Folklore from Mizoram
Description:
Pages: 96
Year of Publication: 2013
Price: Rs 250
ISBN:
978-93-5045-056-7 (9789350450567)
About the Author:
Margaret L. Pachuau has several published works to her credit, including The Heart of the Matter (2004), The Experience of Expatriation (2006), Construction of Good and Evil in Iris Murdoch’s Discourse (2007) and Handpicked Tales from Mizoram, published by Writers Workshop, India, in 2008. She undertook a major research project on identity and Mizo folk narratives that was sponsored by the University Grants Commission, India. She was awarded the first prize for fiction in translation in a competition organized by Muse India in 2008 for Lamkhuang (translated as The Jackfruit Tree), by the Mizo author Vanneihtluanga. Dr Pachuau is an Associate Professor in the Department of English, Mizoram University.
Teaser:
In her introduction to the book, Dr Pachuau writes:
“Folklore from Mizoram is a collection of folklore, some of which have been rendered in translation for the very first time. Folklore and the Mizo cultural ethos are related one to the other and this collection attempts to portray the significance of identity as located intrinsically within the parameters of the history of Mizo folkloristics…
The aspect of the oral narrative within the Mizo cultural as well as literary context has been pivotal. For instance in terms of a significantly oral perspective there has been a marked focus upon the centrality of the animal world order in terms of Mizo narratives. Precolonial sensibility has depicted a world that was replete with the coexistence of animals in the larger arena of reality. It is impossible to conceive a world that was bereft of the animal world order in terms of the Mizo domains. Animals were regarded to be on equal, if not on superior, terms with human beings. Identity and the cultural parameters that are related to the same have been increasingly complex.”
Contents:
Introduction / 9
How Creation Came to Be / 25
How the Mountains and Lakes Were Formed / 29
How Rice Came to Be Eaten / 33
The Adventures of Chhura / 35
Lianchhiari and Chawngfianga / 49
Laltheri and Chalthanga / 59
Chawngchilhi / 63
Mauruangi / 69
Thinlanga / 81
Sabereka Khuangkaih / 85
Rih Dil and the Abode of the Dead / 87
Kungawrhi / 91