The Mong Circle ( my, ဖလံထောင်) is one of three hereditary chiefdoms (or "circles") in the
Chittagong Hill Tracts
The Chittagong Hill Tracts ( bn, পার্বত্য চট্টগ্রাম, Parbotto Chottogram), often shortened to simply the Hill Tracts and abbreviated to CHT, are group of districts within the Chittagong Division in southeast ...
of modern-day
Bangladesh
Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million pe ...
. The jurisdiction of the Mong Circle encompasses parts of
Khagrachhari District. The chiefdom's members are of
Marma descent and are known as ''phalansa''.
Most inhabitants of the Mong Circle settled in the northwest during a migration wave from the
Kingdom of Mrauk U (modern-day
Arakan State in
Myanmar
Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...
) between the 16th and 18th centuries, while inhabitants of the other Marma chiefdom, the
Bohmong Circle settled in the south and are known as ''ragraisa''.
Leadership
The Mong Circle is led by a hereditary chieftain called a "raja." The Mong chieftains appoint and oversee headmen called ''mouza'' and village chiefs called ''karbaris''.
The incumbent chieftain is
Saching Prue (b. 1988) of the
Chowdhury house; he formally ascended the throne on 17 January 2009.
His predecessor,
Paihala Prue Chowdhury, died in a roadside car accident on 22 October 2008.
History
The Mong Circle dates to 1782 with the first chieftain, Mrachai. During British rule, the British authorities designated the Mong Circle in 1871, to encompass an ethnically mixed population in the
Feni valley. In 1881, the Chittagong Hill Tracts were administratively divided into three circles, namely the
Chakma Circle, the
Bohmong Circle, and the Mong Circles, each presided over by a hereditary chief from the