The People

Customs of Lakher Society

Religion

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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