Ahom people
The Ahom or Tai-Ahom is an ethnic group from the Indian states of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh. The members of this group are admixed descendants of the Tai peoples who reached the Brahmaputra Valley of Assam in 1228, along with indigenous peoples who joined them over the course of history. Sukaphaa, the leader of the Tai group and his 9,000 followers, established the Ahom kingdom, which controlled much of the Brahmaputra Valley until 1826, when the Treaty of Yandabo was signed.
The modern Ahom people and their culture are a syncretism of Tai and local Tibeto-Burman speakers. The mixture of immigrants and local peoples who underwent Ahomisation came to be known as Ahom.
Many local ethnic groups that came in contact with the Tai settlers, including the Borahis, were completely subsumed into the Ahom community. Members of other communities were accepted as Ahoms based on their allegiance to the Ahom Kingdom or the usefulness of their talents. Currently, they represent the largest Tai group in India, with a population of nearly 4.6 million in Assam. Ahom people are found mostly in Upper Assam division in the districts of Golaghat, Jorhat, Sivasagar, Charaideo, Dibrugarh, Tinsukia ; and in Lakhimpur, Sonitpur, Biswanath, and Dhemaji as well as some areas of Nagaon in Guwahati.
Even though the already admixed group Ahom made up a relatively small portion of the kingdom's population; they maintained their Ahom language and practised their traditional religion till the 17th century, when the Ahom court as well as the commoners adopted the Assamese language.
History
Origins
The Tai speaking people came into prominence first in the Guangxi region, in China, from where they moved to mainland Southeast Asia in the middle of the 11th century after a long and fierce battle with the Northern Han Chinese. The Tai-Ahoms are traced to either Mong Mao of South China or to the Hukawng Valley in Myanmar.Sukaphaa, a Tai prince of Mong Mao, and a band of followers reached Assam in 1228 with an intention of settling there. They came with a higher technology of wet-rice cultivation then extant and a tradition of writing, record keeping, and state formation. They settled in the region south of the Brahmaputra River and to the east of the Dikhow River; the Ahoms today are found concentrated in this region. Sukaphaa, the leader of the Tai group and his 9,000 followers established the Ahom kingdom, which controlled much of the Bramhaputra valley until 1826.
Initial formation in Assam
In the initial phase, the band of followers of Sukaphaa moved about for nearly thirty years and mixed with the local population. He moved from place to place, searching for a seat. He made peace with the Borahi and Moran ethnic groups, and he and his mostly male followers married into them, creating an admixed population identified as Ahoms and initiating the process of Ahomisation. The Borahis, a Tibeto-Burman people, were completely subsumed into the Ahom fold, though the Moran maintained their independent ethnicity. Sukaphaa established his capital at Charaideo near present-day Sivasagar in 1253 and began the task of state formation.Ahomisation
The Ahoms held the belief that they were destined by a divine force to cultivate fallow land using their wet-rice farming methods and to assimilate stateless shifting cultivators into their society. They were also conscious of their numerical minority. As a result, the Ahom polity initially absorbed Naga, Borahi and Moran, and later large sections of the Chutia and the Dimasa-Kachari peoples. This process of Ahomisation went on until the mid-16th century, when the Ahom society itself came under the direct Hindu influence. That many indigenous peoples were ceremonially adopted into Ahom clans are recorded in the chronicles. Since the Ahoms married liberally outside their own exogamous clans and since their own traditional religion resembled the religious practices of the indigenous peoples the assimilation under Ahomisation had little impediment.Localisation and Loss
In the 16th and 17th centuries, the small Ahom community expanded their rule dramatically toward the west and they successfully saw off challenges from Mughal and other invaders, gaining them recognition in world history. The rapid expansion resulted in the Ahom people becoming a small minority in their own kingdom, of which they kept control. Eventually, the Ahom court, as well as the Ahom peasants took to Ekasarana dharma, Shaktism and Saivism over the traditional Ahom religion; and adopted Assamese over the Ahom language for secular purposes.The modern Ahom people and their culture are a syncretism of the original Tai and their culture and local Tibeto-Burman peoples and their cultures they absorbed in Assam.
The everyday usage of Ahom language ceased completely by the early 19th-century. The loss of religions is also nearly complete, with only a few priestly families practising some aspects of it. While the written language survive in a vast number of written manuscripts, much of the spoken language is lost because the Ahom script does not mark tone and under-specifies vowel contrasts.
Revivalism
Though the first political organisation was created in 1893 it was in 1954 when Ahom connection to other Tai groups in Assam was formally established.Society
''Ban-Mong'' Social system
The Tai-Ahom people's traditional social structure, called Ban-Mong, revolved around agriculture and centered on irrigation methods. The Ban or Ban Na is a unit composed of families that settled by the side of the rivers. While many Bans together forms a Mong which refers state.Ahom clans
Ahom clans, called phoids, formed socio-political entities. At the time of ingress into Assam, or soon thereafter, there were seven important clans, called Satghariya Ahoms. There were Su/Tsu clan to which the Chao-Pha belonged; his two chief counselors Burhagohain and Borgohain ; and three priestly clans: Bailung, Deodhai, Mohan and Siring. Soon the Satghariya group was expanded—four additional clans began to be associated with nobility: Dihingia, Sandikoi, Lahon and Duarah. In the 16th-century Suhungmung added another great counselor, the Borpatrogohain and a new clan was established. Over time sub-clans began appearing. Thus during the Suhungmung's reign, the Chao-Pha's clan were divided into seven sub-clans—Saringiya, Tipamiya, Dihingiya, Samuguriya, Tungkhungiya, Parvatiya, and Namrupiya. Similarly, Burhagohain clan were divided into eight, Borgohain sixteen, Deodhai twelve, Mohan seven, and Bailung and Siring eight each. The rest of theAhom gentry belonged to clans such as Chaodangs, Gharphalias, Likchows etc. In general, the secular aristocratic clans, the priestly class, and the gentry clans did not intermarry.
Some clans admitted people from other ethnic groups as well. For example, Miri-Sandikoi and Moran-Patar were Sandikoi and Patar from the Mising and Moran communities, while the founders of Chetias and Lahons were from the Chutia community. This was true even for the priestly clans: Naga-Bailung, Miri-Bailung and Nara-Bailung.
Literature
The Ahoms were literate with a writing system based on the Ahom script, which fell into disuse along with the language. The Ahom script evolved from an earlier script of the Tai Nuea language which developed further under the present Chinese Government. There exists today a large corpus of manuscripts in this script on history, society, astrology, rituals, etc. Ahom people used to write their chronicles known as Buranji. The priestly classes are the custodians of these manuscripts.Calendar
The Ahom people used to use a sexagenary cycle known as Lak-Ni Tao-Si-Nga with its origins in the middle kingdoms. It has 12 months and an additional leap month with a ten days weekly cycle. The first month is called Duin-Shing which gregorian equivalent is November-December and the new year festival is known as Pi-Mau Tai. It is still in vogue in Chinese and Tai people. The events in Buranji was counted with Lak-ni.Culture
Festivals
Me-dam-me-phi
Me-dam-me-phi is the communal ancestor worship festival of Tai-Ahom. It's observed in the month of Duin-Ha in the ancienttimes but now it's celebrated in the 31st January.
Poi cheng ken
Poi cheng ken is the traditional spring festival of the Tai-Ahom people, celebrated during the Ahom month of Duin-Ha in the Sexagenary cycle. The festival includes rituals such as washing, particularly bathing household cattle, honoring ancestors, and worshipping the insignia Chum Pha Rueng Sheng Mueang. The customs of Cheng Ken are documented in the ancient manuscript Khyek Lai Bet. As stated:Housing
Like the rural Thai people of Thailand, the house rural Ahom families have been made of wood and bamboo, and two roofs are typically thatched. Families' orchards and ploughed fields are situated near their house. Houses are built in a scattered fashion within bamboo groves. At one time, the Ahom built their house on stilts called Rwan Huan about two meters above ground level.Culinary traditions
Food is one of the important variables of the culture of Tai-Ahom. Most Ahoms, particularly in rural areas, are non-vegetarian, still maintaining a traditional cuisine similar to other Tai people. Rice is a staple food. Typical dishes are pork, chicken, duck, slices of beef, frogs, many kinds of fishes, hukoti maas, muga lota, and eggs of red ants. Certain insects are also popular foods for the Ahoms. Luk-Lao or Nam-Lao are traditional drinks. They consume "Khar", "Betgaaj", and many other naturally grown herbs with medicinal properties. However beef for the general hindus and, pork for the Vaisnavites are avoided During Siva Singha's reign, the people abandoned the free usage of meat and drinks.Ahom food specialties resemble Thai cuisine. Like the Thais, the Ahoms prefer boiled food that have little spices and directly burnt fish, meat and vegetables like brinjal, tomato, etc. Some of them are Thu–dam, Khao–Moon, Xandohguri, ChewaKhao, Chunga Chaul, Til pitha, and Khao-tyek. The process of preparation of this item was quite unknown to population other than the Ahoms and the Thais. Khao, Tupula Khao (a kind of rice cooked and packed with a particular kind of plant leaf with good smell called 'tora pat' and preserved bamboo sauce are some of the favourite food items of the Ahoms, which are similar to their traditional diet.