The Turung people or Tai Turung, are a numerically small Buddhist community in the northeastern Indian state of

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 ...

. They speak their own Turung language. They originally migrated from Upper Burma and settled in Assam in the latter part of 18th century. During migration, they were captured and made slaves by the Singpho people and hence have had a lot of Singpho influences on their culture, language, and lifestyle. Theirs population was counted as 301 in the census of 1891. The present population of the community is unknown but is believed to be around 10,000.

Origin

Although the origin of the word Turung is not known, many believe that it is derived from the name of a river in

Patkai The Pat-kai (Pron:pʌtˌkaɪ) or Patkai Bum ( Burmese: ''Patkaing Taungdan'') are a series of mountains on the Indo-Myanmar border falling in the northeastern Indian states of Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Upper Burma region of Myanmar. I ...

region named ''Turungpani''. Another school of thought is that the word Turung is derived from the word Tai Long meaning Great Tai since these people were of Shan origin.

Distribution

They presently reside in certain pockets in Upper Assam in the districts of Golaghat,

Jorhat Jorhat ( /) is a major city in Upper Assam division, Upper Assam and among the fastest growing urban centres in the state of Assam in India. Etymology Jorhat ("jor" means twin and "hat" means market) means two hats or mandis - "Masorhaat" and ...

and Karbi Anglong.

References

{{Reflist Social groups of Assam Tai peoples Tribes of Assam Tribes of Arunachal Pradesh People from Arunachal Pradesh Ethnic groups in Northeast India Ethnic groups in India Ethnic groups in Assam Ethnic groups in South Asia Ethnic groups in Myanmar