Mizo Religion

The Mizo religion, also known as Lushai animism, is an indigenous polytheistic animist ethnic religion that was practiced by the majority of the Mizo people before conversions to Christianity which began with the British annexation of the region. At the dawn of the twenty-first century, only 1,367 people still practiced the Mizo religion. The Mizo people, historically termed the Lushais, are an ethnic group native to the state of Mizoram in India and neighbouring states of Northeast India. They speak the Tibeto-Burman Mizo language. There were political upheavals in China in 210 BCE when dynastic rule was abolished and the entire empire was gathered under one administrative system. Rebellion and chaos ensued, so the Mizos determined to depart China and arrived in the Shan States as disenfranchised refugees in the fifth century. They relocated to the Kabaw Valley in the 8th century where Mizos had cultural exchanges with the local Burmese. In the early 14th century, they moved westward to Indo-Burmese border into the Lushai Hills. Similar to tribes of mountainous New Guinea, the hills and difficult terrain of ther Chin Hills forced the division of the Mizo into a patchwork of isolated villages, so much variation among village cultures emerged. After the British annexation, the spread of education by Christian missionaries led to a high literacy rate (91.58% by 2011). Practically every Mizo adopted Christianity, and most remain Christian to this day. In the mid-to-late 20th century, a small number of Mizo and related ethnic peoples in Assam and Mizoram began practicing Judaism after a community leader had a dream, in 1951, that they were descendants of the biblical figure Manasseh. Mizo who consider themselves a lost tribe of Israel number, at most, several thousand in a population of more than 3.7 million. Despite a low genetic affinity with Middle Easterners, rabbinic authorities in Israel acknowledged the Bnei Menashe people as Jews upon conversion to Judaism under normative Jewish practices. Several hundred have already emigrated to Israel. Prior to the British annexation, Mizo animism recognized a number of deities. Pathian was the supreme God and creator of the world. Mizo believed that Pathian blesses the righteous with blessings and good fortune and punishes the wicked with calamities and misfortunes. Khuanu (meaning mother of nature) was the wife of Pathian and a benevolent Goddess who blesses humans just as if they were her own children. Vanchungnula, Pathian's daughter, was the goddess of rain and water. Sakhua was the god of the family or clan. The Khaltu spirit was associated with people's lives and well-being. Every living creature was beleived to have a thla (soul), and as long as the soul remained in the body a person was considered to be alive. If a person had a terrifying experience, the soul was similarly terrified. A sacrifice was required to restore proper and normal relations with the khaltu. Mizos also believed in the existence of evil spirits who caused human misery, suffering, and misfortune. Ramhuai was the malignant spirit of the forest or jungle. Hmuithla was an evil spirit that afflicted both humans and animals at the point of death. Phung was a spirit believed to cause humans to suffer from insanity and epilepsy. Khawhring spirits would watch people's food and drink with evil eyes. Because these spirits possessed food and drink, the Mizos would offer a portion of their food to the evil spirits before eating and drinking. Hnam Sakhua is a modernized traditional Mizo religion that places a special emphasis on the Mizo culture and seeks to revive traditional Mizo values while opposing the influence of Christianity on the Mizo people.