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Khumi people

Community live in Chittagong hills Bangladesh

Summary

Community live in Chittagong hills Bangladesh

Field	Value
group	Khumi
image	Khumi Girl 1.jpg
population	125,000
regions	In Bangladesh the Khumis reside in Bandarban District of the Chittagong Hill Tracts.
region1	Myanmar
pop1	120,000
region2	Bangladesh
pop2	3,780 (2022)
languages	Khumi language
religions	Animist

The Khumis () are a community inhabiting in the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh. The Khumis are one of smallest ethnic groups in Bangladesh with a population of only 1214 according to the 1991 census (in the census of 1981 their population was recorded as 1258), though there are another 120,000 across the border in Burma.

History

Among the ethnic groups in Chittagong Hill Tracts the Khumis were the war like people. Earlier they were very often engaged in internecine or intertrinal warfare with the Bawms and the Mros. The Khumis originally lived in Arakan; however, after a fierce battle between them and the Mro, the latter were defeated and fled to the Chittagong Hill Tracts. But later the Khumis themselves entered Chittagong Hill Tracts after being defeated by Arakan.

The term "Khumi" might have originated from a combination of two words in the Khumi language: "Kha," meaning "man," and "Ma," meaning "the best race." Together, they signify "the man who excels in racing." But according to the Arakanese language, "Kha" translates to "dog," and "Ma" refers to "race," which interprets as "the dog that races best."

Geographical distribution

According to the 2022 Bangladeshi census, there are 3,780 Khumi in Bangladesh. They mainly concentrated in Bandarban District with 3287 population.

Upazila	Population	Percentage who are Khumi
Thanchi Upazila	1,829	6.14%
Ruma Upazila	890	2.74%
Rowangchhari Upazila	436	1.57%
Others

Religion and culture

The Khumis are animists. The men keep long hair and tie it into a tuft on the head. They are dependent on shifting cultivation. In 1995, only one of their members passed Secondary School Certificate examination.

References

Saradindu Shekhar Chakma. "Ethnic Cleansing in Chittagong Hill Tracts".
(2019-04-28). "Indigenous (Tribal/Ethnic) People of Bangladesh: Their Belief, lifestyle and Culture - Travel Mate".
(2021). "Table 1.4 Ethnic Population by Group and Sex". Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics.
(June 2024). "Population and Housing Census 2022 - District Report: Bandarban". [[Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics]].

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

ethnic-groups-in-bangladesh ethnic-groups-in-myanmar ethnic-groups-in-south-asia

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