1

Religious conversions reconsidered: Christian missions and indigenous

movement among the Zo people in colonial Chin Hills.
Pum Khan Pau

Colonialism and Christian missions are two distinct institutionalised entities that often
move alongside to any new venture but opposed to each other fundamentally.1 While the
primary objective of the former was predominantly economic and its practice was
conditioned by economic laws2 the latter mainly aimed at transforming the socio-cultural
and religious lives of the people through and by means of Christianity. Generally, the
relations between Christian missions and colonialism had not always been “cordial” in all
cases; it apparently depends more often on the local situation. For instance, missionaries
were at first prohibited to start evangelical activities in India owing to Indian religious
sensibilities. But in the latter part of the nineteenth century doors were opened for the
missionaries who began to interact, if not collaborate, with colonial rulers in different
forms and at many levels. Such mutual connection was believed to be depended on the
particular mission and issues involved as well as the nature of the colonial situation.3
Recent studies thus aptly stated that “missionaries followed hard on the heels of soldiers
and administrators”,4 and in most cases “if the missions did not precede the colonial
movement, they did follow in the heels of colonial powers”.5 Although the two entities
differ in their objective and methods they have one thing in common: they are
unwelcomed in a strange land and they encountered opposition from the indigenous
people and traditions.
Following the routes taken by colonial soldiers Christian missionaries ventured into
the Chin hills, along the Indo-Myanmar border, in the late nineteenth century. As colonial

1
Lal Dena, Christian Missions and Colonialism: A study of missionary movement in North East India with
particular reference to Manipur and Lushai Hills 1894-1947, Verdrame Institute, Shillong, 1988, p.12.
2
J.S.Furnivall, Colonial Policy and Practice: A Comparative Study of Burma and Netherlands India, New
York University Press, 1956, p.8.
3
Robert W. Strayer, The Making of Mission Communities in East Africa, New York, 1978, p.2.
4
Mark R. Woodward, “Gift for the Sky People: Animal Sacrifice, Head-hunting and Power among the
Naga of Burma and Assam,” in Graham Harvey (ed.), Indigenous Religions: A Companion, London:
continuum, 2000, quoted in Terence Ranger, “Christianity and Indigenous Peoples: A personal Overview”,
Journal of Religious History, Vol.27, No.3, October 2003, p.264.
5
Lal Dena, p.13.
 2

soldiers faced strong resistance from the local people, so also was Christian missions
encountered by an indigenous movement, called Laipianism, and stiffly contested by the
local traditions. To critically assess the problems and prospects of Christian missions and
Laipianism that brought significant changes in the socio-religious life of the Zo people
becomes the main objective of this investigation. The main focus of this work is on the
Chin Hills with particular reference to colonial period. Falling in line with other Zo
scholars6 this paper employs the term Zo as synonymous to Chin, Kuki and Mizo of
Myanmar and elsewhere.

Introducing the Locale: Expansion of colonialism

In the late nineteenth century there was a marked shift in British mercantile opinion
which had far-reaching impact, especially in Asia and Africa. During this period there
was a “feeling of uncertainty, even of insecurity” among the British mercantile group
because of the increasing problems faced by British merchants in and out of Europe.7
Interestingly, it shook the entire commercial policy of Europe thereby raising the
question of the “hitherto neglected” areas, that is, Asia and Africa, to be considered for
new markets.8 This development strongly encouraged the British mercantile community
in Rangoon who strongly urged the British administration to protect their trade from any
aggression and also to annex Upper Burma during this period.9 It was followed by a
proposal to open up a ‘highway to China’ that would pass through Upper Burma.
W.G.Hynes thus rightly noticed that there was “a kind of direct influence of the
mercantile mind on official policy” and, as far as Anglo-Burmese relations is concerned,
that policy culminated into the Third Anglo-Burmese War (1885-86). The war finally
completed annexation of Burma.

6
Vumson, Zo History, Aizawl (n.d.), Sing Khaw Khai, Zo People and Their Culture,Churachandpur, 1995,
Khup Za Go, A Critical historical Study of Bible translations among the Zo people in North East India,
Churachandpur, Manipur 1996, and Zo Minam Tawh Kisai Thu (Issues facing Zo community today), Zo
Research and Communication Centre, New Delhi, 2001.
7
W.G.Hynes, “Communications: British Mercantile Attitudes Towards Imperial Expansion,” in the
Historical Journal, Vol.19 No.4, 1976, p.972. Hynes further said; “There were several reasons for this
changed outlook. Although it is difficult to fix changes in opinion precisely in time, it was clear by the mid-
1880s that not even the most enthusiastic free traders believed Europe was about to enter an era of
unlimited free trade. For the principal British Chambers of Commerce the failure of the Anglo-French
commercial treaty negotiations in 1881 was probably decisive in casting doubts on the future of free trade
on the Continent. At the same time as British exporters began to encounter increasing difficulties in
penetrating European markets, they faced greater European competition abroad, in some areas of the world
for the first time.”
8
Hynes, p.973. “Parrallel with this growing interest in discovering new markets in the mid-1880s, argued
Hynes, “there went an increased demand for government assistance to foreign trade. The prevailing
economic depression and the assistance given by foreign governments to their merchants and industrialists
made it seem less likely that individual enterprise in Britain would receive its just reward without the help
of governments…thus the overseas trade was almost the only sphere where a state directed anti-cyclical
policy could operate.”
9
D.P.Singhal, British diplomacy and the Annexation of Upper Burma, South Asian Publishers, New Delhi,
1981, pp.89-93.
 3

The strategic importance of Upper Burma to serve the purpose of British colonial
interest cannot be fully materialised so long as there remained an unadministered hill
tracts, commonly known as the Chin-Lushai hills, which often became the sources of
disturbances along the Indo-Myanmar border. The British India Government thus
proposed a policy to cut through these hill tracts:
In the open season of 1887-88 a project for opening up the Chin country from the
Bengal boundary in the west to the frontier of Burma proper on the east was
started in India, prematurely so far as we were concerned. It was proposed that
roads should be made through the hills, communication established, and the hill
people subjugated. The phrase “from the Salween to the sea” was invented and
had some effect.10

Though it took some years to fulfill this proposition it was primarily this idea, albeit there
were other factors that contributed to it, which impelled the British to send series of
military expeditions to the Chin-Lushai hills in the late 1880s and annexed to their
possession.11
The Chin-Lushai hills, which stretches from 92° and 95° longitude (East) to 20° and
25° latitude North of Equator,12 was, after annexation, divided into three administrative
units: Chin Hills, South Lushai Hills and North Lushai Hills. The management of these
divisions fell, partly to Burma, partly to Bengal and partly to Assam. In 1892, the earliest
attempt was made to amalgamate these divided hill tracts to form a single administration
under the aegis of the Lieutenant Governor of Bengal at Calcutta which ended abruptly
without any substantial results because of what has been considered “the rivalries
amongst the colonial administrators”.13 Another attempt, in 1898, succeeded to combine
the two Lushai hills districts into one under the Chief Commissioner of Assam; the Chin
Hills, however, remained with Burma. On the basis of this arrangement a formal
demarcation was carried out dividing the Chin-Lushai hills in the middle according to the
Government of India Act 1935. The post-colonial repercussion of colonial legacy was
immeasurably far-reaching and the prospects of re-unification of these hill tracts were
thus acutely bleak.
The Chin Hills, now Chin State of Myanmar, was predominantly inhabited by a
congeries of tribes who were generally referred to as Chin by colonial writers but locally
called themselves otherwise. The term “Chin” is an appellation generally used today to
denote the various tribes and sub-tribes inhabiting these hills. A variation of it is said to

10
Sir Charles Crosthwaite, The Pacification of Burma,London 1912, pp.288-289.
11
For a fuller discussion, see Pum Khan Pau, The Chins and the British, 1835-1935, PhD thesis,
Department of History, North-Eastern Hill University, Shillong, 2007.
12
www.Zogam.com/document/memorandum submitted to President Bill Clinton of America by leaders of
the Zo Re-unification Organistion (ZORO) General Headquarters : Mizoram, Aizawl (India), 1993.
13
For a detailed analysis of the Chin-Lushai Conference, 1892, see Pum Khan Pau, “Administrative
Rivalries on a Frontier: Problem of the Chin-Lushai hills,” Indian Historical Review Vol.XXXIV,
No.1(January 2007) pp.187-209.
 4

be used in a thirteenth century inscription of the old Pagan Kingdom, that the people
living on the mountains in the west are ascribed as “Khyan”.14 It was Father Sangermano,
however, who is believed to be the earliest, in 1873, to refer to these tribes: “To the east
of Chien mountains between 20o 30’ and 21o 30 north latitude, is a petty nation called Jo.
They are supposed to have been Chien, who in progress of time have become Burmese,
speaking their language, although very corruptly, and adopting all their customs”.15 The
venerable missionary was in all probability referring those living in the plain adjoining
the Chin hills, called later by colonial writers as “tame” Chins. By the 1880’s the term,
spelt as “Chin”, was in official use.
Attempts then began to trace the root of the term. Bertram Carey and Henry Tuck who
played a significant role in the subjugation and pacification of these tribes say that Chin
is a Burmese corruption of the Chinese “Jin” or “Yen”, meaning man.16 To Professor
Gordon Luce who had done considerable work on the history of Burma, it is derived from
the old Burmese word “Khyan” meaning “ally or comrade”.17 A Burmese scholar, on the
other hand suggests that Chin is a corruption of the old Burmese word “Khin” or
“Khyen” meaning brother.18 Taw Sein Ko, a Burmese lecturer at Cambridge University is
of the view that in common with many tribal designations in Asia both Chin and Kachin
(earlier spelt as Kakhyen) signify “man par excellence”.19 It should be noted that ‘Hky’
or ‘Kh’ is pronounced as ‘Ch’ in Burmese.20
The people call themselves not by “Chin” appellation but by the term “Zo”. This too
is said to be in use from early times.21 Captain Thomas Herbert Lewin, who was

14
Quoted in Encyclopaedia Britannica (Macropaedia), 15:629.
15
Reverend Father Sangermano, A Description of the BURMESE EMPIRE, translated by William Tandy,
DD, Reprint Rangoon 1893, p.35.
16
B.S.Carey & H.N. Tuck, The Chin Hills: A History of the people, our dealings with them, their customs
and manners, and a Gazetteer of their country, Rangoon Government Printing Press 1896, Reprint Aizawl
1932, Vol.1, p.3
17
G.H.Luce, “Chin Hills Linguistic Tour (Dec.1954) University Project”, Journal of Burma Research
Society, Vol. XLII, No.1 June 1959, p.26. A recent scholar F. K. Lehman’s The Structure of Chin Society
suggests that the word actually means a “basket” in Burmese.
18
Cited in Vum Ko Hau, Profile of A Burma Frontier Man, Bandung 1963, p.312
19
Taw Sein Ko, “The Chin and the Kachin tribes on the borderland of Burma,” Asian Review, Serie 2,
Vol.V (Jan-Apr, 1893), The Oriental University Institute, Leichtenstein, 1968, p.289
20
Grant Brown, Burma Gazetteer, Upper Burma, cited in Sing Khaw Khai’s Zo People and their Culture,
Churachandpur, 1995, p.67, wrote that “The sound formerly written Hky or Kh, but now, pronounces as Ch
retains something of its old pronunciation”. Today, Burmese currency ‘Kyat’ is ‘Chyat’, and the leader of
the National League for Democracy Aung San Syu Kyi as Aung San Syu Chi.
21
One of the earliest mentions is said to be found in Fan Ch’o’s book the Man-shu in 835 A D, who wrote
about the Mino-chiang people who called their princes and chiefs shou. The Mino-chiang are identified
with the people of Chindwin. Gordon Luce, in this regard, suggests that before the coming of the Mranma
(Burman) in the ninth century, the three chiefs powers in Burma were the Chins (and Sak) in Upper Burma,
the Tircul (or Pyu) in Central Burma, and Mi-ch’en (perhaps old Pegu) in Lower Burma. He further says
that when the Mranma descended to the plains of Central Burma in the ninth century, there had already
settled the Mon, Palaung, Wa, Karen, Thet, Kadu Chin etc. G.H. Luce, Phases of Pre-Pagan Burma Vol.II,
London 1985, pp.78-80; For a concise account of early Burma based on recent studies, See Nicholas
Tarling, The Cambridge History of South East Asia, Vol I, From Early Times to C 1800, Cambridge 1992,
pp.164-168; pp.240, and passim
 5

Superintendent in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, was in 1874 one of the first to refer to the
Chin-Lushai people as such:
The ‘Dzo’ tribes inhabit the hilly country to the east of the Chittagong
district in Lower Bengal; their habitat may be roughly stated as comprised within
the parallels of Latitude 22o 45’N and 25o 20’N., and between the Meridians of
Longitude 92o 30’ and 93o 45’.
Under the term ‘Dzo’ are included all the hill tribes of this region, who
wear their hair in a knot resting on the nap of the neck. The tribes further south
and east, of whom little is as yet known, are distinguished under the generic title
of ‘Poi’; these wear the hair knotted upon the temple.
The ‘Dzo’ state that the poi language is entirely distinct from theirs, and
that they have no common medium of intercommunication. I am myself disposed
to think that the two languages must have some affinity, but I have as yet no
certain information on this point.22

Robert Blair McCabe, who was Political Officer of the North Lushai Hills in the early
1890’s also uses the term to describe the Lushai.23 On the basis of linguistic affinity G.A.
Grierson placed the Zo people in the Kuki-Chin group of Tibeto-Burman family. He,
however, correctly states that the people do not themselves recognise the name Chin, but
call themselves Yo or Zo in the north, Lai in the centre, and Sho in the south, besides
many other tribal names.24 The Chin or Zo has thus many variations, such as Zo, Zhou,
Sho, Asho, Hiou, Cho, Dzo, Yo, Jo, Yaw and the like.

Zo traditions: Beliefs and practices

Historically, the Zo people had been isolated from a more advanced civilisation until the
British conquered their land. Being in isolation for quite a long period of time they had
cultivated a unique and uncorrupted society and culture of their own. Their social,
economic and religious life was closely intertwined. Therefore, the study of one, perhaps
the religious beliefs and practices, would suffice to reflect all the other aspects.

22
Thomas Herbert Lewin, Progressive Colloquial Exercises in the Lushai Dialect of the ‘Dzo’ or Kuki
Language, with Vocabularies and Popular Tales (Notated), Calcutta 1874., p.1; Lewin further added: “The
term Kuki is a generic name applied by the inhabitants of the plains, Bengallees and others, to all hill-
dwellers who cultivate by jhum. The word Kuki is foreign to the different dialects of the hill tribes, the
nearest approach to it being the ‘Dzo’ term for the Tipra tribes which is called by them Tui-Kuk. See also
his A Fly on the wheel, or How I helped to Govern India, Calcutta 1885, Reprint Aizawl 2005.
23
National Archive of India, Foreign Political-A Proceeding, December 1892, Nos.42-46; Our Relations
with the Eastern Lushais prior to the Rising on 1 March 1892, in which he says “The Lushais call
themselves Mizo or Mizau”, and lists seventeen “castes”, which include “Ralte Molbem, Khuangli, Paithe,
Taute, Jahau (Yahow), Dulien, Lakher, Fanai (Molienpui) Poi, Dalang, Tangur, Sukte, Mar, Falam
(Tashons), Paukhup, Liellul”.
24
G.A. Grierson, Linguistic Survey of India Vol.III Part III, Calcutta 1904, p.1
 6

Traditionally, Zo people were what earlier anthropologists termed animists. They

believed in numerous deities, which they thought were capable of helping or harming
man’s interest. This they divided into two viz., inn dawi (household spirit) and gam dawi
(country spirit). They offered sacrifices to the spirits that are capable of helping man,
whereas those that are harming them are propitiated and appeased. Each and every ill
was, therefore, attributed to evil spirits who had been angered in some way known or
unknown and for that sacrifice was offered. “These spirits”, wrote Cin Do Kham, “were
believed to inhabit different parts of human dwellings, springs, treks, rocks, rivers,
mountains and so on.” He further says:
If any misfortune such as illness, ominous dreams, etc. occurred, the affected
person offered to the appropriate spirits sacrifices of animals ranging from a
chicken to a mithun or a buffalo…If sacrifice made to a particular spirit proved to
be ineffective then one spirit after another was tried until the whole series of
sixty-eight spirits had been offered sacrifice to. In this way a sick person often
became impoverished for life. 25

Summing up the essence of Zo religious practices a recent Zo scholar observed: “The

Zo religion has its ultimate objectives the physical well being of the spirit of man, the
material happiness and prosperity of man on earth and the longevity of the span of life
here and now”.26
However, while believing in numerous deities, some also believed in one Supreme
Being. According to Vumson: “Zo believe in a supreme God or pathian. God is good. He
gives health, richness, children and other human wishes. God is never cruel and hurts
people. Therefore Zo people never sacrifice or offer anything to appease God.”27 The Zo
cosmology may thus be characterised as a “two-tiered scheme”28— microcosmic and
macrocosmic. Thomas Herbert Lewin’s record of a Khyeng’s belief as related to him thus
makes interesting reading:
We have two-gods:-Patyen; he is the greatest; it was he made the world. He lives
in the west, and takes charge of the sun at night. Our other god is named Khozing;
he is the patron of our tribe, and we are specially loved by him. The tiger is
Khozing’s house-dog, and he will not hurt us, because we are the children of his
master.29

25
Cin Do Kham, “The Untold Story: The impact of revival among the Chin people in Myanmar (Burma),”
Journal of Asian Mission Vol. 1, No. 2, Phillipines, 1999, p.207.
26
Sing Khaw Khai, p.159.
27
Vumson, p.16.
28
Similar discussion on Nagas’ cosmology may be referred to Richard M. Eaton, “Conversion to
Christianity among the Nagas, 1876-1971,” The Indian Economic and Social History Review, Vol. XXI,
No.1, (January-March 1984), SAGE, New Delhi.
29
T. H. Lewin, Wild Races of South-Eastern India, London 1870, Reprint Aizawl, 1978, pp.126-127.
 7

Lewin was of course writing of the Zo tribes in the Chittagong Hill Tracts. In reality there
were divergent beliefs among the different Zo tribes. The Sihzang believed that there was
no Supreme Being and the world is but filled with evil spirits. These spirits must be
propitiated or bribed to refrain from doing the particular harm of which each is capable.
The Hakas or Laimi and other southerners, however, strongly believed that there was a
God, called by them Khozing. Though Khozing, they believed, was not capable of
showering blessings on them he was able to trouble them in various manner; hence
sacrifices were made to propitiate him. They also believed in the existence of the spirit of
the village, the spirit of the family, or clan all of which were prone to do damage and
inflict suffering.30 Sing Khaw Khai, however, contested this:
The Chin traditional term Khuazing exists as against Khuavak (the light). The
word zing is literally ‘dark’ in English. So Khuazing will mean the Khua filled
with darkness in the sense of the matter. Darkness means the absence of light or
the state of being invisible. In that case ‘darkness’ appears the ‘invisible’ image.
Hence Khuazing symbolises the ‘Invisible’. In Tedim, this idea is represented by
their term Muh mawhte, that means divine beings. So it may mean divine beings.
(The Tedim believe that if the ‘Invisible’ is seen, the one who sees it would die.
So it may be said that the Khuazing is the divine which controls the Khua, the
innate world.31

About the “Khyen” tribe, Lieutenant T. A. Trant one of the earliest writer on these tribes,
wrote:
Only one trace still exists of supreme authority, and is in the person of the Passine
(Pasian in Tedim), or head of their rude religion. They have no idea of the
Supreme Being, nor have they any tradition respecting the creation: they are the
children of the mountains, and nature alone has any claim on their feelings.”32

Though it appears that there were divergent views on the representation of Zo cosmology,
it is to be generally accepted that Pasian represents God and Khuazing may be identified
with demons or evil spirits. While the Pasian or Supreme Being need not be appeased
with sacrifices, the Khuazing or evil spirits, which could cause trouble, required to be
propitiated with lots of sacrifices.
The sacrificial and propitiatory rites of the Zos may be generally divided into three
categories: personal rite, household rite and communal rite. While the first two rites were
sponsored by the individual household and managed by the head of the house, the last

30
Carey & Tuck, pp.195-196.
31
Quoted in J.M.Ngul Khan Pau, When the World of Zomis changed, D.Miss dissertation, Western
Conservative Baptist Seminary, Portland, Oregon, 1995, p.57.
32
Lieutenant T. A. Trant, “Notice of the Khyen Tribe inhabiting the Yuma mountains between Ava And
Aracan,” Journal of the Asiatic Society, Vol. XVI, 1828, in Asiatic Researches, Vol.16, Reprint New Delhi
1980, p.264.
 8

category resources were found by the village as a whole and management was conducted
by the village priest.33 One of the most important household rites was the ancestor
worship or Pu-sha biakna among the Tedim Zo people. Pu-sha was the chief god of all
the household gods. When the clan priest administered the worship, the names of the
pedigrees of successive generations were recounted.34 Ancestor sacrifice was another rite
of the household. It involved animal offering, like pigs or mithuns, and often times cereal
and intoxicating drink were offered. The priests concern performed all the types of rites.
There were the clan priest, household priest and village priest.
The greatest household ceremonial rites was the Ton’ feast or Feast of Merit. It is
known as Bawi-lam and Khuangcawi in the Haka area. In the Feast of Merit, which took
several days to perform, a large number from one’s own village as well as from
neighbouring ones were fed and entertained. Sacrifices were made to all sorts of beings.
The major sacrifice, however, consist of the ritual slaying of one or more mithuns. The
sacrificials were supposed to go to misikhua (the abode of dead). It was believed that
when the individual who performed the sacrifice died he would have those mithuns with
him in the misikhua. The sacrifices were at the same time the validation of status in the
eyes of the living public.35 In terms of the economic liabilities, the communal rite was
most heavy and imposed quite a serious burden on the household budget, because unlike
the other two, every household, which contributed to the expense of this rite, received no
reciprocal distribution of meat. Zo religious life was, therefore, closely intertwined with
the social and economic activities.

Indigenous movement: The life, teaching and ministry of Pau Cin Hau
On the backdrop of such a socially obligatory and economically expensive religious
beliefs and practices emerged an indigenous socio-religious reform movement pioneered
by Pau Cin Hau. He was the fourth son of Khan Lian, the eleventh generation of the
Sukte family.36 Born in 1859 at Tedim, in Northern Chin hills, Pau Cin Hau was brought
up as an ordinary normal child according to the traditional patterns of life. He spent his
early days attending his father’s mithuns and goats. When he became mature enough, his
parent sent to Mualbem (the capital of Sukte dynasty)to learn the art of warfare and
language of Teizang, for it was said in those days enemies did not dare to kill a captive
who spoke the royal language of Teizang.37 It was, therefore, imperative for every
emerging leader such as Pau Cin Hau to learn and speak Teizang.

33
H.N.C.Stevenson, The Economics of the Central Chin Tribes, Tribal Research Institute, Aizawl, 1986,
p.157.
34
Sing Khaw Khai, p.162.
35
F. K. Lehman, The Structure of Chin Society, University of Illinois, USA, 1963, Reprint, Aizawl, 1980,
pp.178-179.
36
S. Ngin Suanh, “A brief history of Pau Cin Hau and his religion”, Tedim BEHS No.1 Diamond Jubilee
Commemorative Magazine (1948-1998), p.581.
37
Robert G. Johnson, History of the American Baptist Chin Mission, Vol.1, Valley Forge, USA, 1998,
p.393.
 9

After completing his early traditional education at Mualbem, Pau Cin Hau returned to
Tedim and practised cultivation. At that time Tedim, the capital of Kamhau Chief Khaw
Cin, was at the zenith of its power. Since his boyhood Pau Cin Hau had been involved in
prophesying about the future. While in Tedim he predicted the destruction of the capital
to which no one heeded seriously. His vision was composed into a song38:
Thangvan-a zal Sian zamang aw
Tongdam khak hemin za’ng e
Pupa’ pat loh khua van nuai ah
Sian tongdam sinthu hi e.
(Thou God of gods, reigning on high
I heard a hint-Thy word
Unheard, unknown in days of yore
God’s word prevails through all the land)

It is, however, interesting to note that in the early 1960s an American anthropologist E.
Pendleton Banks conducted field study in the Chin hills and discovered that “Pau Cin
Hau had earlier acted as disciple to a prophetess named Pi(an honorific) Nuam Dim,
daughter of Hau Zui”. The study further reveals:
Tiddim, the chief village of the Northern Chin Hills, was ruled in the later 1880s
by Khua Cin, a powerful and cruel chief, who held sway over two hundred
villages and oppressed the poor. Nuam Dim had vision in which Pa Sian (God –
“Pa’ is the usual male honorific) told her that he was angry with Khua Cin and
that his vengeance would take the form of killing Khua Cin’s son, wiping out his
family line and destroying his inn ka.39

Banks further argues that “it is highly improbable that Nuam Dim could have been
influenced by Christianity in the 1880s”. It thus seemed to appear that Nuam Dim’s
prophesy had been reiterated by Pau Cin Hau, who, according to Banks, was aged sixteen
or seventeen then and “was chosen by Pa Sian to prophesy the date when the inn ka
would be destroyed”. The destruction of Tedim by British forces, which finally

38
Reproduced from S.Ngin Suanh, “A brief history of Laipian Pai Cin Hau and his religion”, in Tedim
BEHS No. Sangpi Golden Jubilee Magazine, published by Tedim BEHS No.1 Golden Jubilee
Commemorative Committee, Tedim, 1998, p. 581.
39
E. Pendleton Banks, “Pau Cin Hau: A case of religious innovations among the Northern Chins” in C.L.
Riley and W.W. Taylor (ed) American Historical Anthropology: Essays in honour of Leslie Spier,
London/Amsterdam: Feffer & Simons, 1967, p.39. Banks further said: “The inn ka is a sort of verandah
that all Chin houses have. Made of planks and jutting out over a hillside, it is the center of family activity
and the location of the status feasts which play an important part in Chin life. A man’s status is symbolized
by the size of his inn ka and by the location of his seat when visiting another inn ka. Khua Cin’s inn ka was
very large, made with extra wide planks- “the width of a za bo,” or extended hand breath- and located
where the modern football field is.”
 10

happened under Major Raikes in 1889, was, therefore, believed to be the fulfillments of
what had been prophesied earlier.40
Consequent upon the British expedition Khan Lian and his family fled and took refuge
to Lailui, a nearby village. It was here that Pau Cin Hau suffered serious illness for about
fifteen years (1888-1902) and of course a turning point in his life. During his prolong
illness he continued to receive series of revelations from God, which he later described:
“From the year 1900 onward in dreams and visions I received a series of communications
which I hold to be divine and are the foundations both of my alphabet and my religious
teaching”.41 In his successive visions he saw heaven, western civilizations such as
railways, steam-ships, struggle between nations and races, vision of an Englishman who
taught him letters, vision of the Almighty God who came on riding a horse to the
gathering of many races of people, vision of God’s command to abolish dawi (evil spirit)
sacrifices and many more.
Pau Cin Hau and his family resorted to all possible means to invoke the healing
touch of the demons or nats for the restoration of his health which all went in vain.
Finally, he claimed that he received a divine healing from God. In his vision he saw God,
who called him by his name and asked if he would worship Him. This Pau Cin Hau
responded: “I had faith in him in a moment was cured from my illness of fifteen years.
During those years for the cure of that illness I had paid the sum of Rs. 400 in making
sacrifices or various kinds of animals to the nats or demons. The cure of God was
complete and cost nothing”.42 In fact, Pau Cin Hau had no special training or preparation
for the role he had played. However, it is believed that God prepared him by giving
visions during the long years of his illness.
In the light of these developments, Lailui, being the place where Pau Cin Hau
received visions, may, therefore, be rightly considered his Isle of Patmos.43 Pau Cin
Hau’s life was totally changed since then. Soon he started propagating what he had
received from his visions moving from one village to another. The visions thus became
the central theme of his teaching in his public ministry.
Pau Cin Hau also devised a script in accordance with, what he believed, a revelation
from God. Though there was no mention of the new script in the 1911 and 1921 Census
of India reports, the original characters, which were 1,050, were reduced into 21
consonants and 7 vowels plus tonal signs in 1931. The script was employed in the
translation of The Sermon on the Mount by Pau Cin Hau, with the help of Thang Cin

40
Carey & Tuck, p.126. Also see Dorothy Woodman, The Making of Burma, London, 1962 and Pum Khan
Pau, “The Chins and the British, 1835-1935”, PhD thesis, Department of History, North-Eastern Hill
University, Shillong, 2006.
41
J.J.Bennison, “Pau Cin Hau Movement”, in Census of India 1931, Vol XI, Burma Part I Report, p.217
42
Bennison,p.217.
43
In the New Testament of the Bible St.John received revelation from God in the Isles of
Patmos(Revelation 1:9). Similarly, Pau Cin Hau’s teachings were based on what he had received in his
vision at Lailui village.
 11

Kham of Tonzang.44 The invention of script earned him the name Laipianpa (the script-
creator) and hence his religion Laipianism. Some people knew this movement as
Beeltung Muut Pawl simply because the leaders blow inside an empty zu45 pot and pray.
Pau Cin Hau movement appeared at the time when the Zo people had been
overburdened with costly sacrifices and ancestral worship. His teaching assumed
important and very appealing to the need of the hour as he strongly condemned the
futility of such self-consuming practices. A clear indication of this was when Pau Cin
Hau, according to the command of God, could dispensed with the fear and sacrifices to
spirits, people flocked to him and invited to their homes and villages to come and drive
away the evil spirits and abolish sacrifice to them. According to the prophet:
Our Chin (Zo) ancestors worship various kinds of nats, such as house nat, forest
nat, water nat etc., altogether fifty-four in number. Those who have believed and
wish to enter my religion came from far distant villages and invited them to visit
them. Together with a little band of disciples I made it my custom to accept their
invitation and on entering a house or village after praying to God would destroy
completely the articles used for making sacrifices to the nats and whereas
sufferers had previously, like myself, had to pay large sums of such sacrifices our
only charge was a nominal sum to cover traveling expenses. Sometimes it seemed
as though some of my more hasty or unintelligent followers were themselves
possessed by demons after such visit but after praying to God they speedily
became normal again.46

Laipianism was, therefore, said to have considerably removed the predominance of the
fear of dawi (spirit). The followers no longer have faith in sacrifices offered to demons or
nats for their healing but entirely depend on the prayer of their Laisang (Pastor).
Interestingly, most of the followers in its early stage were those who had been healed
from such prayer. This greatly affected the Zos concept of the cosmic world. The removal
of the fear of dawi(spirit) not only brought freedom from social obligations but most
importantly it broke the boundary of the microcosm(lesser spirit) and eventually
enhanced the importance of macrocosm (supreme being).47
Pau Cin Hau based his teachings entirely on his visions. He stressed on three main
areas viz., healing ministry, exorcism and teaching the people to worship God and
teaching the invented writing, which worked quite effectively among the people. Of the
seven rituals mentioned by Banks, the curing ritual or healing ministry was the most

44
Bennison, p.194
45
Zu is a fermented rice beer commonly drank by the Zo people. It was a very important part of their life,
especially common in festival and on any special occasion.
46
Bennison, p.194
47
Lal Dena, p.87.
 12

significant one often performed by a palik or Pa-leik-thas, 48 an elite group of the

movement.49
One of the most important factors responsible for the popularity of Pau Cin Hau’s
teaching was due to its strong emphasis on social liberation and economic benefits. The
abolition of holding extravagant feasts and wealth-consuming sacrifices to propitiate evil
spirits were well received by the socially restricted and economically overburdened
people. It, therefore, visibly improved the condition of the people as Pau Cin Hau himself
claimed:
One wholesome effect of my teaching is that where formerly many who had nothing
went into debt to obtain sacrificial offerings and so could neither afford to buy food
nor pay their taxes, my followers being free from such expenses are in much better
circumstances.50

An official report of 1912 further commented: “The material prosperity of the Chins in
the Northern Hills is being much increased owing to the teaching of a Sokte prophet, Pow
Chin How, who preaches against the sacrifices of animals.”51 One negative impact of this
growth, albeit less significant, according to Stevenson was on agriculture. According to
his observation: “The villagers having lost their fear of the ti huai, or evil spirits of the
springs, proceeded to cut down for firewood the large shady trees which animism had
preserved over all their village springs.” 52
The freedom to drink zu (rice-beer), and continued practices of traditional singing
and dancing became another contributing reasons for the widespread popular acceptance
of the indigenous movement. Drinking, singing and dancing being a part of Zo
traditional lifestyle, they were felt difficult to part with. Paradoxically, while Laipianism
strongly attacked animism and some of the Zo social practices it also tried to work in
conformity with some of the traditional practices and adapted to it. A recent study thus
contended: “This cultural adaptability and conversion without destroying the cultural
barriers proved to be effective in the spreading of Laipianism.”53 Interestingly, in due
course, with the growing threat of evangelism, Laipianism “became a truly nativistic
movement, a rallying point for the conservative and antiforeign elements in Chin
society”.54

48
The Palik or ‘Pa-leik-thas’ (policemen) were also known as Khutdompa (man who feel the pulse). The
Palik wore red head dress, because it is believed that as all bad characters are said to shun the police, so
also all evil spirits will shun the sick person as long as the Palik present in his red head dress. They were
numbered from three to six per village. The Paliks were offered Zu as a form of fee.
49
Bennison, p.218. Also see Banks,p.44.
50
Bennison, p.218.
51
Report on the Administration of the Chin Hills for the year ended 30th June 1912.
52
Stevenson, p.45.
53
J.M. Ngul Khan Pau, p.117
54
Banks, p.55.
 13

All these favourable factors helped popularise Laipianism. Thus, within a short span
of time the movement spread from Tedim, its origin, to Falam, Haka and beyond the
western and northern borders, overcoming language and cultural boundaries. An official
record in 1931 stated the number of adherents to Laipianism in Chin hills district was
estimated at 35,700 including 26,000 in Tedim subdivision and 9,700 in Falam
subdivision.55 In 1936, Henry Noel Cochrane Stevenson recorded that almost the entire
Zanniat tribe had been converted to this cult and a total of about 27 percent of the whole
population of the Falam subdivision professed allegiance to it.56

Christian missions: Education and medical health

Christian missions had, in fact, preceded Laipianism, though the latter widespread much
faster. The earliest Christian missionaries Rev. Arthur E. Carson and his wife Laura
Hardin Carson from the American Baptist Mission reached the Chin hills on 15 March,
1899. They first laid the foundation of Christianity among the Zo people in Chin hills.
Though it took quite some time to gain substantial results, ultimately it was this
missionary couple and their followers who apparently brought spiritual as well as
physical enlightenment by sowing the seed of the Gospel. Even after the last foreign
missionaries had left the Chin Hills in the middle of the twentieth century their legacy
remains; the Zo Christian converts continued to shoulder on the task of evangelisation.
As it was in the case of other parts of the world so also was true in Chin Hills that
evangelical work was closely associated with educational and medical activities. One of
the foremost tasks of the missionaries was to heal the soul as well as the body. “Building
a house and a schoolhouse were the first concerns of the Carsons’,57 wrote Robert G.
Johnson, which clearly revealed the importance of education to evangelical work. He
further says that Carson was very much concern about extending medical services to the
people who were badly in need of them in order to bring them to Christianity. In his letter
to the Mission Board, Carson addressed:
Every disease, and they are heir to them all, is assigned to possession or influence
of evil spirits, and sacrifice and feasting is the remedy…We are sure that a
medical missionary, beside the immense amount of suffering he could relieve,
could unlock the hearts of this simple people as no other could.58

Dr Erik Hjalmar East, a Swedish born American, was the first medical missionary, who
reached the Chin Hills on 22 March, 1902. Barely after staying for two months Dr East
soon left the Chin Hills because of illness. His first impression during his brief stay,
however, intelligibly stressed the need for medical work:

55
Bennison, p.218
56
Stevenson, p.162
57
Johnson, p.54
58
Johnson, p.58
 14

My first impression was that the Chins certainly were in need of help, as the blind
lame, wounded, fever stricken, lepers and skin diseases came. Secondly, I was
convinced that this people were in need of a thorough cleansing from top to toe as
I had never seen human beings so completely encrusted with a covering of dirt. In
the third place I was convinced that the soap I brought would come in handy and
more so as I was told that they never wash themselves or their children. 59

On 28 December, 1903, Dr East, this time with his new bride Emily Johnson, returned to
Haka with a strong conviction “to break down the influence of the priests and the witch
doctor”.60 He started giving treatments to sick persons, distributing drugs to villages and
at the same time preaching the Gospel. In 1904 alone treatments were given to 4,000
patients. Dispensaries were opened up in important villages. Medicines were stored in
schools where teachers, who had been trained to give treatment on certain common
diseases, also performed basic treatment to patients. The most common diseases were
malaria, rheumatism, toothache, goiter, fever, eye trouble etc.
Since it became quite expensive and difficult for the medical doctors to make tour to
the villages it was proposed that the sick persons should also be brought to the Haka
hospital for treatment. The Emily Tyzzer Memorial Hospital at Haka was established in
1907. The hospital, however, did not really serve the purpose as it was believed. Report
of 1909 revealed that only 21 inpatients had been registered at the hospital that year
whereas there were more than 5000 new patients on record. “The reason for so few have
availed themselves of the hospital accommodation”, wrote Dr East, “is due to the fact that
it is looked upon as a calamity to be away from the hearthstone in case that death should
come while away. To be happy after death a Chin must die in his home and by his
fireside.”61 Besides the people also had “prejudiced against a man who claims to be a
medicine chief and cannot cure all his chronic troubles with a pill or by rubbing
something on two or three times”. A time comes when they lost all hopes in their
traditional methods. “They come to us as a last resort”, lamented East, “when hope,
means and strength are absolutely gone.”62
Education also played significant role in evangelism. The first school was introduced
by Carson at Haka in June 1900, which was later closed down because of strong
opposition from a Burman sergeant of the Military Police.63 It was, however, reopened on

59
E.H.East, Burma Manuscript, Edited by C. Thang Za Tuan, Yangon, Myanmar 1996, p.49.
60
E.H. East, p.309.
61
Johnson, p.274.
62
Johnson, p.273; Dr East thus wrote; “They often tell us, we have now done all our customs teach us, and
all that our witch doctors know. We have sacrificed mythun, cows, pigs, goats, chickens, and dogs, and still
we are no better; now we are as fools, we know no more. Now we come to you. Your are like god. What
can you do for us? We will give you a rupee if you cure us.”
63
Johnson, pp.64-65. The first school had one pupil. Saya San Win, a preacher of the Karen tribe who
accompanied Carson to Haka, served as the first mission teacher. The school at its initial stage was opposed
by a Burman sergeant of the Military Police who was an ardent Buddhist. In the Buddhist school he started
 15

21 March 1902 after the arrival of Dr Erik Hjalmar East, a medical doctor, and Saya
Shwe Zan, another Karen preacher and teacher. That same year a second school was
opened at Tedim with one Po Ku as the teacher followed by the third school at Khuasak
in the Tedim Subdivision on 31 March 1904. It was at Khuasak village, which Dr East
described “one of the most Godless places on the earth”64, that wonderfully the first
converts —Thuam Hang and his wife Dim Khaw Cing, and Pau Suan and his wife Kham
Ciang—were gained. On hearing this great news Dr E. H. East, who later baptised
them,65 jubilantly exclaimed: “Truly, when this letter came from Schwe Zan, Mrs East
and I laughed and cried and shouted: ‘the King of Glory had surely made His entrance
into the Chin Hills. The bells of heaven were ringing as the Shepherd brought home the
lost sheep.’ It was too wonderful!”.66
Strongly boosted by the permission given by the Kamhau Chief Hau Cin Khup of
Tonzang, a school was started there in 1904. The Chief also gave permission to build a
schoolhouse and a teacher’s house. Po Ku, the Karen teacher started the school with two
students namely Son Vung and Hen Za Kam from Tuitum village. These two students
later became the first Christian from Tonzang area. They were baptised by Dr East on 27
February 1906 in the presence of Chief Hau Cin Khup and all the villagers.67 The same
year another school was started at Zokhua with Saya Ma Kya as teacher. Thus by 1905
there were altogether four schools with an attendance of 132 pupils.68 The small number
of attendance also shows that there was an economic disadvantage in having children to
go school because by sending it parents lost the service of their children.
In the early stages of its growth there were no girls enrolled in the school. In fact, Zo
people saw no value in the education of women. According to them girls had to work in
the fields and in the home and so could not be spared. Educating a girl was
nonproductive, for they thought girls would only get married, have a family, and be
occupied in agricultural and domestic chores. Besides they considered educated girls
would not be properly submissive to their husbands. Knowing this, Laura Carson devoted
her considerable energies to getting hold of the girls:
My plan (she wrote) is to attract them at first by starting a sewing class and telling
the girls that as soon as one is able to cut out and make a jacket neatly she shall
have it. While teaching them to sew I hope to be able to teach them a good many

the sergeant told the parents “if the boys would go to a Buddhist school or a government school they would
be given food and clothing free”. Consequently many pulled out their boys from mission school when they
did not get food and clothes forcing Carson to declare in June 1901: “We have no school.”
64
E.H.East, pp.60-61.
65
Laura Hardin Carson, Pioneer Trails, Trials and Triumphs, Calcutta 1927, Reprint Aizawl 1997.pp. 180-
181. It was at Khuasak that the first hill Chin Christian converts had been baptised.
66
E.H.East, pp.60-61. The British Superintendent of Chin Hills L.E.L.Burne in 1908 reported that when
Rev. A.E.Carson died on 1 April 1908 there were already 55 Chin Christians, Report on the Administration
of the Chin Hills for the year 1907-08.
67
Johnson, pp.288-289
68
Johnson, p.66
 16

other things and to get them interested in learning to read and so to open up a new
world to them.69

Laura Carson succeeded in getting the girls in her sewing classes. Mah Seh a woman
teacher was brought up at Haka. There was, however, only one girl student in 1906.
When the Baptist Mission Burma in Boston reorganised the Chin Mission into the
northern and southern regions on 1 October 1909, a second station was established at
Tedim and John Herbert Cope, who had arrived at Haka a year earlier, was placed in
charge of it. Unlike in Haka70 there was considerable opposition by the chiefs to schools
in Falam. What the chief of Seipi village told the Superintendent and Dr East at a
conference in June 1909 explains why: “Chong In Kadu Vantsung Jesu Kan dulo. Ar le
vock Kan tshoi lo a stshun Kan thi lai, she ranga Jesu thorng Kan duh la” (school I want,
the Heavenly Jesus I don’t want. If we do not sacrifice chickens and pigs we die,
therefore, I don’t want the Jesus custom).71 Evidently, the chief wanted education without
Christianity to which the missionaries could not agree. Dr East thus told the
Superintendent that “we would not for a moment consider any school without religious
teaching, and that our prime object was and is to spread the Gospel, and while doing so,
we are willing to educate the people also”. The Superintendent remained unmoved.72 The
school at Laizo and Lumbang were accordingly closed. Disappointed with the
Government attitude Dr East wrote:
The whole thing goes to show that even here, among wild tribes, the powers that
be representing a (sic)Christian Missionaries are not always as they should be; but
on the contrary try to block their work wherever possible by veiled diplomatic
tricks, for such I am sure this was. But we have no right to blame the British
Government, as in the farflung provinces it usually depends upon some unfriendly
sub-officials who must elevate himself by hindering such as are willing to rescue
the perishing and care for the dying.73

69
Johnson, p.140
70
See Shwe Zan’s letter date 25 July 1904 from Khuasak village to Dr East quoted in Laura Hardin, op.cit.
pp.180-181, in which he inter alia says of the converts: “One man name’s Tum Harm (Thuam Hang); he is
chief among the three chiefs. Now he begin to believe Jesus. This night he come up to me for praying God.
Dear master, please remember for Tum Harm in your prayer. O my dear master if you arrive here this time,
how you will be very glad for Christ.
“As to school the people begin to build the school now. They got some post to the school place; in
a few days I think school will finish. Some time I wrote about to stop school until the school (house) finish,
and you tell I must stop; but I think in my heart it is better to learn every day so that I have school in my
house”.
71
E.H.East, p.193.
72
E.H.East, p.193; There was in fact, an agreement between Arthur Carson and the Government as to the
opening of a school at Lumbang village.
73
E.H.East, p.194; A Chin leader Rev. Max Vai Pum in his work “The Beginning of formal Education in
the Chin Hills”, Falam High School Diamond Jubilee Magazine (1906-1981) also writes the attitude of the
Chins and chief thus: “Unfortunately things did not turn up so, for formal education at the onset did not
seize the fancy of the people and the state schools were abominations to the arrogant Chin chieftains. To
 17

When Dr East left the Chin Hills on October 1910 for failure of his health there were
5 primary schools with 231 students including 20 girls.74 The medium of instruction at
that time was Burmese.
In 1911 there were 6 primary schools of which two registered with the Government
namely, Khuasak (I January 1911) and Haka schools. However, there was a sharp decline
in their number. In 1912 only two schools remained functioning. The number of students
dropped from 180 in 1911 to a mere 60 in 1912. It is possible that the four unregistered
night schools ceased to function; one of the causes of the decline was certainly the
opposition of Chief Hau Cin Khup who gave permission for the school but became
nervous with the growth of Christianity in his tract. He was uncompromising towards
Christians and even ordered Po Ku, the teacher, out of the village. He also dismantled the
Tonzang School which eventually ceased to exist.75
The functioning of the schools was again interrupted by the Haka uprising of 191776
that resulted in the closure of a few schools. But these reopened again after its
suppression and in 1920 there were 6 primary schools with 175 students and 11
teachers.77 In 1922 the Haka school was upgraded to middle school (7th standard) and the
following year Khuasak school was also raised to secondary standard.78 In 1935 the
statistics of the educational schools show that there remained only 3 primary schools with
the Missions having 75 pupils.79 The fall in the number this time was due mainly to
Government’s absorption of the schools.
It was nearly after a decade of the first Mission school that the British Government
took some interest in education. The first Government primary school was established at
Falam in 1908. In the month of January in the following year the Government sanctioned
an allowance of Rs. 2 per month for each student. The Government too started providing

them this education business was nothing less than a form of coercion, a virtual seduction towards change
of religion, culture and tribal customs. The chiefs especially feared the prospect of losing their customary
tributes”.
74
E.H.East, p.295
75
Johnson, pp.434-435; Herbert Cope thus wrote: “The Christian does not sacrifice nor does he hold
drunken feasts, whereupon, according to the law of the land, they are excused from paying the dues. This
has stirred the chiefs to a high pitch of excitement. They are demanding to know where all this will lead.
Unless the government comes to their rescue and makes new rules they will soon be receiving little shilla.
At the same time the heathen see what the Christians are doing and they want to do likewise. Therefore,
wherever I go someone wants to know if they can stop this shilla payment. The chiefs are contemplating
raising a defence fund and carrying the matter up to the Crown if necessary. It is a hindrance to our work.
With the chiefs feeling this way they try in every way to keep people out of the Kingdom (of God).”
76
The uprising was a culmination of anti-colonial feeling which had been developed following annexation.
For more discussion, see Pum Khan Pau, “The Haka Uprising, 1917-1918,” in Chin Students Association
Golden Jubilee Souvenir, Lamka, 2006, pp.62-67.
77
Johnson, p.441
78
Johnson, p.459
79
Johnson, p.499
 18

pupils with meals which had been the long demand of the Zos. This remarkably improved
the attendance.80
On 25 June 1909 a Government Vernacular School was opened at Tedim.81 In 1913 a
boarding school was introduced in Tedim. The opening of Government schools adversely
affected the Mission schools and Dr East lamented that this totally wiped out the “golden
opportunity” for the missionaries.82 There was much rivalry and little cooperation
between the Government and the Mission in the early years of Dr East’s period. While
the Missions employed Christian Karen83 teachers who strictly followed their policy to
inculcate Christian faith through teaching and preaching, Buddhist Burmans and Hindu or
Muslim Indians who were in the service of the Government also became a stumbling
block to the progress of education. Even, as Dr East remarked: “A certain Roman
Catholic Government official did all he could secretly to undercut the mission program,
while feigning friendship on the surface.”84 Matters improved under Rev. John Herbert
Cope who began to work in collaboration with the Government. He established personal
friendship with the officials at all levels including Burmese and Indian. After 1921 the
Government began to take a keener interest in the education provided by the Mission.
The attitude of the Chiefs and headmen too gradually changed and they became, after
many of them were converted, helpful to the Mission.
In June 1921, Colonel L E L Burne, the Superintendent and the Battalion
Commander, held a meeting at Falam to discuss the merits of change of the medium of
instruction in the schools. It was attended by Herbert Cope, and the Assistant
Superintendents. Burne reported the view of the conference:
The opinion of the majority was that the present system of education was not the
best suited to the needs of the people of these hills, and that Chins should replace
Burmese as the medium of instruction. Burmese would not be abolished
altogether, except in the village schools, but would be taken as a second language.
The technical school at Falam continues to impart instruction in carpentry and
masonry, and the question of extending the subjects to be taught is receiving
attention.85

80
L.E.L.Burne, Report on the Administration of the Chin Hills for the year 1908-09.
81
LEL Burne, Report 1908-09, The buildings, which include a large class-room, quarters for the teacher
and a dormitory for the boys were erected entirely at the expense of the Zos, who not only supplied all the
necessary materials, but employed Zo labour for the actual building work. There are now 50 pupils
attending the school and about another 30 seeking admission which it is impossible to grant. The services
of an additional teacher are required.
82
Johnson, p.287
83
Max Vai Pum, op.cit. Most prominent Karen teachers were San Win in Haka, Po Ku in Tedim and
Tonzang, Shwe Zan in Khuasak, Ma Kya in Zokhua. These teachers were paid a monthly salary of Rs.20
by the British government and the American Baptist Mission gave them a supplementary sum of Rs.5 per
teacher per month.
84
Johnson, p.283
85
L.E.L.Burne, Report on the Administration of the Chin Hills for the year 1920-21
 19

Writing to his friends Cope also said:

I am very glad that the present officers are advocating the education of the Chins
in their own language. Now we are educating the Chins through Burmese. This
month we all held a conference on the question. Most of the political officers are
in favour of the change. The new idea is to produce textbooks in Chin, erect a
school house in every village of considerable size, place a teacher there who will
teach the boys and girls to read in their own language and, through that, other
subjects to the fourth year. In the meantime, Burmese will still be taught at the
stations (that is, in Tiddim, Falam, and Haka). In the mission schools all the
children are now taught to read little Chin, enough so that they can sing and read
the few portions of the Bible which have been translated.86

The meeting resulted in the change of the medium from Burmese to the Zo language
at the primary level. Burmese was, however, continued to be used in the higher grades in
the schools at Tedim, Falam, and Haka. The following year another conference, held at
Maymyo, recommended the use of Laizo or the Falam dialect, and that English and
Burmese to be the second languages. As there was no consensus on orthography a sub-
committee, one of the members being Cope, was formed, which also could produce no
agreement.87 The Maymyo recommendation did not prove satisfactory as the Laizo
dialect was not popular in the Tedim area. Accordingly Colonel Burne asked Cope in
1924 to prepare text books in two languages- one in Kamhau-Sukte for Tedim and the
other in Laizo for Falam and Haka. Cope was elated for reasons he had explained to the
Field Secretary of the Baptist Mission in Rangoon:
We have the opportunity of a lifetime here in the Hills and want to take advantage
of it. It means also an advance in our work even if there were no more
missionaries or helpers. At first the large majority of teachers in the Haka and
Falam subdivisions will be Christians and everyone will be an evangelist. It
means also that one language will slowly come to dominate the lower two-thirds
of the Hills and one in the Tiddim subdivision, thus doing away with the most
exasperating obstacle to the progress of work here in this field. It will mean more
so solidarity in the work and in the people.88

The relationship between the Government and the Missions had now become
healthier and a new policy of streamlining education was set in place. In May 1924 Cope
was offered and accepted the post of Honorary Inspector of Schools by which all schools
came under his control. This meant that the Mission schools also came under the
Government. The Burmese script and language was dropped altogether and replaced by

86
Johnson, p.458
87
Johnson, p.459
88
Johnson, p.461; Cope’s letter to Wiatt, the Field Secretary to Rangoon, 24 April 1924.
 20

the Roman-alphabet and vernacular language. Cope was commissioned to write

textbooks from primary to the fourth standard in local dialects on all subjects taught in
the schools for three subdivisions of Falam, Haka and Tedim. He ultimately wrote thirty
five textbooks and readers in six different Zo dialects, on different subjects such as
geography, hygiene, nature study, history and arithmetic. What Cope achieved in
practical terms was the reduction of over forty dialects into three lingua franca namely:
Tedim, Falam and Haka.89
Government subsidies to Mission schools ceased in 1925.90 Till the year 1924
Mission schools all over the Chin Hills received Rs.833 from the Government and Rs.
455 from local contributions.91 The changeover from Burmese to Zo language as the
medium of instruction made the schools into Anglo-Vernacular Middle Schools with upto
the 7th standard, which appeared more attractive to the boys and girls. Meanwhile, for
Gurkhas, Chinese, Burmese and Indian children who could not understand the vernacular
a Non-Zo School was established in the cantonment area of Falam. Subsequently, in 1935
the first high school with 8th standard was started in Falam. It was a result of the
persistent efforts made by three students from Tedim viz., Song Pau of Tedim, Neng Za
Gin of Phunom, and S T Hau Go of Lailui. The Falam high school became the basis, as S
T Hau Go noted, for forging the unity of the Zo people of Haka, Falam and Tedim in
spirit, language and other nation-building activities.92
Since the American missionaries were not able to visit every village, their work was
extended by the Karen Christian teachers. Gradually educated Zo people completed the
work of evangelisation. Those who became Christian and were trained and educated were
employed in the ministries. Statistics show that numbers of organised Churches soared up
from 12 in 1924 to 60 in 1937 in the Haka, Falam and Tedim areas.93 After the
incorporation of Pakokku Hill Tracts into Chin Hills in 1930, villages in the south
including Matu, Khrum, and Kanpetlet had been visited by northern missionaries. In the
Kanpetlet subdivision there were three Government schools, all teaching in Burmese.
Curiously there was one Christian in the whole Kanpetlet area.94

Digging deeper: Problems and prospects of Laipianism and Christianity

Inspite of missionaries’ undaunted efforts to propagate Christianity among the Zo people
by employing education and medical activities, a survey of the development of both
Laipianism and Christianity during the first half of the 20th century points to the former

89
Sukte T. Hau Go, “How Falam Got Her High School” Falam High School Diamond Jubilee Magazine
(1906-1981) p.66.
90
Johnson, p.496
91
Johnson, p.481
92
S T Hau Go, p.67
93
Johnson, pp. 479, 577-576
94
Johnson, pp.540-541
 21

having secured better success than the latter. Statistic shows that there were only 1900
Christian converts in 1931,95 which was a mere 5.3 per cent of Laipianism (35,700
followers). The reasons for such wide imbalance may be varied.
One of the most important reasons was the cultural adaptability of Laipianism in which
evangelical work has no advantage. Robert Johnson, who was the last American Baptist
missionary to have served in the Chin Hills(1946-1966), admitted that Pau Cin Hau’s
reforms were an improvements over the old animistic customs.96 Similarly, a Zo scholar,
who categorised Pau Cin Hau, as a traditional intellectual, holds that Laipianism was
steeped into the rural social milieu and defends the core Zo traditional values by
providing an alternative to Christianity.97 Though it is not clearly known that Laipianism
was intended to defend Zo culture from the assimilation of Christianity, one thing is
certain that the people seemed more inclined to accept a religion which could go along
with their culture and tradition at that stage. At any rate the Zo people greatly value and
respect their traditional practices; but they were strongly against any cultural intrusion.
One the other hand the Zo people considered Christianity as a foreign religion since
the Whites first brought to them. It was suspiciously looked upon as the White’s religion.
In addition, missionary teachings—against the practiced tradition of drinking of zu(bear),
sacrifices and the like —undermined Zo tradition. And more importantly the failure to
induce the Chiefs and headmen to Christianity, on whom the entire Zo society greatly
depended, remained a stumbling block to evangelical activities. At first the Chiefs and
headmen felt that education and Christianity unloosed the people from the burden of
slavery and other compulsory traditional dues. Christianity, they believed, acts as a
liberating force which severely curtailed their authority morally and materially. It was
due these reasons that the Chiefs and headmen had been obstinately opposed to
evangelism in the early stage.
Educational and medical activities, in spite of its early implementation, did not
effectively draw the attention of the people toward Christianity during the first few
decades. Early respondents through these were quite negligible. One reason behind the
slow growth was that only few numbers of male students attended the Mission schools
while girls were discouraged by the parents. In fact parents saw no value in education of
women.98 Another hurdle came from the Chiefs and headmen. Max Vai Pum thus
observed:
Unfortunately things did not turn up so, for formal education at the onset did not
seize the fancy of the people and the state schools were abominations to the

95
Johnson, p.536
96
Johnson, p.397
97
David Vumlallian Zou, “Role of intellectuals in Tribal Social formation”, in Zomi Christian International
Vol.8 No.1, Delhi, p.11.
98
According to them girls had to work in the fields and in the home and so could not be spared. Educating
a girl was nonproductive, for they thought girls would only get married, have a family, and be occupied in
agricultural and domestic chores. Besides they considered educated girls would not be properly submissive
to their husbands.
 22

arrogant Chin chieftains. To them this education business was nothing less than a
form of coercion, a virtual seduction towards change of religion, culture and tribal
customs. The chiefs especially feared the prospect of losing their customary
tributes.99

The pace of growth of education was thus decelerated by all these reasons. After two
decades of work there were only 295 students in 1924.100
Medical work neither fared better. Dr Woodin, who was a Mission doctor in the Chin
Hills from 1911 to 1915, was greatly disappointed by the sullen attitude of the people and
their response, as he reported in his letter to the Board in 1914: “The medical work
continues the same as before…the few cases in the hospital has been unsatisfactory, most
of them have been forcibly removed at critical time to be taken to their villages for
sacrifice. I consider the eleven hundred rupees expended for medical work worse than
wasted.”101
The trend did not remain unchanged. The second half of the 20th century ushered in a
great upsurge in evangelical activities. The reasons are many. Like the Pau Cin Hau
movement, Christian teachings also managed to penetrate into the hard core section of the
society. This was mainly because of the persistent efforts of the missionaries, Karen
teachers and Zo converts on the one hand and conversion of the Chiefs and headmen,
who had earlier strongly opposed education and modern medical treatments, on the other.
Unlike before, medical activities worked so effective here. Even the Chiefs and headmen
were compelled to approach the mission doctors, as mentioned above, when they lost all
hopes in their witch doctors and traditional sacrifices, although often as a last resort.
Gradually, people who have been cured from their physical illness by the treatment of
mission doctors naturally discarded their traditional practices and turned to Christianity.
It did not left Chiefs and headmen behind. Christianity was thus no longer seen as a
destructive force but rather as an alternative source of health and power. The conversion
of those higher strata of the society was largely responsible for the easy access of
Christian faith among the commoners, who too, indeed, responded positively though
steadily.
Language and literature did play a pro-active role in the spread of Christianity. Better
education gave better knowledge of the Almighty God. The Romanised local alphabet
introduced by John Herbert Cope in the early part of the nineteenth century gave a new
impetus to the development of Christianity. The Zo people were devoid of any existing
script except the one invented by Pau Cin Hau, which was still in a preliminary stage. So
the introduction of a Romanised script by early missionaries seemed to have
overshadowed the indigenously invented one. The new alphabets, in Kamhau dialect,

99
Rev Max Vai Pum, “The Beginning of formal Education in the Chin Hills”, Falam High School
Diamond Jubilee Magazine (1906-1981)
100
Johnson, p.481.
101
Johnson, p.327.
 23

were so easy that it took only seven days to learn. It became popularly known as Ni Sagih
Lai (Seven Days Script). The introduction of vernacular language in government schools
in 1925 and emergence of vernacular text books not only gave a big boost to the growth
of education but also remarkably contributed to the work of evangelism. This was
strongly supported by the fact that early Zo converts were being gained mainly from the
school.
Similarly, the formation of the Chin Hills Baptist Association, an apex church
organisation, in 1907, was no less significant. This parent body was soon followed by the
establishment of regional associations such as Tedim Association, Falam Association,
Haka Association and Matu-Kanpetlet Association and eventually the Zomi Baptist
Convention in 1954. These associations not only firmly cemented Christianity in Chin
Hills on a solid basis but also effectively carried forward the Gospel even after the
foreign missionaries had left. A well established foundation laid by the early Christians,
therefore, greatly enhanced the work of evangelism.
Colonial-Christian missions combined efforts to spread education, besides many other
factors, reversed the trend of religious conversion—for most of Pau Cin Hau followers
and those who had earlier strongly took hold of the traditional belief now turned to
Christianity. The Pawlpi(collective followers) of Pau Cin Hau being the main foundation
of the indigenous movement lost its firm footing as it had been shaken by whirlwind
change brought by evangelical activities. Consequently, many of the followers of Pau Cin
Hau began to accept Christianity in the middle of the 20th century. Hence, Laipianism
dwindles while Christianity grew. And today a very small number of adherents to
Laipianism are still found among the Zo people.

Conclusion
The foregoing discussion unfolds three important things that brought significant changes
in Chin Hills: Colonialism, Pau Cin Hau movement and Christianity. In Africa there is a
common saying —One white man gets you on your knees in prayer, while the other steals
your land.102 The same is true in the context of the Zo people. Chin Hills was first
brought under colonial rule soon to be followed by religious movements, alien or
indigenous. The former subjugated the people which the latter two seemed to have,
perhaps, “pacified” with their new socio-religious reforms. Colonialism heavily checked
and forcefully put under control all sorts of inhuman practices —raiding, head-hunting,
slavery and the like. It remodeled the chieftainship, the traditional mode of
administration, to suit the law of the coloniser, though with the least intervention in tribal
polity. The land and the people had been, to a great extent, tranquilised: roads and
communications established, trade and markets encouraged and money economy replaced
barter system. However, one thing that colonialism was incapable of doing was to change

102
F.B.Welbourn, “Missionary stimulus and African responses,’ in Victor Turner (Ed), Colonialism in
Africa, 1870-1960, vol 3, Cambridge University Press, 1971, p.310.
 24

the beliefs and practices of the people in toto. To crack the hard shell of animism-based
society remains the most challenging task confronting the Pau Cin Hau movement and
Christian missions in the early 20th century. To secure religious conversions in such
hostile traditional beliefs and practices proponents of these new movements must sought,
which they did, a suitable area where they would cast their net.
In the light of the above discussion, though it is not the intention here to draw a
conclusive assessment, Christian missions and Pau Cin Hau movement appeared to have
successfully managed to bring changes in Zo society and culture. Never had there been a
slightest hint of any mutual cooperation between the two, nevertheless, the success of one
largely depend on the other and vice versa.
However, in spite of such mutual dependence there was no sign of contest: Laipianism
never appeared as a serious contender against evangelical activities as regard to the whole
process of religious conversions in Chin Hills, though it did caused some trouble to
missionary activities in its initial years. Yet, it is difficult to merely subscribe to the views
forwarded by Robert G. Johnson, who strongly argued that Laipianism has not had a
lasting impact on the Baptist churches.103 Pau Cin Hau’s dominance itself became a boon
to evangelical activities in the long run. It helped crumble first the hardest portion of the
Zo society through its conformist approach, which was strongly in contrast with Christian
faith, and prepared a congenial soil on which Christianity sowed its seed and grew. Early
missionaries such as Dr East and John Herbert Cope also believed that “Pau Cin Hau’s
emphasis on one God and its rejection of belief in and sacrifice to the evil spirits would
help break down barriers to the Chin’s acceptance of Christianity”. Pau Cin Hau had also
employed such practices including—prayer for the sick, construction of Sangbuk
(church), celebration of drinking tuisiang, praying and casting out demons in the name of
god, maintaining membership record and so on. It was believed that some of these inputs
might have been an outcome of his meeting with Christians at Champhai and Kawlkulh
in neighbouring Lushai Hills where he attended Annual conferences of the Salvation
Army in 1905-06 respectively.104
Pau Cin Hau’s strong emphasis on the macrocosm, a belief already prevalent among
the Zo people, was also very rewarding. Laipianism should, therefore, be seen as existed
in symbiosis with Christianity and rather not as a contender. A recent study contended:
“Pau Cin Hau was used by the Almighty God to prepare for minds and the hearts of Zomi
for the coming of the Gospel”.105 The pioneering role of Laipianism was, however,
strongly contested by Johnson:
If Pau Cin Hau religion was indeed a stepping-stone to Christianity, one would
expect that the Tiddim area would have proven the most responsive of all the

103
Johnson,p.401. Johnson argued: “Pau Cin Hau prophet movement has not had a lasting impact on the
Baptist churches of the Chin Hills. Had it never existed, in all probability the history of the expansion of
Christianity in the Chin Hills would not have been much different.”
104
J.M.Nul Khan Pau, p.111
105
J.M.Ngul Khan Pau, p.117
 25

areas to Christianity. But, not so. It is Haka and Thantlang in the center of the
Chin hills, then Falam, and lastly the Tiddim area (excluding for the moment the
recently evangelized areas farther south) which have now the most Christian
believers.

At any rate Zo people’s conversion to Christianity was not of a sudden happening.

Unlike Pau Cin Hau and his followers, missionaries were strangers rather, who tried to
introduce beliefs and practices alien to the local one. Thus, wrote Erik Cohen:
“Conversion of the natives was expected to involve a total religious and cosmological
reorientation related to Westernisation.”106 This does not implied that Christianity was
“part of a White man’s package of civilisation”. 107It does meant reorienting or rather
conforming Zo cosmology in accordance with Christian cosmology. This would have not
been achieved had not colonialism and Laipianism did the pioneering work, though
inadvertently. As a result Christianity became deeply rooted among the Zo people by the
time colonial rulers had left the country in 1948. To sum up the discussion it is apt to
mention what Khup Za Go has rightly said: “While the people lived such a hard and
hazardous life filled with fear of war and of evil spirits, there appear in Chinland during
the last decade of the 19th century three important movements namely, Pau Cin Hau,
British and Christian, of which the first two became the forerunners of the last”.108 The
net results of dual religious conversions —from animism to Laipianism, and Laipianism
to Christianity—was thus the transformation of Zo social, economic, cultural and
religious lives and the emergence of a common identity under the banner of Christianity.

106
Erik Cohen, “The Missionary as stranger: A phenomenological analysis of Christian missionaries’
encounter with the folk religions of Thailand,” in Review of the Religious Research, Vol.31, No.4, (June,
1990), p.340.
107
Richard Gray, “Christianity, colonialism, and communications in sub-Saharan Africa,” in Journal of
Black Studies, Vol. 13, No. 1, (September 1982), p.71.
108
Khup Za Go, Christianity in Chinland, Christian Literature Centre, Guwahati, 1985, p.15.