In all societies, when a person dies, family,
friends, and neighbours respond in structured, patterned ways to the death.
Cultural guidelines determine the treatment and disposal of the body and
prescribe a period of mourning for close relatives. Death ritual, like much of
human behaviour, is an expression of a cultural blueprint, of attitudes, values
and ideals passed down by parents, and their parents, which an individual
learns as a member of society. The analysis of mortuary practices provides rich
data on the behaviour of kin and community. It leads to people’s notions of
gods, souls, witches, spirits and worlds, promising access to their belief and
value systems, to their conceptions of the social and moral worlds. It informs
that rituals have consequences for both the individual and society.
Death was feared and
treated with seriousness in the pre-colonial Mizo society. Euphemisms were used
to describe it, such as “zan khat mitchhin” (closing the eyes within a
night) or “hnuk chat,” where “hnuk” refers to an imaginary cord and “chat”
means snapping or breaking. When someone died, it affected and stirred the
emotions of their family and the wider community, and was mourned with profound
sorrow according to customary law.
In Mizo culture, when someone passed away,
senior members of the family or tribe would wash the body. Then, the body was
placed in a bamboo structure in a sitting position. A long red cotton cloth was
wrapped around the chin through the top of the head of the deceased. Similarly,
among the Maras in the south, the corpse was placed on a stretcher in a
diagonal position against the wall. The body was then dressed in its best robes
and decorated with the deceased’s beads and any other ornaments available. If the
person had a plume, it was also placed in their hair. These were some of the
traditions observed during mourning in these cultures.
T.H. Lewin had observed that:
“The corpse is then
dressed in its finest clothes, and seated in the centre of the house in a
sitting posture. On the right hand is laid the dead man’s gun and weapons; on
the left side, the wife weeping. All the friends assemble and there is a big
feast. Food is placed before the dead man, who sits upright and silent among
them; and they dress him saying, ‘You are going on a long journey, eat.’”
After
a person dies in Mizo culture, their body is dressed in their finest clothes
and placed in a sitting posture, fastened to a bamboo frame. A big feast is
prepared for friends and neighbours, and food and drinks are offered to the
deceased. On the evening following the death, the body is buried just opposite
the house. A wife must wrap her husband’s dead body with a pawndum or
zawlpuan, which is traditionally obligatory for every girl to own. It is
also customary for a wife to take such clothes to her husband’s house
Throughout history, collective mourning has
been a part of the Mizo mourning process for the deceased. Gender roles were
evident in the death rituals, as women, especially close relatives, would
participate in collective wailing. It is also clear that funeral customs among
the Mizos emphasized the importance of social relations based on kinship.
The clothing, dresses, material buried along
the corpse and rituals like the firing of guns and striking of gongs frequently
express values of identity and incorporation. All these rituals symbolized the
deceased’s status and indicated his or her role in society. In the case of the
death of a Pasal\ha (a notable warrior), the body was decorated with
guns, fungki (a gunpowder horn) to indicate his identity as a
warrior. Death rituals were also greatly
affected by the nature of how a person died, generally the deceased was dressed
according to his status in the society. Accordingly, when a warrior died, he
was dressed with all his appropriate armour and attire. Similar treatment is
seen in the case of the death of the Thangchhuah pa and the chief.
Conversely, unusual deaths like sarthi (accidents),
raicheh (death of a woman at childbirth) and hlamzuih (when a
child dies shortly after birth) involved a few different rituals which were
much less expensive. Sometimes, such deaths are buried without any ceremony or
ritual.
Among the Mizos, if the mitthi
vui ceremony couldn’t be held on the day of the person’s passing, it was
customary to observe an overnight vigil with the deceased until morning.
However, in the case of the death of a mi\ha (affluent family), the
ceremony was extended according to convenience since it requires more
preparation than ordinary families. There was no chanting known or connected
with this ceremony, but it was evident that crying and weeping by close
families, friends and natives was common on this occasion. Among the Mizos,
crying and weeping indicated the deepest sorrow. Therefore, when death took
place, the number of people who cried or wailed upon the deceased was a good
indicator of the status of the deceased. The use of music while performing
death rituals was also seen in the funeral procession, especially of the mi\ha
(affluent) family, where Darkhuang (a large gong) and darbu (a
set of three different-sized gongs) were played by a group of people. These
musicians position themselves according to convenience, often within the house
on the sumhmun (the verandah) and luhkapui (the platform in front
of a Lushai house). While the aforementioned mourning ceremony unfolded inside
the house, this group played gongs. It is likely that the songs sung while
performing this ritual were “Kanlal lai”, “mitthirawpchawi”, and “nguntethi”.
In the past, the death of affluent persons in
certain villages was marked with a distinct ceremony. Households in the village
that owned guns would carry loaded guns to the deceased person’s house. Upon
reaching the verandah of the house, they would discharge their guns, pointing
towards the sky. This firing sound symbolises the death of the affluent person.
There was hardly any ceremony for an ordinary family’s death, and the
involvement of a priest was not known. However, for the affluent person’s funeral,
the main ceremony was marked by the incorporation of Chawnglaizuan,
which is a type of dance also known as Chawnglaizawn.
After
the dance, the deceased’s body was placed on a hlang, which is a support
designed to keep the corpse in an upright position. Then, the corpse was lifted
and carried from the front of the house towards the grave. During this
procession, the body was tossed up and down three times and accompanied by
music played on a set of small gongs called darbu and a large gong
called Darkhuang. People wept and cried as they slowly walked towards
the grave.
Once the corpse was buried, old men and women
would gather in the house of the deceased, each carrying their own zu (rice
beer), lamenting in the form of songs that are best suited to arouse the
sentiments of the bereaved. Songs like Khiangi nu zai, Darpawngi\ah zai,
Lianchhiari zai and Chawngvunginu\ah zai were sung, which
continued until bedtime.
In Mizo tradition, whenever a person died, it
was customary to perform thlaichhiah, which involved sacrificing
four-legged domesticated animals. Pigs and goats were commonly killed, but
wealthier families also killed mithun. However, poorer families often
had difficulty meeting the expenses associated with performing such rituals.
Among the Luseis and their related tribes,
the day following the burial ceremony was observed as “Thlannghah.” On
this day, relatives from nearby villages who couldn’t attend the burial would
gather at the deceased’s house to show sympathy to the bereaved family members,
known as “in ral”. Each person contributed their traditional rice beer,
called “zu”, and spent the day drinking and singing traditional songs, called
“khawhar zai”. By evening, a meal was prepared for those coming from other
villages.
One of the most
important feasts for the dead is the Mim Kut festival. It was held at
the end of August or the beginning of September and was regarded as a festival
in honour of the deceased. The village chief and elders fixed the date for
celebrating the festival. Before the day of the festival, “zu” was
fermented in every house, and all kinds of vegetables were brought from their
“lo” (jhums) to their homes in advance. On the day of the festival, all village
households stayed at home and regarded it as a day of rest. Men and women drank
“zu” throughout the day, and offered the first fruits of their vegetables to
their deceased relatives. They pounded glutinous rice, wrapped it in plantain
leaves, and made Mizo bread or dumplings. Some were offered to children, and some
to the dead. They believed that during the Mim Kut, the spirits of their
departed relatives came home to eat the vegetables and dumplings and that the
festival gave rise to tender feelings, sentiments, and renewed longing for
their deceased loved ones.
The Mim Kut festival was celebrated for three days. The day after
was a day of rest, and on the third day, the vegetables that had been offered
to the spirits of the dead were collected, cooked and eaten by the living.
During this festival, zu was served, and songs were sung. According to
their belief, the spirits of the dead had now departed and returned to the land
of the dead, so there was no need to continue offering food to them. This is
why the month of August is traditionally known as Thi |in thla, the
month when which the dead disperse from the land of the living.
The Lusei people have a strong belief
in the constant presence of the spirits of their deceased ancestors, which
requires them to propagate through ritual practices and sacrifices embedded in
the sakhua worship. One of the primary feasts that honors the dead is Thangchhuah,
also known as mit-thi-rawp-lam. During this festival, effigies of the
deceased are created and placed on a bamboo stretcher. The oldest living clan
member offers a zu to each effigy while uttering a charm. After attending to
all the effigies, the individual breaks a gourd on the ground, bursts into
tears, and retreats into their house for a month. The effigies are then paraded
around the village, signifying a pleasing act to the spirit of the ancestors.
This reflects the community’s belief in the influence of their ancestors’
spirits on their well-being.
Burials:
Most of the Mizo tribes bury their dead but they did not seem
to have any designated burial place, and in some cases, the places of burial
differ from tribe to tribe. But generally, burial customs were ubiquitous throughout the different Mizo tribes. There are
different customs regarding the disposal of the dead body among the well-to-do
families and the chief’s family. However, burial was common among the general
masses, and the Mizo notion of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ deaths played a significant
role in prescribing the kind of burial.
Even the modes of preparation of the grave were different, on the status
of the deceased; accordingly, they prepared different types of graves for
burying the dead bodies.
1. Tianhrang Thlan: It is a tradition when a youth or warrior dies that the
grave is dug as deep as possible to show their respect and care for them. The
bottom of the grave was made to slope instead of levelling the ground so that
the deceased appeared to be standing in a slanting position as the grave known
as Tianhrang Thlan. This type of burial was also found among the Lai of
the Southern Hills. When a great,
prominent and highly favoured person in the village died, after digging the
grave to a depth of a man’s chest, on the uphill side of the grave they would
excavate a cave long and wide enough for the corpse in an inclined posture.
The body was laid according to the shape of
the grave in a slanting position leaning against the wall of the grave. The walls of the grave would be lined with
stone slabs. They placed the corpse in the cavity at the top in a slanting
manner. Lastly, they would cover the body with a huge slab of stone. This kind
of grave was known as ‘Tian-hrangthlan’.
2. Khaukhurh: It is a common form of burying the dead bodies of
ordinary people. The whole body was covered with a coarse bamboo matting (dap)
around the body instead of clothes, a piece of wood was also used in some
place. A hole about 5 feet deep was burrowed out on a wall for placing the
corpse. When the burial takes place, they push the corpse head first into the
hole and close it with a coarse bamboo mat. Finally, the grave was filled with
earth. Stones and wood were used as a
lid to the hole where the corpse was placed. Generally, a flat stone was used
to close the hole, but there is evidence that logs of wood were also used
according to convenience.
3. Lungkuang: It is a grave prepared especially for chiefs as
well as for other prominent persons. The term lungkuang means a grave
made of stone. When after digging about 4 feet deep, a hole was made at one
side of the grave wall preferably to the eastern side for putting the corpse.
It is interesting to note that the floor and each wall of the hole were made of
flat stones. Thus, after putting a corpse, the hole was closed with flat stone
and then the grave was filled in with mud.
4. Kuang ur: The practice of Kuang ur was common
among the Lusei and many other Non-Lusei tribes. In the case of
the mi\ha (affluent) family kuang ur was common. Kuang
means a coffin, a trough, a groove and ur means to smoke, fumigate, to
heat or bake. This tradition was exclusively practised in the deaths of chiefs
and a few mi\ha (affluent family in the society).
The dead body is placed
in a box made by hollowing out a log, a slab of wood is placed over the
opening, and their joint is plastered up with mud. This rough sort of coffin is
placed in the deceased’s house near the wall. A bamboo tube is passed up through
the floor through a hole in the bottom of the coffin and into the stomach of
the corpse. The other end is buried in the ground. A special hearth is made
close to the coffin and a fire is kept burning day and night on this for three
months, and during the whole of this time the widow of the deceased, if he
leaves one, must sit alongside the coffin. Over this hearth are hung valuables
owned by the deceased. About six weeks after placing the corpse in the coffin,
the latter is opened to see if the destruction of the corpse is proceeding
properly and if necessary the coffin is turned round to present the other side
to the fire. The opening of the coffin is celebrated by the killing of a pig
and the partaking of the usual drink and is known either as enlawk or looking
or examining. When it is thought that the flesh has completely rotted away, the
coffin is opened and the bones removed. The skull and the larger bones are
removed and kept in a basket, which is placed on a special shelf opposite the
hearth. The remainder of the bones are collected and buried generally in a ware
pot.
As stated above, the death of a chief was
mourned with unique rituals distinct from those observed for ordinary persons
in the village. Kuang ur demanded significant workforce for extended
periods, accompanied by substantial expenses due to the continuous feasting of
mourners until the final opening of the coffin. This practice was viewed as a
tribute to the deceased chief, serving as a final act of glorification of the
dead chief and a means to show his prominence in society.
Reference:
Malsawmliana, ‘Traditional Burial System of the Mizos,’
Historical Journal Mizoram. Vol.XIV,
Nov,2013.
Lalthangliana, B, Mizo Culture, Aizawl, The Author, 2014.
Lorrain, R.A, Five Years in Unknown Jungles, Aizawl
Mizoram, Tribal Research Institute, 1988.
Lewin, T.H, The Hill Tracts of Chittagong and the
Dwellers Therein, Reprint, New Delhi,
Tribal Research Institute, 2004.
Chaldailova, R, Mizo Pi Pute Khawvel, Aizawl,
Vanlalnghaki, 2011.
Mizo te Khawsak Phung, Aizawl Mizoram, Tribal Research
Institute, 1993.
Lianthanga, C, Hmanlai Mizo Nun, Aizawl, Mizoram
Publication Board, 1999.
Lalthangliana, B, A brief History and Culture of Mizo, Aizawl, The Author,2014.
Saiaithanga, Mizo Sakhua, Aizawl, Maranatha Printing
Press.
A second extract from the
excellent "Windows to the Past: Cultural Heritage of the Mizo" by Dr.
Malsawmdawngliana and his wife, Dr. R. Lalsangpuii. The book offers a comprehensive delineation of
the Zo ethnic tribes' cultural heritage and traditions, including history,
craft heritage and traditional practices – definitely a useful and invaluable
handbook for anyone interested in researching Mizo cultural history.
