Mising Tribe:
Assam’s largest tribal community, the Mising tribe, celebrated the Ali Ai Ligang festival recently.
- The Mising people are an indigenous tribe from Northeast India. They are part of the Tani people, who speak Tibeto-Burmese languages.
- They live in parts of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh in India and Tibet in China.
- Tibetans call them “Lhobhas,” which means “southerners’ ‘ because they live in South Tibet and areas now in Arunachal Pradesh.
- They are one of the largest tribal groups in Assam. According to the census of India 2011, the total population of Mising is 680,424 in Assam.
- They have a life close to the rivers, and therefore they can be described as the only riparian tribe of Northeast India.
- Life and culture of Mising people revolve around agriculture and fishing.
- The agriculture practice of the Mising people was originally ‘Jhum’ or slash & burn method.
- However, after settling down in the plains of Assam, they have mastered the art of wet paddy cultivation, and at present they are good settled cultivators.
- Drawing their origin in Jhum cultivation, the main festival of the Mising people is ‘Ali-Aye-Ligang’. Ali means edible root, Aye means seed, and Ligang means sowing festival.
- The Mising people practice the cult of Donyi Polo, which literally translates into worshiping the Sun and the Moon.
