Ticker

6/recent/ticker-posts

Header Ads Widget

Darchawi Village

 The emergence of Darchawi village

  1. How did the name ‘Darchawi’ derive from?

We might have a curiosity to know as to how the name of ‘Darchawi’ had come about?. There is no accurate evidence or authentic explanation as to how the name ‘Darchawi’ has come into being. However, there is an oral tradition. The oral tradition goes like this. In early days, (Prior to discovery of Darchawi village viz prior to 1923) there was a man by the name of Chombula Darlong of Zongkhawtlang village (Zongkhawtlang was located in the areas, in and around of present Pawl khua village). The man had 7 (seven) sons. The eldest son’s name was Joba Darlong.

Joba had Jhum at the fertile tilla land situated in the north-east of present Darchawi village. He had bumper crops produced in his Jhum such as rice, oil seed, cotton etc. He invited a group of youths for harvesting his crops. And a group of energetic elderly persons also joined them. All of them harvested together. They took 7 days to complete the harvest. At that time, they possessed a drum (Khuang) and a bell (Dar) with them. They piled up the crops in a safe place and exposed them to the Sun intermittently. While doing this, they beat the drum and rang the bell to encourage the volunteers to work more. By doing this, they enjoyed their works in a festive mood. There was a small stream flowing by the side of the Jhum. the stream had no name at that time. As they had been ringing the bell for the last 7 days, they named it as ‘Darchawi tuidung’ meaning the ‘Darchawi-stream’. ‘Dar’ means ‘Bell’ and ‘Chawi’ means ‘to carry’. Literary meaning is “Carrying the Bell”. During their stay, in memory of two deities- ‘Fapite’ and ‘Tuitarpa’, they engraved and depicted their imaginary images on the stones. Fapite was regarded as ‘god of crops’ while ‘Tuitarpa’ as ‘god of stream’. The engraved stones remained there for a long period undisturbed. But in the recent past i.e. in 1970s, the stone were removed to Kumarghat by Mr. Guha Range officer and set up a temple of Shiva and Durga. During those days, Darchawi village was known as ‘Renga Uzzir Bari’. At that time present Darchawi village was also recorded as ‘Renga Uzzir Bari’ in the Tehsil record. But in 1958 the inhabitants of Darchawi wanted to change the name from Renga Uzzir Bari’ to ‘Darchawi’. Accordingly, they moved to the Government. Finally, the government also approved their proposal. Since then the village was known as ‘Darchawi’. As such the name of Darchawi had come into being after the name of Darchawi tuidung or Darchawi stream.

  1. The emergence of Darchawi village as per Pu. Tuahnila Darlong:

The emergence of Darchawi village near Kumarghat in Unakoti District, Tripura is closely related with the advent of Christianity to the Darlong people. The Darchawi people believed that the village was God’s chosen village. It was believed that the Darchawi village came into existence out of the visionary of Pastor Zatuaha where only Christians by faith would live together and worship the living God together without disturbances from other non-Christian Darlongs. His vision might have been in the same way as the Lushai Rajah Hrawngvunga Sailo of Phuldungsei, Jampui had. He selected a place where only Christians could settle and live peacefully without any disturbances from the non-Christian Lushais. The Rajah, finally, in the month of January 1915 shifted to the new selected village called Tlangsang. It is to mention that at that point of time, most of the Darlong villages were situated only in the western side of Deo River (the  Darlongs call it Nelkang tuipui) including Blue hills (Kala tilla) and Rangrunga areas.

As per Pu. Tuahnila Darlong, in the year 1923, Pastor Zatuaha (Father of R. Tawna) along with 6 (Six) followers settled at Darchawi village (in their architected village). They named it DARCHAWI (Raise the Bells). They proclaimed and said, “Let this village be called God’s chosen village”. The following 6 (Six) were the aids of Pastor Zatuaha from Saidara khua.

  1. Pu Suainana - Father of Pastor Lalhuala

  2. Pu Renga - Father of Ngurkunga

  3. Pu Linakaia - had no issue

  4. Pu Sellawia - Father of Thungura

  5. Pu Thuama - Father of Biaki

  6. Pu Kapa - Father of Chala

As per the ‘Souvenir’ of Darlong Christian Golden Jubilee, Sellonia as mentioned in sl no.4 was not from village of Saidara. The migration of Selloia was mentioned as under: He was also one of the new converts to have entered into Darwhawi. He hailed from Tlangte khua. In 1923, Pastor Thanghrima, ex-Saidara went to Tlangte khua (It was also known as Lundgaw tlang) and proclaimed Gospel. One of the villagers named Selloia was touched by his powerful message deeply and embraced Christianity instantly. During those days, the village was under the control of Rajah Ngursailiana Thangur. Ngursailiana was not anti-Christians. But all members of his village were anti-Christians. The villagers wanted that he (Selloia) be ousted from the village due to his Christian faith. Thus, tremendous pressure was mounted upon him (Ngursailina) by the villagers to expel Selloia from the village. Thus, Selloia was finally driven out of the village. And he then went to Darchawi and settled there along with the new entrants. Therefore, he was also known as one of the first dwellers at Darchawi in 1923.

As per Pu Tuahnila Darlong, 8 (eight) families from Zawnkhawtlang village (under the subjugation of Chief Lalsutkhama) also migrated to Darchawi subsequently due to tyranny and persecution of the Chief for their Christian faith. They were:

  1. Thanga - Father of Luti

  2. Khuma - Father of Johana

  3. Suakhama - Father of Zuii

  4. Chonga - Father of Zuala

  5. Hrankunga - Father of Neikola

  6. Roibula - Father of Neikola

  7. Thangpuia - Father of Neituadngi

  8. Thuama - Father of Lalrama

All the villagers, one day, sat together and made moral code of conducts for the village which were as under:

  1. No non-Christian shall dwell in this village.

  2. No one shall be involved in the intoxicating drinks and drugs

  3. All Christians irrespective of tribes/caste and place of origin shall be allowed to settle in the village.

  4. No one shall practice divination/magic/ any Supernatural power/witchcraft.

  5. No criminal crimes such a dacoity, robbery, theft and burglary etc shall be committed by any villagers.

  6. There shall be no prostitution or promiscuity in the village. If anyone was found to have deluged in such activity, he/she shall be heavily penalized.

  1. The emergence of Darchawi village as per Rev. Tuakunga Darlong:

As per Rev (Late) Tuakunga, father of Rev. Ngaituasunga, (Oral statement of Rev (Late) Tuakunga Darlong S/O Pu (Late) Chuaihmunliana @ Hmuna Darlong recorded by Rev. Ngaituasanga) the story regarding the emergence of ‘Darchawi village’ was not exactly like we have learnt from the story of Upa Tuahnila. It has a different story. When Rev. Tuakunga was very small, her mother used to narrate the story as to how ‘Darchawi village’ had emerged. She said that Pu Hmuna, her husband (grant father of Rev. Ngaituasunga), was not only a dweller of Darchawi village but also was one of the founders of the village. Rev. Ngaituasunga had recorded the same. I would like to reproduce the story as told by him. The story goes like this:

“Kuki chief lalsutkhama was the chief of Saidara village. He did dislike the Christians and was strongly against the Christianity. As such, his intention was to oust all the Darlong people having Christian faith from the village. In subsequent development, the chief finally drove 6 (six) families out of the village. Thus, 6 (six) families from Saidara and 2 (two) families from other village, all together 8 (eight) families, left their villages and took temporary shelter in one place/jungle by the side of Deo River (Nelkang river). All of them made temporary make-shifts and begun to stay there. During their stay, all of them solemnly took oath that they would not construct their houses until a Church was constructed for worshipping God. during that period, they used to go out frequently in the surrounding jungles in search of sustenance as well as suitable sites where they could permanently establish a village. While searching for a new village, they also paid water sources and jhuming areas into consideration.

On several searches, one fine morning they came to a place where a tiger had left its food prints. Finding the spot a suitable place, they had instantly decided to construct a Church in that particular location. They also surveyed in and around area of the location. The area had all resources as per their requirements. As such, they had decided to establish a village. When they were residing by the side of Deo River, they witnessed very strange happenings. Mention may be made that at that time there was no electricity for illuminating the area nor was their petromax. They used either homemade lamp or hurricane lamp for illumination. But at night they used to have camp fire to illuminate the area. They could feel the presence of a tiger very close to them by hearing its roaring at them but it did never harm them. It was astonishing that they did never see the tiger physically. The strange thing was the tiger was always under the cover of jungles. However, they felt the protection of God from the attack of outside forces following presence of a tiger. Despite repeated searches during day time, they could never locate the tiger nor could they see the tiger physically.

In subsequent time, they constructed a Church at the ear-marked location. The location was the place where KBCA office is situated presently. When they completed construction of a Church, all of them started constructing their respective houses one by one at that ear-marked place (i.e. Darchawi) and begun to migrate there. It is also to mention that en-route to Darchawi they had a brief stay in a place a little short of Darchawi village.

It was reported from different sources that the number of first dwellers at Darchawi was 8 (eight). He could not say who the eight families were except his father Hmuna. He believed that the number ‘eight families’ might be correct because the same number was corroborated by the article of Rev. Lalhuala which had appeared in Tripura Gospel Centenary-2011, souvenir. Rev. Lalhuala also mentioned that six families were from Saidara, who were ousted by the chief and two families joined them, one from Talan Bari and another from Zonkhawtlang Bari. Further in the Souvenir published during Darlong Christian Golden Jubilee-1969, also corroborated that eight families were the first settlers. What he could say was that all of them were illiterate Jhumias, innocents but obedient, submissive and very faithful to Lord Jesus. They were the first persons to have constructed Church.

However, cutting across the controversies over the first dwellers to Darchawi village, the Darchawi people celebrate ‘Darchawi Day’ every year on 23rd of January as foundation Day to commemorate those eventful days and also the sacrifices made by those people who had first discovered this village. Over a period of 95 years, a sea change had taken place in Darchawi village. Christians from different communities such as the Darlongs, the Debbarmas, the Garos, the Lushais, the Bengalese, irrespective of caste/creed had settled there. The number of families had increased from 8 in 1923 to over 350 in 2018. The village had produced many civil servants, Doctors, Bankers, Teachers, etc. The visitors/Tourists also felt at home when they came to this village. Even today, customary Practices are still in vogue. If anyone is found indulging in alcoholic drinks and drugs they are heavily penalised by society.

Pineapple cultivation has brought prosperity and economic changes to the people of Darchawi. Pineapple economy has contributed much to their well being and improved quality of life. Learning from Darchawi village, many other Darlong people from other villages have also taken up pineapple cultivation. The parents of Darchawi village are happy that many of their children managed to settle well with secured employment in the various departments and agencies of the government.

In 1931, Thakur Soumendra Chandra Debbarma conducted census, he found that there were as many as 2374 Christian from Darlong-Kuki and Lushai out of the total population of 3654 (The Darlongs and the Lushais) in Tripura.

References:

  1. Darlong, S. (2019). The Advent of Christianity to The Darlong people of Tripura and the Darlong people today. Self publication.

  2. Silver Jubilee 1974-1999 Souvenir of Darchawi Christian High School, Darchawi, Kumarghat, Tripura. Unpublish souvenir journal.

Post a Comment

0 Comments