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Religion
The Lakhers believed in one supreme god whom they called Khazangpa. He
created the world. He decided the destiny of man. To propitiate Khazangpa, the Lakhers performed a sacrifice
called Khazangpina. Khazangpa
rewarded the good and punished the evil.
Below Khazangpa was the world of spirits who were called
leurahripas.
These spirits used to inhabit hills, trees, rivers etc. They were
generally evil and caused sickness and death. The Lakhers would offer
sacrifices to these spirits so that they would not harm them.
The Lakhers believed that every person had a deity of his own who would always
follow him. He was called Zang. If the Zang was kept happy, he would
reward the person with wealth, children and happiness. To keep one's Zang
happy, one had to perform sacrifices called Zangda.
The Lakhers believed that every person had a soul. During the day when the
man was awake, the soul remained in his body and when he would sleep in
the night the soul would leave the body and would roam about.
The Lakhers used to keep certain articles in their houses for use during
Khazangpina sacrifice. These were called anahmang or forbidden
things. These articles were some wooden plates, earthen beer pot, some
bamboo baskets, a small wooden chair, a bamboo mat, etc. These were kept
in a small model house or in a basket and would be hung up near the
ceiling. If anyone touched the chief's anahmang he would become the
chief's slave, otherwise he would be fined a mithun. For touching a
commoner's anachmang, one was fined a fowl.
While offering any animal or bird for sacrifice, it would be killed by different
methods as prescribed by custom. Some parts mostly those consisting of
livers, ears, tongues, feathers, blood etc would be kept with some portion of
rice, flour and salt and would be set aside for the deity. These were
called Phavaw. The Lushais also had the same system called serh. The sacrificial meat would be cooked in earthen pots and would also be eaten
from earthen plates. Metal was not used.
All Lakher ceremonies were associated with certain restrictions called
'Ana'.
Ana meant certain things or doings which were prohibited, generally after a
sacrifice. Somewhat similar to ana and sometimes linked with ana were the
two other prohibiting rituals called 'Pana' and 'Ach'. When a man performed a
sacrifice, he and his family would be Pana for the night. Then he would
not go out of his house or do any work. The women could do household work
like cooking, but could not weave or go out of the village. While a person
was Pana, nobody would enter his house. Similar was the concept of ach
which meant rest or a holiday in consequence of a sacrifice when one would not
do any work and would remain in one's house. After a successful raid of
some other village, the whole village would be pana or ach. During this
time none from the village would go out of the village, but they could visit one
another inside the village. The chief would decide when the whole village
would observe pana or ach.
Sacrifices
Khazangpina
This sacrifice consisted of killing a pig or fowl by the head of the family to
the supreme god, Khazangpa. The sacrifice was performed when one faced
some distress like ill health in the family or bad harvests. After
sacrifice the meat would be offered to the deity and different portion eaten
strictly as prescribed by custom.
Zakhama
This was a substitute for Khazangpina in a simple form. When one
could not perform Khazangpina sacrifice because of limitation of resources or
otherwise on could perform Zakhama.
Zangda
Zangda sacrifice was performed to please the guardian angel of a family
member. Thus it could be for the benefit of the husband, wife or any of the
children. It would be for health, prosperity, fertility, happiness and
general well being. The sacrifice would be of a fowl. The family
would indicate by bamboos placed cross - wise outside the house to indicate that
Zangda was going on. Entry of any outsider into the house was prohibited
on the night of Zangda.
Khisongbo
The Lakhers believed that powerful spirits called Khisong inhabited mountain
tops or deep rivers near every village. The entire village would on a
selected day propitiate the spirit by gathering near its habitat and sacrificing
fowls, pigs and sometimes mithun. The worship, called Khisongbo was for
good harvest and general well being for the entire village. After the
sacrifice the entire village would remain pana for a day when none would go out
of the village.
Tleulia
In every village, there would be a sacred tree, planted by the villagers
generally at the start of the hill slope in which the village was
situated. The tree was selected from the Fiens genera and was called
bongchi. Two stones - one flat and another erect, would be placed at the
foot of the tree. Here tleulia sacrifice would be performed. The
sacrifice consisted of a fowl and a pig and once in one generation of mithun. The worship would be for good health and fertility of the
villagers and for good crops and breed of animals. Unlike in other sacrifices,
the tleuila sacrifice would be performed by a priest, called tleuliabopa,
appointed (for life) by the villagers. He had to follow certain
restrictions like eating meat or fish only in a particular manner or not going
near a river. He and his family had to remain clean. Before the sacrifice
was performed, all fires in the village would be extinguished as fire which had
been in use would have been defiled by cooking meats for funerals and meat of
animals killed by tigers or by various processes of sickness in the family
etc. Now pure fire for the village would be made in the tleulia ground
from where all the villagers would light their torches and carry the flames to
their houses to kindle fresh fire in the hearths.
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