Bawm
Encyclopedia
The Bawm are a tribal group living in the Bandarban district and a small fraction in the Rangamati district of the Chittagong Hill Tracts
in Bangladesh
as well as parts of Mizoram
. Of Chin
origin and speaking a Tibeto-Burman dialect, their tribal population stands at 6,000. Their name Bawm means ties.
missionaries funded by the British government since 1918, the majority of the Bawm have converted to Christianity
, and it was said that all of them are Christians. As of today, there are relatively few Bawm who still cling to their Animist faith, as Protestant Christians dismiss such practices as occult
.
Chittagong Hill Tracts
The Chittagong Hill Tracts comprise an area of 13,295 km2 in south-eastern Bangladesh, and borders India and Myanmar . It was a single district of Bangladesh until 1984. In that year it was divided into three separate districts: Khagrachari, Rangamati and Bandarban. Topographically, this is the...
in Bangladesh
Bangladesh
Bangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...
as well as parts of Mizoram
Mizoram
Mizoram is one of the Seven Sister States in North Eastern India, sharing borders with the states of Tripura, Assam, Manipur and with the neighbouring countries of Bangladesh and Burma. Mizoram became the 23rd state of India on 20 February 1987. Its capital is Aizawl. Mizoram is located in the...
. Of Chin
Chin people
The Chin , known as the Kuki in Assam, are one of the ethnic groups in Burma. The Chins are found mainly in western part of Burma and numbered circa 1.5 million. They also live in nearby Indian states of Nagaland, Mizoram and Manipur and Assam. Owing to Mizo influence and Baptist missionaries'...
origin and speaking a Tibeto-Burman dialect, their tribal population stands at 6,000. Their name Bawm means ties.
Religion
Owing to the efforts of Baptist ChristianChristian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
missionaries funded by the British government since 1918, the majority of the Bawm have converted to Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
, and it was said that all of them are Christians. As of today, there are relatively few Bawm who still cling to their Animist faith, as Protestant Christians dismiss such practices as occult
Occult
The word occult comes from the Latin word occultus , referring to "knowledge of the hidden". In the medical sense it is used to refer to a structure or process that is hidden, e.g...
.