In addition to all these spirits, there is another. Each clan has a special spirit presiding over its destinies. The spirit is known as “Sakhua,” and all sacrifices to him have to be performed by a puithiam of the clan, and only members of the family can be present.
The Lushais believe in a spirit world beyond the grave, which is known as Mi-thi-khua—i.e., dead man’s village—but on the far side of Mi-thi-khua runs the Pial river, beyond which lies Pial-ral, an abode of bliss. Access to this is not obtained by a life of virtue while on earth, but the due performance of sacrifices and the killing of men and certain animals and success in the courts of Venus. The following account of the common belief was written for me by a Lushai, who embellished his essay with a map. It will be noticed that in the latter he has inserted the Kristian’s (Christian’s) village and their heaven, the road to which is under Isua (Jesus), while the roads to the Lushai’s Mi-thi-khua are watched by Seitana (Satan). This incorporation of the teaching of the missionaries with the indigenous belief is not without interest, showing a broad spirit of tolerance in the author, who, without abandoning the faith of his forefathers, is ready to admit the truth of Christianity and its suitability to those who profess it, and sees no difficulty in providing in the unknown lands beyond the grave a special country for each race, just as there is in the world he knows of.
Translation of a Lushai’s account of the World beyond the Grave
“The first man is said to have been Pupawla; then he died before all those born after him. Then Pupawla, this man who died first, shoots at those who have died after him with a very big pellet bow, but at some he cannot shoot. Hlamzuih (see below, para. 8) he cannot shoot at. Thangchhuah he may not shoot at. Then he may not shoot at a young man who has enjoyed three virgins, nor at one who has enjoyed seven different women, even if they were not virgins; but women, whoever they may be, he always shoots at. They say that there is a road between the Mi-thi-khua and the Rih lake. [This lake is on the left bank of Tyao river 1½ miles from the place where the Aijal-Falam road crosses the river.] To go there, they say, there are seven roads, but Pupawla has built his house where the seven roads meet. Then after Pupawla has shot them, there is a hill called Hringlang hill, and then there is the Lunglo river [heartless, feelingless, which removes feelings] the water of which is clear and transparent, and the ‘hawilopar’ [look back no more flowers] flourish there. The dead pluck hawilo flowers and place them behind their eyes and drink of the Lunglo water, and have no more desire for the land of the living.”
Copy of a Map of the route to Mi-thi-khua drawn by a Lushai.
The Thangchhuah, mentioned above, are those who have slain men and certain animals and have given a series of feasts to the village, which will be found described in [para. 9 of this chapter].
Those whom Pupawla hits with his pellet cannot cross the Pial river and are doomed to stay in Mi-thi-khua, where life is troublesome and difficult, everything being worse than in this world, the metna of Mi-thi-khua being no larger than crabs.
The proud title of Thangchhuah, which carries with it much honour in this world as well as the right of admission to Pial-ral after death, can only be obtained by killing a man and each of the following animals—elephant, bear, sambhur, barking deer, wild boar, wild mithan—and by giving the feasts enumerated below; but it is well also to have killed a species of snake called “rulngan,” a bird called “vahluk” and a species of eagle called “mu-vān-lāi” (hawk in the middle of the sky). A Lushai gave me the following account of the journey of Thangchhuah to Pial-ral.