Hmar

Clans and Kinship

The Hmar are divided into many sub-tribes and clans, called hnam, which split into sub-clans; each takes the name of an ancestor, and at times the name of a prominent man in the line replaced the older name and a new clan was born (Assam Institute, 2017, pp. 37-39). Descent and inheritance pass through the father. Many clans leave the family property to the youngest son, who looks after the parents until their death, though in some clans the eldest inherits and property may be shared among the sons (p. 40). Each village was a state under its own chief (lal), who ruled with a council of elders, chosen from the different clans of the village; under them were the crier (tlangva), the blacksmith (thirsu), the youth leaders (val upa) and the priest (thiempu), whose office was hereditary. The young men slept in the bachelors' house, the buonzawl or zawlbuk, where they were trained in work, hunting, wrestling and courtesy (pp. 92-94).

A selection, in its order, of the sub-tribes and clans listed by the Assam Institute of Research for Tribals and Scheduled Castes (2017, pp. 37-39), which gives sub-clans under each. The report's list also names groups that are listed as tribes of their own in some states or counted among other peoples, such as the Chothe, Chiru, Aimol, Biete, Darlong, Bawm, Hrangkhol and Kawm, and names that also head Mizo clans, such as Chawngthu and Chawte; those are left out here. Spellings follow the report.

In the Official Lists

• Scheduled Tribe

  Manipur, Mizoram, Assam, Meghalaya

  Listed as: Hmar

  An entry of its own in each of these lists; in Assam the entry is in the list for the autonomous hill districts.

Census 2011 counted 48,375 Hmar in Manipur, 29,587 in Mizoram, 15,745 in Assam and 1,797 in Meghalaya. Hmar living in Tripura are not listed under that name there. The compilation used may not show amendments made between 2022 and 2024.

Checked on 2026-11-07 against the sources below. The lists are amended from time to time and can differ by district; for a certificate, the current order or the state's list is what counts.

Name and Origin

Two accounts of the name are given. Shakespear (1912, p. 185) wrote that the Lushai called a number of clans Hmar, 'north', from where their villages lay in relation to their own, while the clans called themselves Khawtlang and Khawchhak, western and eastern villages. The Assam Institute of Research for Tribals and Scheduled Castes (2017) gives the Hmar account instead: the name comes from hmer, tying the hair in a knot at the nape, as the descendants of Tukbemsawm did, while those of his elder brother Hrumsawm tied it on the forehead. In Hmar tradition the first home was Sinlung, and the people are the children of Manmasi, whose three sons were Miachal, Niachal and Nelachal; the Hmar descend from Nelachal, the youngest.

History

Shakespear (1912, pp. 185-186) found representatives of sixteen of these clans in the Lushai Hills and the neighbouring hills of Manipur, the most important being the Loitlang, Hrangchal, Thiak and Biate. He recorded that when the Thangur chiefs of the Lushai pressed on them, one section went through the hills into Cachar, another moved into the southern Manipur hills, and some joined the Thangur villages. The Assam Institute's report links later moves west and north, into Assam, Tripura and Meghalaya, to the same rise of the Sailo chiefs. Grierson recorded the Hmar language in the Linguistic Survey of India, and the first book printed in Hmar, the Gospel of Mark, came out in 1907; most Hmar are now Christian.

Faith and Worship

In the older religion, as the Assam Institute report describes it (pp. 41-42), the Hmar believed in a supreme god above, but most rites were for the spirits that could dwell in great trees, rocks, rivers, cliffs and forests. The priest (thiempu) performed the sacrifices; some clans and families had priests of their own. The souls of the rich, the brave and great hunters, called thangsuo, went to Pielral, a paradise, and the ancestors were honoured in a rite called Pi-Pu-Rau-Biek. Most Hmar are now Christian.

Customs

Sikpui, the chief festival, was danced when the year's work was done, only in a year of good harvest and without serious illness or death in the village, and its preparation called for peace in every household. The young people asked the elders' leave, the song leader (zaipu) trained the singers, and in the khuongtuibur rite a bison horn was tied to the biggest drum and rice beer poured over it. A flat ground was prepared with a tall tree set in its centre and seats for the song leader and the old around it (Assam Institute, 2017, pp. 54-56). A rich man could also give the villagers a great feast, the inchawng.

Festivals

Stories and Legends