The Himalayan Arc

by Namita Gokhale

  ‘I see…’ Mawii responded but you could tell from the look on her face that she was still somewhat confused.

  ‘Look, Mawii,’ her mother said in a firm but patient tone, ‘marriage and children aren’t the ultimate source of happiness for many people. It’s like that, sometimes.’

  ‘Oh,’ Mawii replied in a tone that said she was still mulling over it.

  ‘My point is people don’t enjoy doing things that they’ve been forced to do. And for Sichangneii, she was forced to marry and live with someone she didn’t love. She then had to bear seven children on top of that. Would you be happy if you were forced to do something?’

  ‘Well… Is it like when I don’t feel like going to school but Apa forces me to go?’

  Sangi giggled, ‘Yes, a bit like that but much more serious.’

  ‘I don’t know … I feel bad for her but I’m also sad for the sons. They no longer have a mother. You’d never leave us would you, Nu?’

  A faint smile spread across Sangi’s face. Her daughter’s question reminded her of that night a few years ago. She was so close to walking out the door. A few months of virtually endless fights with her husband combined with post-partum depression had taken their toll.

  Something set her off that particular night. She was on the verge of giving up. She couldn’t bear it any longer, and hastily threw her clothes in a duffel bag. She doesn’t remember much after that, but she didn’t go. She had sat by her two sleeping children. They had looked so peaceful, so untouched by the evils of the world.

  The sight calmed her.

  ‘Nu?’ Mawii had grown impatient to hear her mother’s response.

  ‘You know I won’t, Mawii. Besides, Sichangneii was a sky woman, remember? She could still keep watch over her sons and protect them whenever they needed. She just couldn’t stand living with her awful husband any more.’

  ‘Oh, okay then. So what happens after that?’

  ‘When the man got home and discovered his wife gone, he was distraught. Unable to bear the loneliness, he takes a hammer and cracks one of his testicles.’

  ‘So he’s practically trying to emotionally blackmail Sichangneii by hurting himself. What a manipulative bastard!’ Pari fumed. She seemed to have been immersed in a book but was evidently listening to the story intently.

  ‘Language, Pari,’ Sangi responded, half-amused at her niece’s anger but also impressed by her perceptive reading of the situation. When did she grow up so much?

  ‘Sorry, so what happens afterwards?’

  ‘The man writhed in pain after he cracked his own testicle. But his youngest son was unable to see the gravity of the situation. He laughed as he watched his father, who looked as if he was dancing.

  ‘The man, after realizing that his self-inflicted pain couldn’t compel his wife to come back to earth, decided to crack his other testicle. So he did and ended up dying from the pain.’

  ‘I love Sichangneii. I’m glad she finally got her wings back and flew back home,’ Pari declared.

  ‘Me too! I wish I had wings as well so I could fly wherever I want to,’ her little cousin added.

  ‘I think it’s time you fly off to bed,’ Sangi joked.

  ‘But I’m not sleepy yet, Nu.’

  ‘Me neither, aunty. Besides, we don’t have school tomorrow so we can stay up a little longer.’

  ‘All right all right. I can never win with you two, can I?’

  Her tone was playful but there was a hint of tiredness in her voice.

  ‘I’m sorry, aunty but can we please have another story? It’s not every night we get to spend time together.’

  Sangi sighed.

  ‘Yes! Another story! This time, make it a scary one,’ Mawii pleaded.

  ‘Are you sure you want to hear a scary story? You won’t be able to sleep,’ Sangi teased her daughter.

  ‘What about Phungpuinu and Chhurbura?’ Pari suggested.

  ‘What’s a Phungpuinu?’ Mawii asked, her eyes sparkling with excitement.

  ‘In olden-day Mizoram, there were lots of stories about a creature known as a phung,’ replied Sangi, ‘it’s a grotesque humanoid creature with wild bushy hair and pitch black skin. The bodies of phungs are entirely covered with matted hair, which adds to their sinister appearance. Some types of phungs even have teeth the size of cucumbers. And even if it’s not specified, they’re normally considered to be females.

  ‘These creatures, possibly due to their bizarre physical appearance, have a knack for scaring humans. That’s why there’s a phrase “phung hmu ang mai”, or “as though they’ve seen a phung”. There was once a man who went hunting on his own. Unfortunately for him, he had had too much to eat that morning. So after a while, he felt the urge to relieve himself in the bushes. As soon as he began, he felt a small stone hitting him in the head. Confused, he looked around but couldn’t find anything.

  ‘So he returned to his “task”. But as soon as he started again, a much bigger stone hit him on the forehead. He was livid. He stood up, took his gun, and pointed it towards the direction from which the stone came. “Come out and fight like a man, I dare you!” he shouted.

  ‘That’s when he heard a blood-curdling cackle from behind the trees. And suddenly, a phung leaped into view, grinning from ear to ear and ready to attack. This sight scared him so much that he ran off without another word, forgetting his gun and finishing the rest of his “task” as he ran.’

  Her two young ones roared with laughter. Once they were ready to listen again, she resumed, ‘They say that the Amarnthus bloom repels these phungs. That’s why you’ll always see the bright red blooms near the entrance of a thlâm. The Phungpuinu is the mother of these creatures and her name translates to “mother phung”.

  ‘Chhurbura and the Phungpuinu often appear together in Mizo folklore, always troubling each other and trying to outwit one another. There’s the time Chhurbura sets up a swing at the courtyard of his thlâm. The thlâm, like traditional Mizo cottages, was made of bamboo with a thatched roof. It stood on wooden stilts so that the entrance was level with the hilltop.

  ‘The hilltop served as a courtyard for the thlâm and had a few clusters of trees and flowers. It was among these trees that Chuurbura set up the swing. Along the slope of the hill lay the rest of his farm, where he grew tubers and vegetables.

  ‘Every day during lunchtime, Chhurbura would take a break from farmwork and open up a bundle of food wrapped in banana leaves. After devouring the contents of the bundle, he would rush to the swing and spend the rest of his break time lounging in it.

  ‘Sometimes he dozed off, serenaded by the chirping of birds and the warm summer breeze. And sometimes he would sing or whistle as he swung back and forth with daydreams of a more leisurely life.

  ‘It was on one of these days that a Phungpuinu happened by Chhurbura’s farm. Intrigued by the pleasant and unfamiliar sound, she decided to follow it and investigate. She crept up behind some trees and found a burly and somewhat awkward human being happily drifting in the air.

  ‘As she inspected further, she found that the man wasn’t levitating but was using some sort of rope to swing from the trees. This discovery amazed the Phungpuinu so much that she stood there with mouth agape for several minutes.

  ‘She must try this strange contraption! She decided to wait until he was gone.

  ‘So she waited and waited until the man finally set off towards home. As soon as he disappeared from sight she rushed to the swing and climbed on it. At first, she lost her balance and tumbled down head first on the ground.’

  Mawii suddenly burst out laughing, followed by a brief snicker from Pari.

  Sangi grinned and continued, ‘After a few more failed attempts, the Phungpuinu eventually got used to the movements and mechanisms of the swing. Within a couple of days she started to enjoy the swing rides until that was all she could think of!

  ‘She took pleasure in the cool wind blowing against her face and the leaping of her heart every time she took a swing. But one da
y, her thick bushy hair got caught in the ropes. Although she managed to break free, a few clumps of hair were still stuck in the swing. Not realizing this, she headed home to her lair after sunset.

  ‘The next day, Chhurbura came to the farm. Like every other day during lunch, he sat on the swing and prepared to start swinging. But he immediately came to a halt when he saw the thick clumps of dirty, matted hair caught in the ropes of the swing.

  ‘He hesitantly removed the hair clumps as he tried to figure out who or what had been using his swing in his absence. He eventually came to the conclusion that it must be a Phungpuinu, judging from how the hair looked.

  ‘So that evening, he pretended to leave the farm like every other day. But instead of heading home, he hid behind some trees and waited for the Phungpuinu to appear. As soon as the coast was clear, the creature rushed out of her lair and hopped onto Chhurbura’s swing.

  ‘As she merrily swung on the swing, she started singing a song – “Chhurbura awm ta love…” which means “At last, Chhurbura’s gone home.”’

  Mawii and Pari couldn’t help but find this amusing and all three of them dissolved into laughter. They could only stop after tears started flowing from their eyes. ‘All right, what happens after that?’ Mawii asked, her cheeks aching from laughing so much.

  ‘Lost in her own little world, the Phungpuinu didn’t see it coming when Chhurbura jumped out from the back and grabbed her by the hair,’ Sangi continued.

  ‘The creature struggled in vain to break free from Chhurbura’s grasp. Finally, she tried to reason with him and offered him various magical tools in exchange for her freedom. The man eventually decided to free her after she offered him a Sekibuhchhuak.

  ‘A Sekibuhchhuak is a magical horn that can produce an endless supply of food – rice from one side and meat from another – if you coax it with a certain chant. Even the name literally translates to rice-producing horn.

  ‘Chhurbura then takes the Sekibuhchhuak home, pleased with himself for making the deal of a lifetime. Now he won’t have to toil in the farm any more because he can get all the rice and meat he wants. Although the Phungpuinu came up with plan after plan to get her treasure back, she couldn’t act on them because Chhurbura never came back to the farm.’

  ‘I’d love to have a Sekibuhchhuak too. I’ll never have to work,’ Mawii sighed longingly, which made her mother chuckle.

  ‘They say Grandmother had a Sekibuhchhuak too. Even when there was an unexpected guest from another village, there was always enough rice for them to eat.’

  Mawii’s face brightened up at this.

  After a few minutes of silence, she asked her mother, ‘Do you know any stories about good ramhuai?’

  ‘Of course, there are several. But my favourite among these are the khuavang.’

  ‘Isn’t khuavang a mole on the skin?’

  ‘Well a mole is the mark of the khuavang so it’s called khuavang chhinchhiah.’

  ‘I didn’t know that.’

  Sangi smiled and began, ‘They say that the khuavang are a group of magical creatures.

  ‘They’re like humans but they can turn themselves invisible so they live all around us, possibly in a different realm. We can’t see them but they can see us.’

  ‘That’s a bit unsettling, isn’t it? They could be watching us in our sleep and we wouldn’t even know. Who knows? They could even be listening to this story right now,’ remarked Pari.

  Her aunt shot her a look that said, ‘Don’t scare your little cousin with such thoughts,’ which made Pari giggle.

  Sangi hastily resumed, ‘These creatures are normally considered as good spirits. Some even say that the khuavang sometimes guard humans.

  ‘There are both male and female khuavang and they get married and build families just like us humans do. There are even stories of entire villages of khuavang buried beneath the earth. You can enter the village through a hole in the ground.

  ‘You know how sometimes there’s pin-drop silence even when you’re in a group? That moment is called khuavang kal lai, which literally translates to “a moment during which the khuavang walk among us”.

  ‘And the first person to speak after a pin-drop silence is believed to earn a new mole, marked by the khuavang. Our ancestors believed that the moles on our bodies are a way for these creatures to distinguish between different human beings.

  ‘They also say that the khuavang have control over the formation of mountains, ridges, and the earth’s surface. Some even believed they were as powerful as gods.

  ‘The khuavang only bless or help humans if said humans have done something good for them. And if you’ve done something to annoy them, they could curse you or cause you harm.

  ‘When they do decide to make themselves visible, the khuavang often appear as old ladies.’

  ‘So you mean any old lady can be a khuavang? Even the ones on our street?’

  ‘It’s possible. They could be living right next to us and we wouldn’t even know.’

  ‘What about the old lady who sells smoked fish from door to door? Doesn’t she seem like a khuavang? She always keeps her head covered and she looks at me weirdly.’

  This made Sangi stifle a laugh. Trust her daughter to come up with the most outrageous assumptions. Though come to think of it, she did have a point.

  ‘We’ll never know,’ she finally answered.

  ‘I wish I could meet a khuavang and ask them all about their world,’ Mawii mused.

  ‘Who knows? You might have already met one. But I think they’d like to keep their world a secret from us humans.’

  Mawii didn’t respond to this and instead seemed to be in deep thought. After a while, she asked, ‘Nu, do you think there are any good ramhuai that live in our world? I mean are there any that won’t make themselves invisible or live in a different realm?’

  ‘Wait, there’s one that I think you’re going to love.’

  ‘What’s that?’

  ‘It’s called a pheichham. Have you ever heard of the term “pheichham man”, which means “to catch a pheichham”?’ Sangi asked.

  ‘I have heard it but I’ve always been confused.’

  ‘It originated in Mizo folklore. According to the beliefs of our ancestors, if you catch a pheichham you could compel it to fulfil your wishes…’

  ‘Like a genie?’ Mawii interrupted.

  ‘Yes. Very similar to a genie, or a jinn,’ Sangi answered.

  ‘The pheichham is a creature that lives in the forest and looks very much like a human being in fact. But it has only one leg. So it hops around instead of walking or running.’

  ‘Wait… I’ve read about something similar in one of The Chronicles of Narnia books. They’re called Duffers and they can make themselves invisible,’ Pari said enthusiastically.

  ‘That’s really interesting, Pari. You should tell Mawii about them some time,’ her aunt replied before she continued with the story.

  ‘It’s possible that these creatures don’t have a specific gender identity. What they do have is the ability to grant wishes. Some say if you catch a pheichham it will grant you as many wishes as you can mention without taking a breath.

  ‘Others say that since the pheichham only has one leg, it’s prone to falling down and being unable to get back up on its own. If you chance upon one in this situation and help it up, it will bless you or grant your wishes.

  ‘There’s one story in which a man called Thasiama managed to live a long and prosperous life after being blessed by a pheichham. The story goes that a mischievous pheichham had destroyed the crops in Thasiama’s farm. In an attempt to catch the creature red-handed, Thasiama hid inside his thlâm long after it was time to go home.

  ‘When the creature appeared, Thasiama managed to catch it and threatened to take it home so he could use it as a decoration. The desperate pheichham tried to reason with the man and promised to grant his wishes if he let it go. The only condition was that he mention all his wishes in a single breath.

  ‘Tha
siama then talks about all the things he wished for – wealth, fame, longevity, and so on. But before he could mention his wish for children, Thasiama ran out of breath. So the man lived for hundreds of years in prosperity, never lacking food and never earning a bad reputation. But he never managed to have children either.

  ‘There are also variations in how people tell this story. Some say instead of a pheichham, it was lasis that blessed Thasiama with long life and wealth.

  ‘You might have heard several stories involving a lasi. And there may be some variations in what they can do and how they treat humans. But one thing is for certain…they always appear as women with bewitching looks and long, flowing hair.

  ‘And they’re said to live in the forests and enchant hunters. A hunter under a lasi’s enchantment would get immense luck in his hunting expeditions, never going home without a kill. But he could never speak to anyone about his relationship with the lasi, or it could result in his death.

  ‘In one variation of the story of Thasiama, he manages to capture two lasis. In their attempt to break free from his grasp, the creatures shape-shift into other forms like snakes and caterpillars. With no luck at escaping, they finally decided to grant him a boon if he sets them free.

  ‘Though there aren’t many stories about a male lasi, the story of Chawngtinleri talks about the king of the lasis marrying a beautiful woman named Chawngtinleri. This is the only instance in which there’s a male version of this creature. But some people also described him as the king of the spirit world.

  ‘The offspring of Chawngtinleri and the lasi king ended up with a human body and a goat head.

  ‘When Chawngtinleri went to visit her brother in the human realm, the neighbours took a peek in her baby’s cradle and were horrified to see the half-human half-goat creature. This angered the lasis, who accused Chawngtinleri of having exposed their true form. To punish her, they twisted her eyes so that they became vertical.

  ‘Her vertical eyes made her forget her fellow humans. It must be because she no longer saw the world like she did before and she had become something else other than human. The lasis later granted her power and she eventually became queen of the beasts and is believed to be the creator and protector of all wild animals. Despite all this power, Chawngtinleri was often bored.