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Khumi, The a small tribe of chittagong
hill tracts. The Khumis are also called Khami, which
means the best race. Kha in the Khumi dialect means man and mi
means the best. The Arakanese call Khumis Khemi, which implies a race
of very low social hierarchy. Khe in the Arakanese language means dog
and mi denotes race. Khumis have Mongoloid features. They migrated
from arakan
towards the end of the 17th century.
In Bangladesh they live in ruma,
rowangchhari
and thanchi
upazilas of bandarban
district. The Statistical Pocketbook of Bangladesh (1999) reports
their population in Bangladesh as 1,241.
Khumis believe that their ancestors lived in the area where rivers
originated. This is one of the reasons why they like to dwell
on riverbanks and on high mountains. This ethnic tribe is independent,
predatory and ferocious, and war loving. Their villages are well
fortified with only one gate each and are guarded day and night
by a watch. Their weapons are guns, daos, javelins and similar
types of arms.
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Khumi women in a fashion
show
Bandarban |
Khumis are patriarchal. They have two clans. One is known
as Awa Khumi and the other is Aphya Khumi. Both the clans
once lived on the bank of the Koladain River. Khumi males wear lengti
(long narrow buttocks clothes). They leave a part of the lengti
hanging in the front and back sides below the waist. They bear long hair
and wear white turbans. Khumi women wear wanglai, a 9 - 14 inches
wide piece of cloth. Women do not cover the upper part of their body,
but hang ornaments of silver and puti from the neck.
Khumis own slaves or a go-for boy. If a Khumi household head does not have a son he may donate all of his property to such a boy before his death. Most Khumis are farmers by profession. They practise jhum cultivation. They weave their own dresses, the lengti and wanglai. They prefer building house on top of trees in the deep forest. They have an oral dialect of the Kuki-Chin language family, but no written script. They do not want any non-khumi person to learn their dialect. Neither do they wish to learn the language of any other people. Khumis do not marry within the same clan. Premarital sex among the young people is not reprehensible. The community, however, requires the couple to marry each other if their premarital intercourse results in pregnancy. Their staple food is
rice and main drink is wine. Wine is an indispensable part of their culture. They use wine for worship, household affairs, and as drinks for any occasion. They eat the meat of any domestic or wild animals such as tigers, deer, cows, boars, dogs, jackals, roosters, bears, buffaloes, and snakes. Khumis are generally Buddhists. However, their beliefs and practices reveal animistic and polytheistic views. They pay homage to Pathian, the Creator. The other two gods they honor are Nadag, the household deity, and Bogley, the god of water. Khumis have similarity with the murongs in the observance of cow slaughter puja. They use plung flute of Murongs, although they do not dance in a group as the Murongs do. A Khumi man dances with a woman by his side during this ceremony. Nadag puja is observed before jhum cultivation and also before the harvest. A dog, a boar and an odd number of cocks and hens are offered as sacrifice on the riverbank during this festival. People ceremonially dance and sing. Sacrificial flesh is cooked and a morsel of stewed flesh is placed on the riverbank before consuming the sacrificial meat.
Khumis cremate their dead and then gather the bones and
ashes, wrap them with a piece of cloth and keep the pack for a certain
period before burying them in the jungle with festive rituals. They preserve
the weapons of the dead man in a house built in the place where the corpse
is burnt. [Selmon H Dio]
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