Call to save Mizoram's oldest heritage

Aizawl, May 8: ''Khampat Bungpui'', a big bodhi tree, planted around 1150-1200 AD, at Khampat town in Myanmar's Sagaing division, is in a critical condition.

If not protected now, it will not be so long for the oldest Mizo heritage to turn into a myth,'' Mizo scholar Dr P C Biaksiama said here yesterday.

He said Khampat Bungpui had withstood the test of time and survived as one of the oldest heritages of the Mizos.

It is the historians' common belief that the bodhi tree was planted by Mizo ancestors around 1150-1200 AD before moving westwards to settle permanently in the present Mizoram state.

The Bungpui is now being endangered by the nearby Khampat river, and therefore the concerned people have set up Khampat Bungpui Humhalhtu(protectors) Committee(KBHPC).

Dr Biaksiama, head of the KBHPC, said the committee had been formed to raise fund for the endangered heritage and requested everyone to donate fund.

However, since it was only after 1894 that the Mizos had their own script, there are no written records and it was only through oral history handed down from generation to generation that the Mizo ancestors had planted the Bungpui.

'' Given that our ancestors were driven out by Shan people from Kabow valley around 1200 AD, the Bungpui might have been planted during 1150-1200 AD, '' Mizo historian and Hrangbana College lecturer B Lalthangliana said.

According to legend, Mizo ancestors, before leaving the valley, pledged that they would come back after the branches of the Bungpui touched the ground.

It might be noted that Mizo legendary lake Rihdil is also in Myanmar. Ancient Mizos believed that everyone goes to the lake when he or she dies.

UNI