Chin State

The Chin people entered the Chin Hills in the first millennium 1200 AD as part of the wider migration of Chin peoples into the area. For much of history, the sparsely populated Chin Hills were ruled by local chiefs.

Some historians (Arthur Phayre, Tun Nyein) put Pateikkaya in eastern Bengal, thus wrongly placing the entire Chin Hills under Pagan suzerainty but others, like Harvey, citing stone inscriptions, properly put it near the eastern Chin Hills.[6] (Burmese Chronicles report the kings of Pateikkaya as Indian though the ethnicity of the subjects is not explicitly cited.) Accordingly, since the first human settlement in the region later called Chin Hills as early as 10 century CE, no other external military conquest nor tributary influence was noticed either in oral traditions or other historical inscriptions but the rule and leadership of local native chiefs as listed above until the British advancement in the late 19th century.

The first confirmed political entity in the region was the Shan State of Kale (Kalay), founded by the Shan people who came to dominate Kale-Kabaw valley of the northwestern-to-eastern arc of Burma after the fall of the Pagan Kingdom in 1287. Kale was a minor Shan state. The minor state occasionally paid tribute to the larger Shan States of Mohnyin and Mogaung and ultimately became a vassal state of the Burmese Ava Kingdom in the 1370s. Starting in the 1480s, Ava began to disintegrate and Kale was swallowed up by the Shan State of Mohnyin by the 1520s. Three of the Saopha sons (Thein Kheing/Thuan Khai(Ancestor of Hlythi/Hlawncheu, Hauhulh and Zahao/Zahau), Phra Lung/Phurh hlum (Ancestor of Zanniat/Nuhma/Nohro(Sumthang,Syuhlo,Hlosa/Hluansang{Chozah/Cheizah/Chinzah, Zawtha/Zawthang/Zathang, Hlychho/Hlawnchhing, Khule/Khuhhly/Khenglawt, Hluansang, Hlikhai} and Notlia/Nuhnu/Nutlai), and Ral Thang{Mi-E, Thawr, Lente, Bawithang, Sailung}) fled to the Chin hills around 1400 where their descendants ruled the petty chiefdoms all over Falam, Hakha, and parts of Paletwa and Mindat district along with various villages in the hill range of Bangladesh (Chittagong Hill Tracts and India(Mizoram) as well some villages in Rakhaing State.

The Burmese kingdoms between 1555 and 1559 when King Bayinnaung of the Toungoo Dynasty conquered part of Upper Burma and its surrounding regions, stretching from the eastern and northern Shan states to the western Magway Division and plain region in Manipur.[7] Toungoo began to weaken in the late 17th century. By the 1730s, a resurgent Manipuri Kingdom had conquered the Kabaw Valley, which is at the eastern front of Chin Hills, from the Burmese. Situated in a far west hilly region, however, Chin Hills was traditionally autonomous and far for successive Burman kingdoms to reach. Until British colonial rule, independent city-states such as Ciimnuai (Chinwe/Chin Nwe) later shifted to Tedim and Vangteh in the north, Tlaisun and Rallang in the mid-land, and Hakha, Thantlang and Zokhua in the south played important political role in securing peace of the region, and each city-state practised its own independent sovereignty in their own rights.

The British acquired the Chin Hills a decade after the Third Anglo-Burmese War of 1885. American missionaries began arriving in the 1890s and, by the middle of the 20th century, most of the Chin people had converted to Christianity. The ensuing Chin resistance to the British was suppressed only by 1896 with the arrest of Khai Kam Thuantak of Siyin area.In 1896,it became a part of Pakokku Hill Tracts Districts of British Burma until 1948,January 4. The administered the Chin Hills as part of Pakokku District. The region was the westernmost advance of the Imperial Japanese Army, which occupied the region in November 1943, in World War II. After the war, Chin state leaders headed by Vawmthu Moung, with Burman, Shan and Kachin leaders, participated in the Panglong Conference which discussed the future of an independent Union of Burma. Because of the region's heavy economic dependence on Burma, Chin leaders, unlike Shan and Kachin leaders, asked only for a "special administrative division", not a full-fledged state. As a result, when the 1947 Constitution of Burma granted the right of secession to states after 10 years after the independence, the Chin people did not get a state (no right to secede). (The Karen, who did not participate in the conference, received a state, with the right to secede). Until 1974, three townships of today Chin State (Mindat,Kanpetlet and Matupi townships) were part of Pakokku Hill Tracts of Pakokku District and then, it became a part of Chin State Until now.

Upon Burma's independence from the United Kingdom in 1948, Chin Hills Special Division was created out of the Chin Hills, with its capital Falam at that time. Afterwards, Hakha became the capital. However, three townships of modern Chin State (Mindat, Kanpetlet and Matupi) were part of the Pakokku Hill Tracts of Pakokku District and Paletwa Township of the Arakan Hill Tracts, until 4 January 1974. On 4 January 1974, the Chin Hills Special Division was granted state status and became Chin State.[8] Today, Chin State has little infrastructure and remains extremely poor and undeveloped.

"Chin National Day" is designated on 20 February to commemorate the "General Assembly of Chinland" held in 1948.[9] The first celebration of Chin National Day was held in 1951, but it was not well recognized by Myanmar governments until the 2010s.[10]

Chin National Front proposed to designate 3 January as "Chin State Day".[11]

• Tedim District of Northern Chin State
  • Tedim Township
  • Tonzang Township
  • Cikha Subttownship
  • Khaikam Town
• Falam District Central Chin State
  • Falam Township
  • Rihkhawdar Town
  • Webula Town
• Hakha District of Central Chin State
  • Hakha Township
  • Surkhua Town
  • Thantlang Township
  • Hnaring Town
• Matupi District of Central and Southwestern Chin State
  • Matupi Township
  • Rezua Subtownship
  • Lailenpi Town
  • Paletwa Township
  • Samee Subtownship
• Mindat District of Southeastern Chin State
  • Mindat Township
  • Makui Innu Town
  • Kanpetlet Township

Hakha District was formed by the first Chin State Hluttaw emergency meeting No. 2/2012 on 1 June.[12] Matupi District was formed by the second Pyidaungsu Hluttaw regular meeting on 28 June 2017.[13][14]

• Cikha, subtownship in the north
• Falam, northern Chin State (Falam District)
• Hakha, capital of Chin State (Hakha District)
• Kanpetlet
• Lailenpi, subtownship in west south
• Matupi, southern capital town.(Matupi District)
• Mindat, southern Chin State
• Paletwa, southern Chin State
• Rezua, Rezua Subtownship
• Rihkhawdar, subtownship in the north
• Sami, subtownship in south
• Tedim, Tedim Township
• Thantlang, Thantlang Township
• Tonzang, Tonzang Township
• Webula, Webula town
• Hnaring, Hnaring town
• Surkhua, Surkhua town
• Makui innu, Makui Innu town
• Khaikam, Khaikam subtownship in east
• Zophei Township

The people of Chin state are made up of many tribes which, though historically related, now speak divergent languages and have different cultural and historical identities. Some consider the name Chin an exonym, given by the Burmese and of unclear origin. There are different languages or ethnic groups in Chin State: Kcho, Laimi, Matu, Zomi, Mizo, Asho, Mara, Khumi, and Daai.

According to the 2014 Myanmar Census, Christians, who make up 85.4% of Chin State’s population, form the largest religious community there.[16] Minority religious communities include Buddhists (13%), Muslims (0.1%), Hindus (0.1%), and animists (0.4%), including adherents of Pau Cin Hau, who collectively comprise the remainder of Chin State’s population.[16] 1.1% of the population listed no religion, other religions, or were otherwise not enumerated.[16] Chin State is the only state in Myanmar with a majority Christian population.[17]

According to the State Sangha Maha Nayaka Committee’s 2016 statistics, 457 Buddhist monks were registered in Chin State, comprising 0.1% of Myanmar's total Sangha membership, which includes both novice samanera and fully-ordained bhikkhu.[18] All monks in Chin State belong to the Thudhamma Nikaya (100%).[18] 43 thilashin were registered in Chin State, comprising 0.1% of Myanmar’s total thilashin community.[18]

• Surbung Airport
• Paletwa Airport VYPE

Comparison between period preceding 1988 and after (up to 31 December 2006)

Comparison between period preceding 1988 and after (up to 31 December 2006)

• Zalui 0.40 megawatt
• Tongva 0.40 megawatt
• Ngasipva 1.00 megawatt
• Paletwa 0.05 megawatt
• Nanlaungchaung 0.20megawatt
• Laiva 0.60 megawatt
• Tuisawmlui 0.20 megawatt
• Chichaung 0.20 megawatt
• Thinthe 0.05 megawatt
• Linebon 0.05 megawatt