CS Knowledge Base

The Rongmei (also known historically as Kabui) are an indigenous Naga ethnic community of Northeast India, living principally in Manipur, Nagaland and Assam.^[1] Together with the Zeme, Liangmai and Inpui they form the larger Zeliangrong cluster of cognate Naga tribes.^[1] The Rongmei are listed as a Scheduled Tribe in the Constitution of India.^[2]

In addition to Christianity, which is followed by the majority of Rongmei since the twentieth-century missionary period, a substantial section of the community continues to practise the indigenous religion Powpaichapriak (PPC), new religious movementTingkao Ragwang Chapriak (TRC) and Heraka, both centred on the worship of Tingkao Ragwang, the Heavenly God.^[1][3]

The Rongmei are called by that name in their own language; the alternative name "Kabui" is an exonym applied to the community by the neighbouring Meitei of the Manipur valley. The ancient Manipuri chronicle Cheitharol Kumbaba refers to the Kabui among the earliest known tribes settled in the Manipur hills, alongside the Tangkhul and the Anal.^[4]

The largest concentration of Rongmei is in Tamenglong district of Manipur; substantial populations are also found in Senapati, Churachandpur, Imphal West, Imphal East, Thoubal and Bishnupur districts of Manipur.^[1] Outside Manipur, Rongmei communities are present in Peren, Dimapur and Kohima districts of Nagaland and in Dima Hasao (Haflong sub-division) and parts of Cachar and Hailakandi districts of Assam.^[1]

The Rongmei do not have a written pre-colonial history; their origins are reconstructed from oral tradition, folk songs, ritual hymns and the accounts of colonial-era administrators and anthropologists.^[4] Linguistically, the Rongmei speak a Tibeto-Burman language; in the Linguistic Survey of India it was placed by George Abraham Grierson within the Naga sub-group of Tibeto-Burman.^[5]

According to Zeliangrong oral tradition recorded in religious hymns and folk songs, the Zeme, Liangmai and Rongmei emerged from a mythical cave called Mahou Taobhei at Ramting Kabin in the Senapati hills, from which they moved south to Makhel near present-day Mao and then to Makuilongdi, commonly regarded as the principal point of dispersal for the Naga tribes of western Manipur.^[1] From Makuilongdi the Rongmei moved southwards, settling in much of present-day Tamenglong district, while related groups moved into the Naga and Barak valley hills.^[1]

Before the spread of Christianity in the twentieth century, the Rongmei followed an indigenous religion now formalised as Tingkao Ragwang Chapriak (TRC, "the religion of the Heavenly God"), centred on the supreme deity Tingkao Ragwang, creator of the universe.^[3]

In the early twentieth century the Rongmei religious reformer Haipou Jadonang (1905 to 1931) introduced a series of liturgical and ritual reforms within the indigenous religion, abolishing certain animal sacrifices and prescribing standardised prayer postures and hymns to Tingkao Ragwang.^[4] A related but distinct reform tradition, Heraka ("pure"), developed primarily among the Zeme and Liangmai and is monotheistic, with all worship directed at Tingkao Ragwang alone.^[1]

Christianity reached Rongmei country during the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries through American Baptist and Catholic missionary activity in the wider Naga hills, and is now the religion of a clear majority of Rongmei in Manipur, Nagaland and Assam.^[3]

The Gaan-Ngai festival, the principal annual festival of the Rongmei, is celebrated as a post-harvest and new-year festival in honour of Tingkao Ragwang. It is held on the 13th day of the Manipuri lunar month of Wakching, which falls in December or January in the Gregorian calendar; this date was fixed in 1947 by the then Kabui Samiti, the predecessor of the present Zeliangrong Union.^[6][7] The festival was declared a public holiday in Manipur in 1997 and is also observed by Zeliangrong communities in Assam and Nagaland; it has been recognised by the Government of India as a Tourist Festival of India.^[6]

Gaan-Ngai is typically celebrated for five days, extending to seven in some villages, and is variously called Hega Ngi among the Zeme and Chaga Ngi or Chaga Gadi among the Liangmai.^[6] Its rituals include the Gucheng Phaimei ginger offering at the village gates to ward off evil; communal dances such as the Tamchan Lam and the Tuna Gaan Lam; and a closing Napchanmei ritual in which cooked pork is distributed across all households.^[6][3]

During the colonial period the Rongmei, together with the related Zeme and Liangmai, participated in the Zeliangrong movement against British rule in the Naga Hills and Manipur. The movement was inspired by the prophet Haipou Jadonang, a Rongmei from the village of Kambiron in present-day Tamenglong district, who founded a religious and political programme calling for the restoration of a Naga kingdom under indigenous rule; Jadonang was arrested by the British administration and hanged at Imphal on 29 August 1931.^[4][8]

Leadership of the movement passed to Jadonang's young cousin Rani Gaidinliu (1915 to 1993), then aged sixteen, who continued the resistance and was captured by British forces in October 1932 and sentenced to life imprisonment. She was freed only after Indian independence in 1947 and was later honoured with the title "Rani" ("queen") by Jawaharlal Nehru and with the Padma Bhushan in 1982; she is commemorated as a leading figure of the anti-colonial movement in northeastern India.^[8]

Rongmei society is traditionally patrilineal and is organised around clans, with village affairs administered by a council of elders headed by a hereditary or elected chief.^[3] Rongmei material culture is noted for its weaving and textile traditions, and for an extensive corpus of folk song and dance, including the Tamchan Lam and other dances performed at Gaan-Ngai. Studies of the Rongmei folk-song tradition and its associated dance, ritual and festival practice have appeared in successive scholarly anthologies edited or co-edited from within the community.^[9][3]

In November 2023 the Kabui community of the Manipur valley established a religious institution called the Kabui Loishang (also rendered Kabui Loisang) under the auspices of the Lainingthou Sanamahi Temple Board at Imphal. The body, inaugurated with the participation of the Kabui Customary Council, Kabui Women Organisation, Kabui Union Manipur, Kabui Students' Association and Kabui Youth Wing, is intended to foster co-ordination among Kabui civil society organisations and to promote shared cultural and religious activity with the Meitei community.^[10][11]

The Rongmei language is a Tibeto-Burman language. In Grierson's Linguistic Survey of India it was treated as part of the wider Naga group of Tibeto-Burman.^[5] Meitei (Manipuri) is widely spoken as a second language for inter-community contact, trade and education, particularly in the Manipur valley districts.^[9]

• Zeliangrong
• Zeme people
• Liangmai people
• Inpui Naga people
• Rani Gaidinliu
• Gaan-Ngai
• Tingkao Ragwang Chapriak
• Heraka
• List of Naga tribes
• Hill tribes of Northeast India

• Ragongning Gangmei, ed. (1991). Folk Songs of Kabui (Rongmei). Manipur: Directorate for the Development of Tribals and Backward Classes.
• Kamei, Gaihemlu (2021). "The Kabui (Rongmei) Folk Song of Manipur". In Sanjenbam Yaiphaba Meitei; Sarit K. Chaudhuri; M.C. Arunkumar (eds.). The Cultural Heritage of Manipur. Routledge. pp. 319–338. ISBN 9780367677572.
• Panmei, Peter; Singh, Rabikanta (2021). "Cultural Heritage of Rongmei Tribe with Reference to Dance, Religion and Festival". In Sanjenbam Yaiphaba Meitei; Sarit K. Chaudhuri; M.C. Arunkumar (eds.). The Cultural Heritage of Manipur. Routledge. pp. 395–414. ISBN 9780367677572.
• Thaimei, Cecilia (2025). A Study on Folktale of Rongmei Community of Manipur with Particular References to Moral Values (PhD thesis). Meghalaya: Mahatma Gandhi University. hdl:10603/680443.
• Kamei, Gangmumei (2004). The History of the Zeliangrong Nagas: From Makhel to Rani Gaidinliu. Imphal: Spectrum Publications.