Zo Tribes of Manipur and Mizoram

Zo Tribes of Manipur and Mizoram

News: According to a conglomerate’s statement (based in Mizoram), while the Meitei community lives peacefully in Mizoram, the Zo people endure daily killings in the neighboring state of Manipur.

Who are Zo people?
• The Zo people are a large ethnic group that inhabit areas of India, Myanmar and Bangladesh. They speak various languages that belong to the Kuki-Chin branch of the Tibeto-Burman family.
• They are also known by different names such as Chin, Mizo, Kuki, Zomi and others, depending on their geographic location and political affiliation.
• The Zo people share a common ancestry and culture that can be traced back to Sinlung or Chhinlung, a mythical place of origin that is believed to be somewhere in China or Tibet. They migrated southwards and settled in the hills and valleys of present-day Northeast India, Northwest Myanmar and Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh over several centuries.

What are the cultural practices of Zo people?
• They have a clan-based social structure, where each clan has its own name, emblem, origin myth and ancestral village.
• The clans are exogamous, meaning that marriage within the same clan is forbidden.
• They have a rich oral tradition of folktales, legends, songs, proverbs and riddles that reflect their history, culture, values and beliefs. They also have their own scripts, such as the Cin Hau script and the Zo script.
• They have a diverse religious landscape, with most of them following Christianity, while some still adhere to animism, Judaism or Buddhism.
Source - Eastmojo