2 In Search of Chin Identity known as Tuanbia. For people with no…

2 In Search of Chin Identity known as Tuanbia. For people with no writing system, a rich oral tradition consisting of folksong and folklore was the most reliable means of transmitting past events and collective memories through time. The songs were sung repeatedly during feasts and festivals, and the tales that made up Chin folklore were told and retold over the generations. In this way, such collective memories as the origin myth and the myth of common ancestors were handed down. Different tribes and groups of Chin kept the tradition of 'Chinlung' in several versions; the Hmar group of the Mizo tribe, who now live in Mizoram State of India, which I refer in this study as West Chinram, have a traditional folk song: Kan Seingna Sinlung [Chinlung] ram hmingthang Ka nu ram ka pa ram ngai Chawngzil ang Kokir thei changsien Ka nu ram ka pa ngai. In English it translates as: 'Famous Sinlung [Chinlung] is my motherland and the home of my ancestors. It could be called back like chawngzil, the home of my ancestors' (Chaterjee 1990: 328). This folksong also describes that the Chins were driven out of their original homeland, called 'Chinlung'. Another folksong, traditionally sung at the Khuahrum sacrificial ceremony and other important occasions, reads as follows: My Chinland of old, My grandfather's land Himalei, My grandfather's way excels, Chinlung's way excels. (Kipgen 1996: 36) Modern scholars generally agree with the traditional account of the origin of the name 'Chin': the word comes from 'Chinlung'. Hrang Nawl, a prominent scholar and politician among the Chin, confirms that the term 'Chin ... come(s) from Ciinlung, Chhinlung or Tsinlung, the cave or the rock where, according to legend, the Chin people emerged into this world as humans' (quoted by Vumson 1986: 3). Even Vumson could not dispute the tradition that the Chin 'were originally from a cave called Chinnlung, which is given different locations by different clans' (ibid.: 26). In addition to individual scholars and researchers, many political and other organizations of the Chin accepted the Chinlung tradition not only as a myth but as a historical fact. The Paite National Council, formed by the Chin people of Manipur and Mizoram States, claimed Chinlung as the origin of the Chin people in a memorandum submitted to the Prime Minister of India. The memorandum stated: 'The traditional memory claimed that their remote original place was a cave in China where, for fear of enemies, they hid themselves, which is interpreted in different dialects as "Sinlung" [Chinlung] in Hmar and Khul in Paite and others.'2 In this memorandum, they suggested that the Government of India take initiative to group all Chin people inhabiting the Indo-Burma border areas within one country as specified and justified for the safeguard of their economic, social and political rights. The literal meaning of Chin-lung is 'the cave or the hole of the Chin', the same meaning as the Burmese word for Chindwin, as in 'Chindwin River', also 'the hole of the Chin' or 'the river of the Chin' (Lehman 1963: 20). However, the word Chin-lung can also be translated as 'the cave or the hole where our people originally lived' or 'the place from which our ancestors originated' (Z. Sakhong 1983: 7). Thus, the word Chin without the suffix lung is translated simply as 'people' or 'a community of people' (Lehman 1999: 92–97). A Chin scholar, Lian Uk, defines the term Chin as follows: The Chin and several of its synonymous names generally means 'People' and the name Chinland is generally translated as 'Our Land' reflecting the strong fundamental relationship they maintain with their land (Lian Uk 1968: 2). Similarly, Carey and Tuck, who were the first to bring the Chin under the system of British administration, defined the word Chin as 'man or people'. They recorded that the term Chin is 'the Burmese corruption of the Chinese "Jin" or "Jen" meaning "man or people"' (Carey and Tuck 1976: 3). Evidently, the word 'Chin' had been used from the very beginning not only by the Chin themselves but also by neighboring peoples, such as the Kachin, Shan and Burman, to denote the people who occupied the valley of the Chindwin River. While the Kachin and Shan still called the Chin as 'Khyan' or 'Khiang' or 'Chiang', the Burmese usage seems to have changed dramatically from 'Khyan' to 'Chin'.3 In stone inscriptions, erected by King Kyanzittha (1084–1113), the name Chin is spelled as 'Khyan' (Luce 1959b: 75–109). These stone inscriptions are the strongest evidence indicating that the name Chin was in use before the eleventh century. Prior to British annexation in 1896, at least seventeen written records existed in English regarding research on what was then called the 'Chin-Kuki linguistic people'. These early writings variously referred to what is now called and spelled 'Chin' as 'Khyeng', 'Khang', 'Khlang', 'Khyang', 'Khyan', 'Kiayn', 'Chiang', 'Chi'en', 'Chien', and so on. Father Sangermono, an early Western writer, to note the existence of the hill tribes of Chin in the western mountains of Burma, lived in Burma as a Catholic missionary from 1783 to 1796. His book The Burmese Empire, published in 1893, almost one hundred years after his death, spells the name Chin as 'Chien' and the Chin Hills as the 'Chein Mountains'. He thus recorded: