Having around only 25000 people in their total population bucket, the Bawm community makes it on top of the list of smallest ethnic groups residing in Bangladesh yet one of the earliest to settle. Prof. L.H. Chhuanawma, Professor, Mizoram University, Department of Political Science demands that originally from Tiphul village in the Chin State within Haka Township, the Bawm entered Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh but surprisingly still there aren't many reliable sources informing what the communities origin is. The community mostly resides in the hilly areas of CHT in Bangladesh, India, and Myanmar.
The related ethnic groups of the Bawm community are Mizo and Chin. Bawm residers in CHT name their residence as "Bawmram" in their language. The same goes for Mizos in Mizoram and Chins in Chin hills. The Bawm community mostly depends on JHUM cultivation(shifting cultivation) for their livelihood even though modernization created huge changes in their dependence on their occupations.
The Bawm community has separated into three tribes in Bangladesh: 1. Shankla, 2. Lasing and 3. Doitrang. The accumulation of these three tribes in Bangladesh marks a population up to 7000 Bawms-Census of population,1991. Reliable sources tend to believe this population might have crossed over 8000 at present. A significant amount of the population is living in the Ruma Upazila of Bandarban. They also live the Bandarban Sadar in small amounts.
The community communicates in the Sino-Tibetan Bawm language. The literacy rate among Bawm speakers is nearly 100% in their mother tongue and 35% in Bangla. They tend to be slowly adaptive towards modern utilities also. Income sources of the community include handicrafts and crops that they produce in their field. Products: rice, ginger, turmeric, vegetables, pineapple, oranges, etc. Crafts: bags, long skirts, shawls, etc
100% of the Bawms are strong believers in Christianity. 70% of them believe in Jesus as God and only savior.
One misconception about the generic name of the community: Most of us is familiar with the word "Bawm(pronounced bom)" rather than the word "Bawmzo(pronounced bom zo)". Available sources in Myanmar and India, both oral and written, strongly suggest that Bawmzo, and not Bawm, is the original generic name of the tribe we now know as Bawm. The founding of Tiphul village in Chin State (formerly Chin Hills), Myanmar (formerly Burma), by a man named Bawmzo, the progenitor of the BawmzoBawm people(Lalthangliana, 2018: 21-22), is a clear indication that the original generic name is indeed Bawmzo. As a matter of convenience since it would be easier to pronounce Bawm than Bawmzo, so it played a role behind the transition from 'Bawmzo' to "Bawm". Interestingly, the Bawm people of today's CHT could not recall any time in history when Bawmzo was ever applied by themselves about their group (Interview: Zirkung, 2020).
The patrilineal community: Bawm has been a slow-running community in the context of cultural change yet it's still developing stably.
Written by Sushmit Chakma
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