Mro-Khimi people

The Mro-Khimi people (Burmese: မြို(ခမိ) or မြိုလူမျိုး), also known as Mro, Awa Khami Mro, Wakim, Mro Chin or Awa Khami, are one of the 135 ethnic groups recognized by the government of Myanmar. They are identified as a sub-group of Chin people. They live widely in some parts of northern Rakhine state, Chin state, the townships of Matupi and Paletwa, and the regions of Samechaung and Michaung. They are Tibeto-Burman and have their own language, culture and customs which are still in existence. For Chin specifically, the Mro People are one of 53 sub-groups identified by the government of Myanmar.[1] According to the Rakhine Chronicles, the Mro people were the first people who enter Rakhine land.[2] They call themselves as Khami. It means 'human'.[3] Mro people has their own language, culture. There are more than 100 clans.[4]

Not to be confused with Mru people (Mrucha).
Mro-Khimi
Mro Woman from Mruk U
Mro Woman
Total population
77,527– 83,000 (2004, est.)
Regions with significant populations
Myanmar (Chin State, Rakhine State)
Myanmar83,000
Languages
Mro-Khimi language (dialects: Arang (Ahraing Khami, Areung, Aroeng), Xengna (Hrengna, Xata, Vakung (Wakun, Wakung))
Religion
Animism, Buddhism and Christianity
Related ethnic groups
Chin people

The Mro people once ruled as emperors in Rakhine State and established two "Mro" dynasties. The dynasty lasted for about 25 years, from 131 AD to 156 AD.[5]

Origin

The Mro people were descended from the area known as Twipin (Tibet). From there, they moved slowly to the south. After that, they lived in Rokon for about thirty years. From there, they arrived at Cha Phawi Mountain and lived there for about 300 years, then moved to Khang Lyhn Mawi in Paletwa and descended to Rakhine State.[6]

Language
Main article: Mro-Khimi language

The Mro people speak Mro-Khimi, which belongs to the Kuki-Chin branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family.

References
  1. Andrew, R. F. St. (1873). "A Short Account of the Hill Tribes of North Aracan". The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. 2: 233–247. doi:10.2307/2841171. ISSN 0959-5295. JSTOR 2841171.
  2. Pamela Gutman, “Burma’s Lost Kingdoms: Splendors of Arakan, p- 17
  3. Hughes, W. Gwynne, “The Hill Tracts Of Arakan,” P-12
  4. မြန်မာ့ဆိုရှယ်လစ်လမ်းစဉ်ပါတီ၊ တိုင်းရင်းသားယဉ်ကျေးမှု ရိုးရာဓလေ့ထုံးစံများ (ရခိုင်၊ စာပေဗိမာန်ပုံနှိပ်တိုက်၊ ၁၉၇၆)၊ စာ - ၃၁
  5. Myanmar Encyclopaedia Volume 9 Part (B)
  6. Preliminary Study of the Introduction of Indigenous Peoples in the Kaladan River Thesis. Rosan (Researcher)
  • Hornéy, Christina Scotte. 2012. A phonological analysis of Mro Khimi. MA thesis, University of North Dakota.


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.