Zogam Explained

+ Land of the Zo

Zo-inhabited areas
LanguageKuki-Chin-Naga Languages
LocationChittagong Hill Tracts, Bangladesh; Manipur and Mizoram, India; Chin State, Myanmar[1]
Today part of India
Myanmar
Bangladesh
Population1.5 million (2003)[2]

Zogam (or Land of Zo People) known as Zoland,[3] Zoram, Lushai Hills,[4] Kuki Hills, lies in the northwest corner of the Mainland Southeast Asia landmass. This is the traditional ancestry homeland of the Zo people or Zomi who lived in this area before the colonial period under British rulership.[1]

Culture

One Zo folksong delineates the area of Zogam as follows:

Penlehpi leh Kangtui minthang,A tua tong Zota kual sung chi ua;Khang Vaimang leh tuan a pupaTongchiamna Kangtui minthang aw

Translation:

(The famous Penlehpi and KangtuiBetween the two is the Zomi countryThe Southern King and our forefathersMade an agreement at the famous Kangtui)

This old folk song tells of the area of the Zomi ancestral homeland, for Penlehpi is a Burmese word for the Bay of Bengal and Kangtui is identified with Tuikang (Chindwin River).[5]

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. Zou . David Vumlallian . A Historical Study of the 'Zo' Struggle . Economic & Political Weekly . 45 . 14 . 2010-04-03 . 56–63.
  2. Pau . Pum Khan . Administrative rivalries on a frontier: problem of the Chin-Lushai Hills . The Indian Historical Review . 34 . 1 . 2007 . 187–209. 10.1177/037698360703400108 .
  3. "Chin Hills (Approved)", United States National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency
  4. See Colonel T. H. Lewin, Wild Races of N.E. India (1870); Lushai Hills Gazetteer (Calcutta, 1906).
  5. ST Hau Go, 'Our People, Our Language, and Our Culture', Rangoon University Chin Cultural and Literature Sub-Committee by the Mizo Union, Aizawl, 26 April 1947, p.8