Guwahati : About 38 kilometers away towards South West from Silchar town in South Assam, a Chinese-origin community lives in a small hilly village clinging to their age-old traditions.
This is a village inhabited by Chiru community. The name of the village is Budon Chiru Punji. It has total 62 households with a population of 393 people.
According to the history of their migration , the community originally migrated from China to present Myanmar and lived in Rongla Vaiso; from there migrated to Manipur, then a group to Tripura, then to Barak valley in South Assam. Initially they settled in Bandul ( Kumbhirgram ) then migrated to Itakhola near Silchar .
In order to escape the expanding urbanization in the area, the community left their habitat called Budon Nagar around 14 km away from their present village over 100 years ago. Budon was name of the head of the family who first settled in the area. In 1946 there were only 10 families and around 65 populations in the village. During the Second World War some of the male folk of the village served as helpers to army personnel.
This is the only Chiru village located in Assam. There are 13 more Chiru villages in Manipur with around 1500 household and 7500 population.
Chiru dialect has some uniqueness even though it has some similarities with the dialect spoken by tribes like Hmar, Sharai , Imul ,Rangkhol and Baitei.
The Chiru people do not have any land document despite living there for about 100 years. Land is distributed among the families of village by the community.
They have three basic land uses — basti land; bagan land (use for plantation and agro-forestry) and jhum (shifting cultivation) land. Sang At; Thatai and Sangai Lu are main rice varieties they cultivate in Jhum.
According to villagers, Sangai Lu variety needs less water and it has aroma when boiled. On an average a family produces enough rice only to last for 5 to 6 months. The agro-forestry products are sold to meet cash requirement.
There are only 11 families who have one service holder each. Four of the families have rubber plantation.
Christian Missionary established a Church in the area in 1938 and by 1946 the entire village population was converted to Christianity.
