Maring Naga tribe displaying War Dance during NagaFest 2012 at Talkatora stadium in New Delhi.
The Maring are one of the small tribal groups of Manipur State in North East India. Their name is derived from mei meaning fire and ring meaning to start or produce.The people of Maring tribe are called Maringa. A mainly Christian people, they inhabit the hilly villages of the Tengnoupal subdivision of the Chandel District.
The term "Maring" is derived from the word "Meiring" or "Meiringba" where "Mei" stands for "fire" and "ring" stands for "alive" which means "the people who keep fires unquenched/alive". The traditional oral history says that this people "Maring" or "Meiring" or "Meiringba" obtained fire from a traditional ways of making fire called "Meihongtang" using dry wood of a particular tree called Khongma-heeng with bamboo strips and dry bushes or grasses. The bamboo strips are rubbed with dry grasses/bushes against dry Khongma-heeng until fire produced due to friction. The fire thus produced is considered "sacred" (Meikhring) and were set up at sacred places like village altar called Malamun or Rlhamun, Village Gate called Palshung and Dormitories called Rkhang. The sacred fire is kept burning by feeding fire woods (Meirupheeng) and this practice of keeping fire alive/burning continued till the dawn of Christianity in Maring Land.
Today, the Marings are settled mostly in Chandel District in the South-Eastern part of the present State of Manipur (India) bordering Myanmar. Some of them are found scattered in places like Senapati, Ukhrul, Churachandpur, Tamenglong, Thoubal, Imphal East and West Districts of Manipur. But the oral legend of our forefathers that have been handing down from generation to generation says that the Marings were once living inside a cave called "Nungmuisho" in Kulvi-Shongshong under the rulership of Khopu-Rampuwith.
The legend further says that the life inside the cave or underneath the Earth was terribly difficult and hard. However they could not come out of the cave as there was a big stone gate called "Lungthung" sealing the gate of the cave. They tried to open the Lungthung (stone gate) using several means like pig, cow and buffalo but failed. According to the legend, the flattened nose of pig and the crack marks on buffalo's horns were received while trying to push open the Lungthung (Stone gate). After much consultation among themselves, Shirimpa Bungrang (a black male Mithun -- white spotted) was sent and the Mithun opened the gate at last.
The Indigenous faith/belief (Primal religion) of the Marings has been firmly based on traditional ways of invocations, worships, offerings, sacrifices, appeasement and healing. They believed in all these systems and practiced them for their sustenance. The Marings believed that there is one God, called/known as Om (The Supreme Deity), whose natural benevolence is believed to be only one and is above all.The Marings believed that there is life after death. They believed that those who died the good dead will go up above, while the bad will go below to a place inside the earth i.e. khiya ram (the hell or the place of dead). But those who died in an extraordinary/unnatural manner will flit about between heaven and the earth (uncertain place). The reward of a virtuous life is immediate, since "after death the good are born again at once into this world". The Marings performed ritual rites in every feast or festival and various occasions connected with the traditional and customary functions such as seed sowing, harvesting, house constructions and inaugurations, child births, cleansing ceremony after the child birth (tuytrumkngei), marriage and death or condolence and funerals, etc.
Source: Wikipedia
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