Mizoram

Introducing Mizoram

Seen from the sky, Mizoram seems to have been ploughed by a forgetful god who left the deep north-south furrows with a green fuzz of bamboo. Mizoram is tidy and almost entirely Christian. You’ll see very few Indian faces amongst the local Thai-Chinese style features. People are surreally but uninvasively friendly. Don’t be surprised if you’re warmly thanked by total strangers for bothering to visit their state.

Mizoram runs entirely to its own rhythm. Most businesses are long shut by 6pm, and virtually everything closes tight on Sunday. Forget breakfast-lunch-dinner, Mizos trad­itionally have two main meals, zingchaw (morning meal, 9am to 10am) and tlaichaw (afternoon meal, 4pm to 6pm). Both feature rice, boiled leaves, boiled vegetables and boiled fatty smoked-pork alongside. Flavour is added using rawt, a salsa of diced chillies, ginger and onion. On paper Mizoram is a dry state but friendly, wobbling drunks are surprisingly common.

Mizo culture has no caste distinctions and women seem pretty liberated; in Aizawl girls smoke openly, wear jeans and hang out in unchaperoned posses meeting up with their beaus at rock concerts on the central field. Musical tastes favour gospel, Megadeath and Avril Lavigne, preferably all combined (yes, they try!). Similarly curious are the Aizawl Thunders, Mizoram’s local biker gang who despite their leathers and growling Enfields are determinedly democratic.

Last updated: Feb 17, 2009