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Upon this rock I will build my church
‘Tammi suongpi tungah ka hlat tuom pawlpi kalam ding hi’
with us
Welcome to Zo Baptist Church Australia (ZBCA)
ZBCA is a Burmese (Myanmar) and Zo speaking church in Adelaide, South Australia. The ‘Zo’ is a group of Zo people (also known as Zo Chin); Zo tribe original from Chin State, Myanmar (Burma).
Zo Baptist Church welcomes Christians and those who seek to understand Christianity in Adelaide, South Australia. Our aim is to make contact with and encourage others to join us in our life-enhancing Christian journey. We are a friendly Christian community where we welcome others to join us in our worship and service to God. Our emphasis is on learning and understanding the Bible and following the example of Jesus and his followers.”
Our main service is on Sunday evening from 1:30pm to 3:30pm at Salisbury Baptist Church, Brahma Lodge
Some sketches about the Zo tribe in Myanmar
According to the ethnologies (1996) there were about (6,912) languages out of the (6000) millions of people in the whole inhabitant world. In Myanmar (which is formerly knowns as Burma) there are 135 ethnic groups and the Zo people is one of them with its own social and cultural traditions according to the census taken by the government.
Once the Zo people lived in a certain place in same country. During the British colonial era Myanmar (Burma) is one of the administrative provinces of India under the British crown. When Indian and Burma gained independence in 1947 and 1948 respectively, the Zo people had to reside in both countries. The Zo people numbering about eighty thousand people (80000) are now living in Myanmar side whereas there are about fifty thousand (50000) are in India side.
According to history there are three stocks of people who entered to Burma: they are Mon-Khamer, Tai-Chinese and Tibeto-Burman. Chin/Zo (Chin is official racial name for the whole hilly people, Zo is believed to be the original name), Kachin and Burman belong to the Tibeto-Burman groups who migrated to Burma from their original homeland somewhere in China. The Chin/Zo includes Falam, Hakha, Tedim, Matupi, Mindat, Kanpetlet, and Paletwa.
We the Zo ethnic group is one of the Tedim groups. In his “Chin Reader” named “Geography of the Chin Hills and Burma” which was published for use in the government schools of the Tedim sub-division of the Chin Hills District in 1927, J.H Cope, the then missionary-cum-inspector of schools, who invented our Romanised Chin script, had to acknowledge that there were seven major ethnic groups namely: Zo, Thado, Siyin, Tedim, Guite, Sukte, Saizang respectively in the Tedim subdivision.
In the course of time the above-mention three ethnic groups such as Tedim, Sukte, Saizang and Guite groups because one homogeneous people called Tedim and they eventually spoke a common Tedim dialect ( “Koine Tedim” like “Koine-Greek”) while the other remaining groups of the Thado, Zo, and Siyin had to retain their own distinctive dialects and customs up to now. Especially our Zo dialect is very difficult to understand by others. In his prescribed textbook of “Chin Primer”, J.H. Cope’s deliberate insertion of a peculiar phrase which verified the difficulty in learning our Zo dialect compared to other groups in the Tedim area is a case in point. The said phrase runs like this: “Zopau a baih kei hi” meaning Zo dialect is not easy to understand. This proves that it we, the Zos are a unique people whose heart language is quite different from those of others. According to our oral tradition the Zo people are believed to be the eldest son of our common ancestor Pu Zo. We, therefore, can trace our origin to our forefather “Pu Zo” who is said to live in Tibet from time immemorial.
Our Zo ancestors had to retain our own peculiar identities and customs and handed down them from generation to generation. There is misinformation about our original racial name “Zo”. Some said that they got their name “Zo” because their ancestor lived in the rainy, and barren wilderness part of the region which was called “Zo”. But it is not the case. We have undeniable fact that we are directly descended from our forefather Pu Zo and that is why we called ourselves as “Zo”. That is to say, we do not derive from the climatic geographical name of Zo in the Tedim area.
In order to retain our cherished customs, tradition and dialect, we founded own racial religious association called the “Zo Baptist Association” in 1962 out of the Tedim Baptist Association. With much pain and effort, the Zomi Baptist Convention”, the highest religious bodies in the Chin Hills recognized it. Generally speaking, Baptist churches and associations were formed on regional basis rather than that of racial basis in the past several years ago in Myanmar. Later on racial associations were allowed to form due to unavoidable circumstances especially due to constant outbreak of the racial discriminations in the churches. This shows that it is quite difficult to work harmoniously for the Lord’s work in His vineyard. Only when we have our own religious body will we live together and work together like the birds of the same feather flock together. As Dr. McGauran, the founder of the church growth movement said, “People like to become Christians without crossing Linguistic barriers” so were the Zo people. We had a good taste of using our own heart language for worshipping God, we thus broke away from the Tedim Baptist Association and formed our own Zo Baptist Association I which we could freely used our heart languages and praised God within the bottom of our hearts. This racial Association was recognized by the Myanmar Baptist Convention in the year 1972 and now we lunched a bold mission called “Diamond Year Mission” reaching the unreached with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Furthermore, we have the “Zo Christian College, a training centre for future missionaries for the unevangelized people groups in our great nation, Myanmar. At the same time we, the Zo people are quite determined to retain our identity. Thus, the founding of the so-called “Zo Christian College” which was named after our racial name “Zo”. Outside of the Zo Baptist Association, we also have other racial denominations, many mass medias such as The Zo Synod, her news letter “the Zokuom Thawn” and so on and forth.
Added to these mentioned above, we are very proud of our noble birth among the other groups in the Tedim. When J.H Cope compiled the Tedim Textbook “Chin Reader” which was published for use in the schools in the Tedim subdivision, few people memorized their folklores and folk-songs to be inserted in the “Chin Reader” except Mr Tuang Za Go. As his last resort J.H Cope summoned Mr. Tuang Za Go to share as many Zo traditions, customs and traditional songs as possible. Since Tuang Za Go is the descendent of the the Manlun family of Zo who was once chiefs over some provinces in the Tedim area. So he had through knowledge in this particular field and told the stories of the Zo stories and folklores in detail. There are many other different culture and social aspects of the Zo people which may be a proof to our peculiarity and distinctiveness among other people groups in the Tedim area. It is my fervent hope that this brief description about some sketches of the Zo tribe in Myanmar might be used as a reference for any racial, political, and social issues all over the globe in future.
References
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- T. Haokip, ‘The Kuki Tribes of Meghalaya: A Study of their Socio-Political Problems’, in S.R. Padhi (Ed.). Current Tribal Situation: Strategies for Planning, Welfare and Sustainable Development. Delhi: Mangalam Publications, 2013, p. 85.
- Rawlins, John (1792). “On the Manners Religion and Laws of the Cucis or Mountaineers of Tipra”. Asiatic Researches. 2 (12).
- Grierson (1909), Linguistic Survey of India, Vol. III, Tibeto-Burman Family, General Introduction, Specimens of the Tibetan Dialects, The Himalayan Dialects and The North Assam Group, Pt. II, with Grierson (1903), Specimens of the Bodo, Naga and Kachin Groups, Pt. III, Grierson (1904) Specimens of the Zomi, Chin and Burma Groups.
- Violence and identity in North-east India: Naga-Kuki conflict – Page 201 S. R. Tohring – 2010 “… for these tribes including • the Zomi/ speaking tribe such as: ‘Chin’, ‘Mizo’, ‘Chin-Kuki-Mizo’, ‘CHIKIM’, ‘Zomi’, ‘Zou’, ‘Zo’. … During the British era, the British rulers used the term ‘Chin-Kuki-Mizo’ and the Government of India seemed to follow …”
- Sachchidananda, R. R. Prasad -Encyclopaedic profile of Indian tribes- Page 530 1996
- Pradip Chandra Sarma, Traditional Customs and Rituals of Northeast India: Arunachal … Page 288 Vivekananda Kendra Institute of Culture “chose to employ the term Chin to christen those on the Burmese side and the term Zomi on the Indian side of the border … The Mizo of today’s Mizoram are the descendants of Luseia, and the Kuki -Chin of Manipur are from the Songthu line, and thus all …”
- Amy Alexander Burma: “we are Like Forgotten People” : the Chin People of Burma Page 16 2009 “… within Chin State, Chin nationalist leaders popularized the term “Chin” following Burma’s independence from Britain.”
- History of Zomi T. Gougin – 1984 “In Burma the people like to renounce the term Chin in favour of Zomi. Zomi is becoming more and more popular in Churachandpur district of Manipur adjoining the Chin State of Burma as group identity in repudiating Chin. The term …”
- B. Datta-Ray Tribal identity and tension in north-east India Page 34 1989 “Now to accept the term Chin would mean subtle Paite domination in the matter, which the other groups like the Hmars, Zous, Anals and Koms may not coopt. A Zomi leader categorically stated that ‘Chin’ is a Burmese word which literally …”
- Keat Gin Ooi – Southeast Asia: A Historical Encyclopedia, from Angkor Wat to East … – Volume 1 – Page 353 2004 “Until recently, there appeared to be a consensus that the term Chin was not an identity that any of these peoples would choose to describe themselves, … Some promote the terms Zomi and Zo, stating that they are derived from the name of the mythic common ancestor of all …”
- Chin Kho Lian Guite – Politico-economic development of the tribals of Manipur: a study … Page 8 1999 “Conceptual Meaning and Various Interpretations of the Terms— Chin, Zomi and Mizo (a) Chin The term Chin is the name given to this Zomi/Zomi tribes (formerly known as Chin-Kuki-Mizo) group of people in Myanmar (Burma). They are mostly found in the …”
- “Alphabetical List of India’s Scheduled Tribes”. Archived from the original on 10 February 2009.
- Shields, Lauren (30 August 2021). “”Thorn in the Center of the Heart” will be Grand Ledge Sun Theatre’s first showing since COVID”. Fox 47 News. Archived from the original on 30 August 2021. Retrieved 1 September 2021
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