Culture is something that belongs particularly to a definite community. It is the kind of ideas or the customs, traditions, the beliefs of a particular society which differs from one to another. It is a way of life of a group of people about how they mostly maintain their livelihood or how they do their things. Culture is basically the presentation of practices of a group of people.
The hill people living in Chittagong Hill Tracts namely : Chakma, Marma, Tripura, Tanchangya, Bawm, Mro, Lushai, Khumi, Chak, Pankho are mostly the holder of the value of diversity in Bangladesh along with the Bengali people. Among them, Chakma’s are the largest number of people whereas Marma people are the second largest. Tripura and Tanchangyapeople are also known for their own cultures where the population of rest of the indigenous community are being diminished. Lushai is one of them who are at present at the edge of abolition. There is a slight differences among the indigenous societies though they are unique in their own way.
The hill people have their idiosyncrasy in their lifestyles, their food, attires, rules and rituals, occupation and have been preserving them even before the time of British Period. They follow the religion of Buddhism, Hinduism and Christianity. Some of them like the Pankhos, Khazongs, Tripura, Khumi etchave their own Gods or Goddesses.
The Hill people are mostly dependent on Jhum Cultivationwhere they follow slash and burn rule. Although the societies of Hill Tracts are patriarchal but the women of all the communities serve a great importance. They do the jhum works as well as they are skillful in making their own traditional attire. The women weave their own dresses. The attire named Phinon-Hadiby the Chakma women is one example of that.
The people’s food habit include the Shrimp or Fish paste and pork, corn, vegetables etc. Bamboo shoot is one of the favorite food habit of them. Rice is the staple food.
The indigenous people also have their very own cultural festivals like Baishakh Utshab which is the abbreviation form of Bizu by Chakma and Tanchangya people, Baishu by Tripura and Sangrai by the Marma people. It is observed on the last two days of the outgoing Bangla new year and welcoming the Bangla new year. The people celebrate Ful bhasani on Ful Bizuday. Also, another glorifying festival is the Sangrai programmeperformed by the Marma community.
The people perform their concentrated traditional authority in terms of their rulership. The monarchy also exist in the Chittagong Hill Tracts divided in three circles : Chakma, Bomang and Mong. Several heads of villages from the Hill serve the justice under the Chief Circle's surveillance.
Now, coming to the most important issue- the language of the ethnic groups living in hills. They practice their own mother tongue which is another great phenomena in enriching the diversity. Some of them have their own alphabets like the Chakams, the Marmas, Tripuras etc and some don’t like the Mropeople. The practice different dialects and language and have their own kinds of Legends and Fairytales. The Chakma people have – Tanyabi, Hobi-Dohbi, Dulu Kumari and more.
With time, the indigenous people have sometimes been forced to leave their birth land due to social or political reasons and reside in another country leaving the memories in Bangladesh. The ethnic groups are the reason and attraction of heterogenic beauty in Bangladesh. The people are trying to cope up with time and changing environment and also preserve their customs and traditions holding their uniqueness.
The people are now becoming more educated but there’s hardly any step by the Govt. and other organizations to manage system to educate the indigenous children in their mother tongue which is very risky for the new generations to hold the value of their ethnicity. Also, with the Mixture of both plain laws and the customary laws, there is now chaos and confusion between the system of justice which is a alarming sight in terms of preservation of customs as there is no organized law systems now. There is also now a new type schemes like in terms of marriage, the people are leaning towards the court system both in complaints and marriage. As the practice of education in mother tongue is rarely seen, many traditional terms are being lost from the knowledge of new generation. The books written in mother tongue are not understandable by them anymore. Language is the most important element for a community to continue to exist which is being destroyed for the lack of systematic process and enough preservation. The ancient festivals like Alpaluni, Sindhi Puja etc are now new terms to the young people. The traditional sports like Ghila Hara, NadengHara, Potti Hara etc are only observed during bizu utsab and they are becoming less common to the new descendants too.
To change is the nature of time. But at present, the customs, the traditions as well as whole of the community are disappearing from the Bangladesh's beauty list.
The land grabbing in the name of development for which, now the Lushai community is almost lost from Sajek and also the complaints of eviction of mro people for building five star hotel etc are like everyday news on headlines.
The indigenous people are facing difficulties in surviving let alone giving emphasis on preservation of customs. But there’s still some light of hope for them as now the young people are becoming more aware of their roots and many are trying from their particular stance to work for the preservation of their culture.
As the world is changing and becoming more advanced, present generation is trying to cope with that. People like ManabendraNarayan Larma, Kalpana Chakma, Doctor Amit Chakma, Raja Debashish Roy, Queen Yan Yan, Kanak Chapa Chakma, SanjeebDrong, Elira Dewan, Doctor Moung Ting and many more have tried and are trying to protect the people’s rights by raising voice and introducing the ethnic groups to the national and international platforms by their struggles, writing or artworks.
Now including digital platforms, many organisations like Sparc, Tufan's Artbin, Hebaang, Mizel Hozal, Hill valley etc are performing their diacritic works in their specific fields which is appreciable. Also, the young people are being protective on their mother language education and working on them.
Although there are many obstacles and struggles for existence, it is still not to late to have the system arranged and less chaotic for the indigenous societies and making the future generations aware of roots is the foremost duty of all to preserve own culture and tradition.
Written By Priase Chakma
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