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Religion
Like
other tribal people, the Lushais followed a religion which could be called animism.
They believed in the existence of world of spirits who would inhabit the natural
world. Such a spirit was called huai. A spirit inhabiting land (ram) was
called ram huai and one staying in water (tui) was called tuihuai. There would
be huais dwelling in mountains, rivers, lakes, trees, etc. Illness was because
of the evil influence of a huai. Hence a Lushai would propitiate the huai for a
cure. This would be done by an appropriate sacrifice of a fowl or a pig or some
other animals along with chants by a priest or puithiam. The spirit behind
animal hunts was lasi. Lasi had to be propitiated for a successful hunt on
which depended much of the sustenance and pleasure of a man.
The
Lushais believed that there was a guardian angel for each clan or family.
Sacrifice of this spirit (sakhua) was the most important one in a Lushai's life.
It was the sakhua who built up, protected and cared for the family. Women were
considered to have no sakhua of their own. It was the sakhua of her parents or
husband which was responsible for her continued welfare and existence. Children
look after the sakhua of their fathers. If one neglected this sacrifice,
sakhua would become angry and he would withdraw his protection. The family would
then be move vulnerable to the attacks of evil spirits. Frequent illness in the family was also an
indication that sakhua had been neglected. When the sacrifice was
made, only the very nearest relatives of the clan could share in the feast that
followed. It was, therefore, a sort of fellowship meal of the clan with
their sakhua whose share of cooked meat and rice was placed in a basket on top
of the house. The sakhua had eat his meal during the night and what
remained in the morning could be removed and eaten by the family next
morning. No Mizo would embrace the sakhua of another people unless he was
sure that the new sakhua would be powerful enough to protect him from these evil
spirits.
Apart from the spirit for the clan and the family, there were also spirits
guiding the individuals who were called Khaltu. These spirits were
responsible for the welfare of the individuals. Every living creature was
believed to have a thla who would stay inside the body of a living being.
The thla would leave at death and then it would be called thlarau or spirit of
the creature. To see that thla has normal relationship with Khaltu, proper
sacrifices must be made. This would be necessary when one died of fright
as when attacked by a wild animal. The thla would also sometimes leave the
body and roam about. This happened particularly during illness. Then
the thla would be called back to get into the body for a cure.
For curing various diseases in thawina or curing ceremonies would be performed
by the puithiam. Anybody could become a puithiam provided he was prepared to learn the chants from established
puithiams. To be a successful puithiam, however, one had to possess certain
gifts. One of the tests to find out of the aspirant could become a
successful puithiam was to let him guess whether a pinch of rice grains taken at
random would contain even or odd numbers. He had to guess correctly seven
times out of ten. The puithiams possessed a good knowledge of medicinal herbs
but would disclose the most poisonous ones only when they were satisfied that it
would not be misused. The sacrifices were not taken too seriously either.
However, after the ceremony was over, no one paid reverence to the sacrificial
platform.
Sacrifices
There were different types of sacrifices. Sacrifices offered to huais of
homesteads and villages were called khals. There were khals named after
the types of animals sacrificed. Thus vawkte khal was performed,
sacrificing a vawk (pig), kel Khal sacrificing a kel (goat) and ar khal
sacrificing an ar (cock). These three sacrifices were performed soon after
marriage. Dawibawl was the sacrifice offered to propitiate the huais in
the mountains, rivers and trees. In dawibawl a cock and a hen would be
sacrificed outside the village to propitiate the huais of rivers and
forests. A sacrifice particularly for cure from illness was bawlpui in
which two clay figures - one of a man and the other of a woman, would be put on
a platform and a pig would be killed in front of these figures. The
sacrifice to make a woman fertile was called chhim. The sacrifice was of a white hen killed
at the head of the sleeping platform.
There were prescribed ceremonies connected with child birth. Two days
after the birth of a child a feast would be given by the father of the
child. A pu or godfather would be appointed who would give a name to the
child. On the seventh day some fowls would be sacrificed and a second
feast would be given.
There were many prescribed sacrifices to ward off illness. Some of these
sacrifices would be performed so that the children did not become sick. The
sacrifices were : hmar phir (cock and hen killed on the entrance ladder),
vaurkte luilam (piglet killed outside the house), uite luilam (puppy killed
outside the house), uihaawr (dog killed in front of a platform).
Ai
sacrifice was an important sacrifice performed after a man was killed in a
raid or an animal was killed in a hunt. In this, a mithun or a goat or a
dog would be killed and there would be chanting and dancing. It was believed that
the ceremony would give the killer power over the killed man or animal.
There were sacrifices before going for hunting or for
jhum. The ram huai
had to be propitiated at the start of the jhum. Fowls were killed and the
puithiam performed certain ceremonies near the jhum hut of each cultivator.
The lushais believed in a supreme God, called Pathian who was the creator of the
world. He was benign to all his creatures and he was the supreme authority
deciding the destiny of every one.
The Lushais also believed in life after
death. Their belief was that all
people after death would go to mithikhua, dead man's village, which they believed
was situated near Rih Lake, in Burma. On the other side of mithikhua, ran the mythical pial river, across which was situated pialrah the
abode of bliss. Everyone after death would travel to mithikhua.
The Lushai code of religious conduct contained two basic prohibitions. Hrilh was the concept of no work. While a man would be
performing a sacrifice, he was not allowed to do any work on the day of the
sacrifice or the day preceding or the day following. Similarly a village
could be under hrilh. During this period the people did not move out of
the house or the village. Another concept was sherh. A portion of
sacrificed animal, generally consisting of the heart, liver, kidney and entrails
would be kept reserved for the spirit to whom the sacrifice was made. A
house where a sacrifice was done was also considered sherh. No outsider
would enter such a house during the prescribed number of days when it was under
sherh. Women would also be sherh for a few days after confinement when she
would not move out. There was a similar concept of thianglo which mean certain
actions were not to be done. There were taboo. For example, it was considered
thianglo to build a house obstructing a path.
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