Aizawl: The Young Mizo Association (YMA), the largest social organisation in Mizoram, is against abolition of Hlamzuih, one of the oldest Mizo traditional taboos associated with infant death, creating a wide ideological gap between the YMA and the Church.
The annual general assembly of YMA at Ratu town in Mizoram last week resolved to maintain status quo on Hlamzuih, whereas the Presbyterian Church, the state’s largest Christian denomination, had earlier decided to do away with the burial practice.
In Mizo custom, if a baby dies before attaining one year of age, it is regarded as Hlamzuih and do not deserve a full funeral ritual. The infant’s dead body would not be buried in a village cemetery but within the compound of the deceased’s house. The custom still exists in the post-Christian Mizo society with little modification.
However, in the post Christian era, Hlamzuih is applied when a baby dies before completing 90 days and not one year. Such infant dead body is to be buried in a local cemetery without community funeral.
Synod, the highest body of the Mizoram Presbyterian Church, in an assembly on December 7, 2012, had passed an agenda for abolition of Hlamzuih, terming the customary practice as pagan ways and discrimination against infants.
Secretary of Mizoram Synod Rev H Lalrinmawia said delegates of the synod conference on December 7, 2013, had decided to do away with the traditional concept of discrimination against infants at the time of death.
‘Infant death should be accorded the same rituals like adults. Church bells would ring when an infant dies and last rites would be performed for the departed soul at the cemetery,’ Rev H Lalrinmawia, secretary of Mizoram Presbyterian Church synod said.
‘However, the church would perform its rituals and not impose anything on anyone,’ he added.
The YMA and the Church play equally important role in burial system in Mizo Christian society, with the Church performing religious rituals and the YMA performing customary practices such as digging grave, condolence gathering, etc.
An YMA leader said there has been no objection to the churches’ wish to do away with ‘Hlamzuih’ as far as the religious rituals were concerned and that the church can go ahead with Christian burial accorded to infants below three months or 90 days.
‘The YMA would, however, continue with the traditional ritual of infants being buried in the kitchen garden and not given funeral like adults, including ‘mitthi lumen’ or the traditional way of consoling the bereaved family by the local community for a night,’ he said.
The term ‘Hlamzuih’ literally means ‘following the placenta’ (Hlam – placenta, zui – follow) and an infant who dies within three months of birth.
According to the Mizo tradition infants are not kept in coffins but inside earthen pots with an egg on his or her hand so that the egg would keep rolling and guide the child to ‘Pialral’ or the world of the spirits.
As per Mizo customary law and funeral guidelines laid out by the Young Mizo Association, the death of an infant before attainting three months or 90 days should be treated as Hlamzuih.
The YMA, in its general conference in 1982, passed a resolution to this effect which remained unchanged when the general conference in 2006 reviewed the guidelines. (UNI)