Khumi women with traditional dress

 

Introduction:

Khumi is a small indigenous hill tribe of Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT). The Khumis are also called “Khami”, which means the “Best Race”. “Kha” in the Khumi dialect means “Man” and “Mi” means the “Best”. The Arakanese call them Khemi, which implies a race of very low social hierarchy (Sattar 984:336), (Lewin 1869:88). On the other hand tells us that in the Arakanese language “Khe” means “dog” and “Mi” is race the Khumis therefore are the dog race. Dog is a favourite item of food for them, so they might have derived this name from this (Bernot 1964:166). According to their oral tradition human kind owes its creation to a dog. Dog was the first creation, and it had saved humans from total annihilation, they accordingly pay homage to it. The Chagmas called them “Hugi” or “Langta Hugi”. Here Langta means naked, who live without clothes. The Khumis mostly living in the deep forest without clothes.

Origin:

The Kukis claimed that Khumi is one of the sub-clan of them as like Lushai, Pankhu, Mro, Khyang and Bonjoi. Khumis are Mongoloid. They migrated to CHT from Arakan and Akyab hill in the seventeenth century and since than they owed their allegiance to the Bohmang chief and paid a yearly tribute to him through their village headman (Lewin 1869:87-88). Khumis are patriarchal. They are divided into two sub-clans. One is known as “Awa Khumi” and the other is “Aphya Khumi”. Both the clans once lived on the bank of the Koladain River. They are divided into “wife-giving” and “wife-taking” clans. The eldest son inherits all the property. They are living in Ruma, Roangchari and Thanchi upazilas of Bandarban district of Bangladesh.

Population:

In 1869 their population was 2,000 and presently approximately 10,000 in the CHT. We can found Khumi tribe in the state of Manipur, Mizoram and Nagaland in India and also Chin state in Myanmar.

Heritage and Lifestyle:

Khumis believe that their ancestors lived in the area where rivers originated. This is one of the reasons why they like to dwell on riverbanks, ridges of hills and build their houses on tree-tops and mountains. They prefer building house on top of trees in the deep forest. Their villages are surrounded by bamboo walls and well fortified with only one gate each and are guarded day and night by a watch. This ethnic tribe is independent, predatory and ferocious, and war loving. Their villages are well fortified with only one gate each and are guarded day and night by a watch. They are renowned for their loyalty to their chiefs. They take the oath of loyalty by touching the blood of a goat, which they have killed with a sharp weapon; they vow that a similar fate would befall them if they break the oath of loyalty. Their weapons are guns, daos, javelins and similar types of arms.

Livelihood:

Khumis own slaves or a go-for boy. If a Khumi household head does not have a son he may donate all of his property to such a boy before his death. Most Khumis are farmers by profession. They practise Jhum system of cultivation. Like other tribes in the CHT, they also collect fruit and vegetables from the deep forest. They like hunting animals in the forest. They lived in the deep reserve forest, mostly hiding from other peoples.

Language:

They have an oral dialect which belong to the southern branch of the Kuki-Chin language family, but no written script (Shafer 1955:105). They do not want any non-Khumi person to learn their dialect. Neither do they wish to learn the language of any other people. They believe that if they learn any other language they will loose their power to resist evil. Their dialect mixed with Lushai and Bawm.

Religion:

Khumis are generally Buddhists. However, their beliefs and practices reveal animistic and polytheistic views. They pay homage to Pathian, the Creator. The other two gods they honour are “Nadag”, the household deity, and “Bogley”, the god of water. Khumis have similarity with the Murungs in the observance of cow slaughter worship. They use plunge flute of Murungs, although they do not dance in a group as the Murungs do. A Khumi man dances with a woman by his side during this ceremony. Nadag worship is observed before jhum cultivation and also before the harvest. A dog, a boar and an odd number of cocks and hens are offered as sacrifice on the riverbank during this festival. People ceremonially dance and sing. Sacrificial flesh is cooked and a morsel of stewed flesh is placed on the riverbank before consuming the sacrificial meat. In the present, many Khumis converted into Christianity. The Christian missionaries trying to develop them by giving free distribution of clothes and household utensil, etc.

Marriage:

Khumis do not marry within the same clan. Premarital sex among the young people is not reprehensible. The community, however, requires the couple to marry each other if their premarital intercourse results in pregnancy. The leader of the community arrange the wedding ceremony by the consultation of both sides. Very few Khumis marriage with the Buddhist monks in the temple.

Food:

Their staple food is rice and main drink is wine. Wine is an indispensable part of their culture. They use wine for worship, household affairs, and as drinks for any occasion. They eat the meat of any domestic or wild animals such as tigers, deer, cows, boars, dogs, jackals, roosters, bears, buffaloes, and snakes. Dog is a most favourite item of food for them

Traditional Dress:

Khumi males wear “Lengti” (long narrow buttocks clothes) and the Chagmas called “Tennya”. They leave a part of the Lengti hanging in the front and back sides below the waist. They bear long hair and wear white turbans. Khumi women wear “Wanglai”, a 9 - 14 inches wide piece of cloth. Women do not cover the upper part of their body, but hang ornaments of silver and Puti for the neck. They weave their own dresses like the Lengti and Wanglai. In the present, few Khumis are wear shirt if they do in the nearest market.

Death:

Khumis cremate their dead and then gather the bones and ashes, wrap them with a piece of cloth and keep the pack for a certain period before burying them in the jungle with festive rituals. They preserve the weapons of the dead man in a house built in the place where the corpse is burnt.