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