ZOLENGTHE: Historical and cultural background of the Mizos

By: Priyadarshni M Gangte *

Observance of Kuts by our forefathers was marked by many significant rituals. Some salient features are given as follows briefly.

In the early hour of the morning of Kut, the man in-charge of information of the village, called, ‘Tangsampa’ or ‘Lhangsampa’ or ‘Tualteekpa’, etc., etc., would herald the advent of Kut, shouting aloud, throughout the village with the words,

“The sun rises, the sun rises;
the sky is clear, the sky is clear”;
and would enter every household, arming himself with a burning torch of fire-wood in his left hand and a hammer in his right hand, saying,
“Your days are over, you evil spirit!
Be away from our midst, and
be with your wife and children.
We are sick of your filthy waste”.

Having performed his part, he will handover the proceedings to the ‘Village Priest’. Then, the ‘Village Priest’ shall arrange jars of ‘Ju’ (rice beer) for all the villagers to sip, and shall intercede for all the villagers to the deities of harvests.

The common ritualistic rites for this purpose are the offering of a cock and a bowl of rice placed at the altar of the deities. The rice is crushed to turn it into powder. The neck of the cock is throttled and cut with a sharp knife, and the blood that oozes out therefrom is strewn on the altar and on the powdered rice.

Thereafter, the village priest shall start sipping the ‘Ju’ from the ‘Jar’ prepared for the occasion. The priest shall spit out the first mouthful of ‘Ju’ he thus sipped which is called ‘Juphi’ (spraying of the ‘Ju’) in symbolic offering to the deities.

He then shall invite the Chief of the village, followed by the eldest villager present to start sipping of the ‘Ju’. The sipping bout continues by turn till the last person. With it, the celebration commences being followed soon by drinking, singing, merry-making, dancing, sporting and feasting.

It is time when even the poorest man of the village forgets his state of poverty.

Growth:

With the passage of time, contacts with outside of their own homogeneous communities entered into the fibre of their social life. People who observed such Kut festivals became aware of the world beyond their own small community.

Gradually, western education began to hold its roots followed by Christianity that propagated to dispense with hitherto known ‘culture and tradition’. Ultimately, when increasing number of people started embracing Christianity, observance of Kut as provided for by their customary laws, became less and less important and ignored, culminating into complete abandonment of the same. People have almost forgotten even existence of such a ‘cultural heritage’ as the Kut festivity.

Identity of a community is known by its rich cultural heritage and perpetuation thereof. Rapid vanishing of the age-old tradition and direction placed the resurgent generation at a loss, and became aware of the vacuum that had been created by such abandonment of the Kut culture due to Christianity. It was dreaded that with such relegation of the rich cultural heritage into oblivion, posterity would be at the cross-road of life.

It was found that there was no conflict whatsoever between Christianity and culture. The two could go hand in hand without being encroached upon each other. While the part of ‘village priest’ can be appropriately substituted by the role of Christian Pastor, the glamour of ‘Ju’ and its resultant pleasantries can be replaced by tea and snacks, fun and frolics of all kinds, etc. More innovatives can be incorporated into the system retaining the intrinsic social values.

Modernized items, such as, beauty contest and fashion show are changes that have been fed into the new fibres of Kut culture.

Likewise, with a view to harmonizing the festival with modernity and new way of life which are completely divorced from the traditional homogeneous village life, the many Kut festivals observed in the days of yore have been moduled into a single occasion of Kut on November 1 of every year.

Radcliffe Brown contends that such changes reflect the changing aspects of society signifying creation of new aspects in the form of new tradition or redefinition of an old one.

Tradition and culture should not be static. It must be dynamic in its growth, assimilating what good things have been provided by a living society, absorbing local and outside elements in its vibrant whole so as to enter into uncharted areas to make it possible to withstand the winds of change from all directions without the original framework and values being sacrificed at the altar of change and dynamism.

http://e-pao.net/epSubPageExtractor.asp?src=manipur.Ethnic_Races_Manipur.Mizos_Background.Mizos_Background_9

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Structure of Chin-Kuki-Mizo's social institutions :: Sominthang Doungel
A case study of the CHIKIMS :: Priyadarshni Gangte
Gangtes : Into the modern mist of no return :: Paulathuom Gangte
Paite women in the changing power structure :: Dr Rita Mairembam Concluded..

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* Priyadarshni M Gangte wrote this article for The Sangai Express . This article was webcasted on December 1 , 2007 .

Historical and cultural background of the Mizos A series by Priyadarshni M Gangte

Monday, December 03, 2007

Historical and cultural background of the Mizos - Part 9 -

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