or descendants of immigrants from the Chin Hills, who are found living among the Lushais under the Thangur Chiefs or in villages under their own chiefs. I have made no attempt to deal with these, as their proper place is the Chin Hills monograph, and Messrs. Carey and Tuck have already described them very fully in their Chin Hills Gazetteer.

I am conscious that there are many omissions in this book; the subject is a very wide one and the difficulty of getting at the facts from so many different clans, each speaking a different dialect and scattered over an area of about 25,000 square miles is extremely great. I trust therefore that my readers will excuse all shortcomings.