An excerpt from "Manipur Past And Present"
- The Ordeals and Heritage of a Civilisation -
A tribute to Prof Naorem Sanajoaba
As provided by Rakesh Khwairakpam *
MANIPUR
PAST AND PRESENT
The Ordeals and Heritage of a Civilisation
VOLUME III
(Nagas Kuki-Chins)
The Roots
Naorem Sanaiaoba
South East Asian Personality
The Tibeto-Burman or sino-Tibetan speaking Meeteis, Nagas and Kuki-Chins of Manipur, which is a continuation of an early nation-state
in South East Asia, represent a unique South East Asian personality through the ages since the paleolithic period till contemporary epoch.
The elhnoses who led the first human dispersal from the Choukoutien ..and other caves passed through Tibeto-Chinese transborder areas, the
Yunan table land through a number of routes in both the northern and the southern Crrections and opened up the chapter of the first human
settlernent in uplancl caves in the present Manipur. The autochthones had their roots in the virgin soil, descended down the lowlands and,
rendered the proto-history only to be followed by the historicai times, which in its turn, witnessed a series of ambient conflicts, wars, mirgrations, devastations, catastrophes, atd a complete unfolding of the spectacular human drama, besides the interspersed golden days.
Crisis aiter crisis characterised the life of Meeteis, Nagas and Kuki-Chins in the course of their performances in history. Historical sciences do testify few axiorns, as a retrospective reconstruction of the past is a matter of prospective acceptance and validity and it is based on complete and incolrpiete evidences that invite many ways of interpretation and polemic; however, some relics and some vocabulary of the past are always available for the present assessment' South East Asian personality is very n-ruch evident in the indigenous people of Manipur'
Read (or download) the entire chapter
here - 12 MB .
* This article was provided by Khwairakpam Rakesh (Ph D Scholar at Tata Institute of Social Sciences ). The sender can be contacted at khulakpakh(at)gmail(dot)com
This article was webcasted on December 22, 2009.
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