The Aimol people are an ethnic group living mainly in

Manipur Manipur () is a state in northeastern India with Imphal as its capital. It borders the Indian states of Assam to the west, Mizoram to the south, and Nagaland to the north and shares the international border with Myanmar, specifically t ...

and in parts of

Mizoram Mizoram is a states and union territories of India, state in northeastern India, with Aizawl as its Capital city, capital and largest city. It shares 722-kilometres (449 miles) of international borders with Bangladesh to the west, and Myanmar t ...

Tripura Tripura () is a States and union territories of India, state in northeastern India. The List of states and union territories of India by area, third-smallest state in the country, it covers ; and the seventh-least populous state with a populat ...

Nagaland Nagaland () is a States and union territories of India, state in the northeast India, north-eastern region of India. It is bordered by the Indian states of Arunachal Pradesh to the north, Assam to the west, Manipur to the south, and the Naga Sel ...

and

Assam Assam (, , ) is a state in Northeast India, northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra Valley, Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . It is the second largest state in Northeast India, nor ...

Meghalaya Meghalaya (; "the abode of clouds") is a states and union territories of India, state in northeast India. Its capital is Shillong. Meghalaya was formed on 21 January 1972 by carving out two districts from the Assam: the United Khasi Hills an ...

in India. They speak

Aimol The Aimol people are an ethnic group living mainly in Manipur and in parts of Mizoram, Tripura, Nagaland and Assam, Meghalaya in India. They speak Aimol, a Sino-Tibetan language. Aimols use Meitei as their second language according to the Ethn ...

, a

Sino-Tibetan Sino-Tibetan (also referred to as Trans-Himalayan) is a family of more than 400 languages, second only to Indo-European in number of native speakers. Around 1.4 billion people speak a Sino-Tibetan language. The vast majority of these are the 1.3 ...

language. Aimols use Meitei as their

second language A second language (L2) is a language spoken in addition to one's first language (L1). A second language may be a neighbouring language, another language of the speaker's home country, or a foreign language. A speaker's dominant language, which ...

according to the

Ethnologue ''Ethnologue: Languages of the World'' is an annual reference publication in print and online that provides statistics and other information on the living languages of the world. It is the world's most comprehensive catalogue of languages. It w ...

. They practice

slash-and-burn Slash-and-burn agriculture is a form of shifting cultivation that involves the cutting and burning of plants in a forest or woodland to create a Field (agriculture), field called a swidden. The method begins by cutting down the trees and woody p ...

agriculture and are primarily Christian.

Clans

The indigenous term for clan in Aimol is ''phung''. The Aimol people are subdivided into seven clans: Chaithu, Chongom(with 2 sub-clans), Lanu (with 1 sub-clan), Laita (with 2 sub-clans), Shialloa, Shongthu and Ruijom.

Religion

Historically the Aimol were

animists Animism (from meaning 'breath, spirit, life') is the belief that objects, places, and creatures all possess a distinct spiritual essence. Animism perceives all things—animals, plants, rocks, rivers, weather systems, human handiwork, and in ...

they worshipped in gods such as ''Kho-pathian'' (village deity) and ''In-pathian'' (house deity), ''Sailing'' and ''Bonglei'' who were village protectors, ''Chahou'' god of agriculture and paddies, ''Miso'' god of peace and prosperity, and ''Arkun'' a goddess of fertility. In the mid-20th century the Aimol were converted to christianity by

Christian missionaries A Christian mission is an organized effort to carry on evangelism, in the name of the Christian faith. Missions involve sending individuals and groups across boundaries, most commonly geographical boundaries. Sometimes individuals are sent and ...

References

Sources

Aimol
at

{{authority control Languages of India Scheduled Tribes of Manipur Ethnic groups in Northeast India Tribes of India