The Mising or Miri tribe of Assam
In this article I have provided information on the Mising tribe inhabiting the upper assam districts of Assam. I have provided detail on their origin, religious belifs and provided a list of important Mising personalities.
Mising tribe of assam
Assam is a land of various tribes and communities located over the entire span of the state. These tribes bear huge cultural and linguistic differences and at the same time similarities too. One of the prominent tribes in the upper Assam are the Mising tribe.
Mising (or formerly Miris) tribe comprises of ethnic people inhabiting mainly the Dhemaji, North Lakhimpur, Tinsukhia, Dibrugarh, Sibsagar, Jorhat and Golaghat districts of Assam. Also many of the tribe are settled in various districts of Arunachal Pradesh.
Although the exact origin of the Mising people hasn't been confirmed, but it is believed that these people are originally from the hills of Arunachal Pradesh and have lots of cultural and linguistic similarities with the Adi tribe of Arunachal Pradesh. It may be possible that these people migrated towards south in search of a fertile land and to their luck found the highly fertile river Bramhaputra and settled on the banks of the river. Although there was now a good deal of fertile lands available to the Mising people who were mainly farmers, the situation was not as good as it must be as the river Bramhaputra brought along with it severe floods which destroyed their crops most of the time and hence caused misery to these people at the same time. However the Mising people still inhabit the banks of river bramhaputra inspite of the yearly floods. Also one of the biggest river islands in the world 'Majuli'is mainly inhabited by the Mising people. Religious beliefs of the Mising People
Mising people have their own religion 'Donyi Polo'. Donyi is the sun and polo is the moon. Mising people believe that they are descendants of the Sun and the Moon and hence worship them.
However now Mising people follow both Hinduism and Donyi Polo as their religion. Also some of the Mising people have converted to Christianity.Language of Mising people
The Mising people use the Mising language. Although the number of speakers of Mising language is very less as some of the Mising people use Assamese language instead. The Mising language is written in a script which is a modified Roman language. Classification of Mising language
Based on the location of the inhabitants, the Mising people can be classified as-Some important personalities of the Mising tribe
1. Jatin Mipun- He has served in IPS. He has written a book 'Mixiji' which is famous in Assam.
2. Sonadhar Doley- He is first Mising IFS officer.
3. Mrinal Miri- He is the first doctorate degree holder of the Mising tribe
4. Sakuntala Doley- She is the first Mising woman to become an IAS officer.
5. Gopinath Pegu- He is the first Mising IAS officer.
Article is good. Here a disturbing point is noted although ie the spelling of Mising is sometimes written as Mising at others as Mishing. It shows the less seriousness and attention paid to the name of our tribe. It represents all of us so it should be paid sufficient attention while writing it.