The Lakher are a Kuki tribe, located in the hills of Mizoram, in India. Lakher settlements are found in large part within an area of the North and East Side of the Kolodyne River. The area inhabited by the Lakher is hilly, damp, and fertile, accommodating to the growth of rice, flowers, trees, and several varieties of bamboos. The Lakher speak Mara-chin, a language belonging to the Sino-Tibetan Phylum. Lakher refer to themselves as Mara.
The separate groups of the Lakher are believed to have originated somewhere north of their present location in the Chin Hills. Before the British Imperial Domination and assimilation of the Lakher people into modern Indian life, the Lakher were governed by the Village Chief. Trade and barter were the major part of the Lahker economy. The Lakher are composed of six groups, called the Tlongsai, Hawthai, Zuchnanag, Sabeu Lialia, and Heima. Each group consists of a number of clans, and each clan took the name of an ancestor. Clan solidarity is manifest particularly during life cycle events, like marriage, birth, and death. For most other purposes, the central sociopolitical unit is the village.
Young men and women are allowed considerable freedom in pre-marital relationships. Men usually marry between the age of 20 and 25 while women marry after having reached 20 years of age. The grooms' parents select his bride, and individual Lakher tribes are not strictly endogamous or exogamous. Monogamous unions are the norm. A bride-price must be paid before the ceremony may take place.
When the Lakher have children, the children are responsible for their own learning. Children are expected to observe the activities of their elders and imitate them. Parents seem to play an important role in socializing their children. Once children are sufficiently mature, they can accompany their male parent on jungle excursions, where they observe methods used in hunting and fishing and master these skills by imitation. Boys and girls are taught how to care for the jhune fields and girls are taught how to weave.
The Lakher acknowledge one God (Khazangpina) who they believe is the creator of the cosmos, the one who controls the fate of all creatures. He is believed to live in the sky or the mountains. His name means creator of all things. The Lakher also believe that mountain woods and pools have Leurahripas (evil and beneficent spirits). It is also believed that every person has a zang (angelic guardian) assigned with his or her protection. Ceremonies accompany most of the major life-cycle events. These festival occasions are few in numbers and are usually associated with marriage and birth. Numerous additional magic or religious rites (of sacrificial nature) are associated with the subsistence nature, matters or state, medical practice, domestic affairs, ancestral worship and the religious cults. Of these, the Khazangpina sacrifice offered to Khazangpina, during which the sacrificer asks for a blessing on himself and his family. This ceremony is unsurpassed in importance.
Death results when Khazangpina or a leurahripa steals an individual soul. The dead is believed to go to one of three domains. Those who had an average existence occupy the athikhi (the village of the dead). Those who have killed certain animals in the wild and have had the Ia ceremony performed over them may attain to Peira, a place near that of Khazangpina. Those who die unnatural deaths or die because of disease are confined to Sawrawkhi. It is also believed that the spirits of those who have died as children transmigrate and are reincarnated in the bodies of younger siblings.
Sources:
The Lakhers."Encyclopedia of World Cultures (South Asia) Parry, N.E. (1932) , London: Macmillan Hugh R. Page, Jr.
"India: Ethnologue" SIL International. http://www.sil.org/FTP/ETHNOLOG13/AREAS/ASIA/INDA.TXT