Miji raids and Hoyshina

Short description: Since times immemorial, the Sartang, Tshangla, Khispi and Duhumbi villages in the Gongri river valley were subjected to yearly raids by the Miji people living to the northeast. The Miji are called bistang [bistaŋ] in Duhumbi and bishtang [biɕtaŋ] in Khispi: this word is nowadays used to refer to people belonging to any non-Buddhist, non-plains tribe. The Miji claimed a right to these yearly raids on basis of the fact that the land on which the ‘Monpa’ people lived belonged to them, and the annual ‘tax’ was a ‘compensation’ for the Monpa’s use of the land. The annual Miji raids left a deep imprint on the psyche of the people of the Gongri valley. Basically, they had to work extremely hard on their agricultural land all year, knowing that most of their harvest would be taken by the Tibetan administration and by the Miji raiders, leaving them with no option but to revert to the forest to survive. Living conditions were extremely bad, as is also reported by the first British visitors to the area, who spoke of the Sartang villages as extremely poor and on the verge of collapse, and of the Dirang area as very fertile but unable to develop socio-economically due to the taxation and raids. In addition, whereas the Tibetan taxation was a somewhat orderly and peaceful process, the Miji raids caused widespread havoc and panic because of their unpredictability as regard to both timing and viciousness. It seems, there was a real fear for the Miji, which continues to present: most people of the Gongri river valley do not get along with Mijis, they have an in-born fear and mistrust of them. The fact that politics, hydropower, marijuana and other easy avenues to money have not really changed the attitude of some Mijis does not help to displace this mistrust. Mijis, however, also have their fixed set of prejudices and mistrust of the Dirang. The Sartang, Khispi and Chugpa were, and to a large extent still are, the small tribes caught in the middle.

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Tim Bodt: bodttim (at) gmail (dot) com