The Bom, or Bawm ( bn, বম), are an ethnic community inhabiting the

Chittagong Hill Tracts The Chittagong Hill Tracts ( bn, পার্বত্য চট্টগ্রাম, Parbotto Chottogram), often shortened to simply the Hill Tracts and abbreviated to CHT, are group of districts within the Chittagong Division in southeast ...

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...

. The Bawm are one of smallest ethnic groups in

. In 2004, around 10,000 Bawm inhabited

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

, with the population in all countries totalling around 24,500. In 2011, 12,000 Bawms inhabited the Chittagong Hills of Bangladesh, and 2,500 Bawm inhabited

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

.Kim, Roy & Sangma. 2011. ''The Kuki-Chin Communities of Bangladesh: A sociolinguistic survey''. SIL International. They speak the Sino-Tibetan

Bawm language Bawm or Bawm Chin, also known as Banjogi, is a Kuki-Chin language primarily spoken in Bangladesh. It is also spoken in adjacent regions of Northeast India and Burma. The Bawms that live on the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh call their se ...

History

The Bawms of the

in Bangladesh call their settlements “Bawmram” which means a Bawm inhabited area or region. To the Mizos of

Mizoram Mizoram () is a state in Northeast India, with Aizawl as its seat of government and capital city. The name of the state is derived from "Mizo", the self-described name of the native inhabitants, and "Ram", which in the Mizo language means "lan ...

and the Chins of

Chin Hills The Chin Hills are a range of mountains in Chin State, northwestern Burma (Myanmar), that extends northward into India's Manipur state. Geography The highest peak in the Chin Hills is Khonu Msung, or Mount Victoria, in southern Chin State, whic ...

, their settlements have also been known as “Bawmram”. Many archeological relics, sanctuaries, ruined villages, imprints and reminiscent are found in the north-eastern side of the present Chittagong and

. These are important indicators of the earliest Bawm settlement. The Bawms and other

Kuki-Chin The Kuki-Chin languages (also called Kuki-Chin-Mizo, Kukish or South-Central Tibeto-Burman languages) are a branch of 50 or so Sino-Tibetan languages spoken in northeastern India, western Myanmar and southeastern Bangladesh. Most speakers of the ...

tribes are the first inhabitants in the Chittagong Hill Tracts. Most of the Bawm tribe were known as "Kuki" by the

Bengalis Bengalis (singular Bengali bn, বাঙ্গালী/বাঙালি ), also rendered as Bangalee or the Bengali people, are an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group originating from and culturally affiliated with the Bengal region of ...

. They are known also as Chin in

Religion

Owing to the efforts of

Baptist Baptists form a major branch of Protestantism distinguished by baptizing professing Christian believers only ( believer's baptism), and doing so by complete immersion. Baptist churches also generally subscribe to the doctrines of soul compe ...

Christian missionaries funded by the British government since 1918, the majority of the Bawm have adopted to

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...

, and it was said that all of them are

Christians Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words '' Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρ ...

. They strongly believe in

Christ Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...

. There are about 107

Pastor A pastor (abbreviated as "Pr" or "Ptr" , or "Ps" ) is the leader of a Christian congregation who also gives advice and counsel to people from the community or congregation. In Lutheranism, Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy and ...

s, 98

Evangelists Evangelists may refer to: * Evangelists (Christianity), Christians who specialize in evangelism * Four Evangelists, the authors of the four Gospel accounts in the New Testament * ''The Evangelists ''The Evangelists'' (''Evangheliştii'' in Roma ...

and 321 elders among the Bawms serving in different Churches like Evangelical Christian Church (ECC), Presbyterian Church in Bangladesh (PCB), Bangladesh Christian Church (BCC), Evangelical Reformed Presbyterian Church (ERPC), Bangladesh Bawm Tribal Baptist Church (BBTBC), Independence Baptist Church Bangladesh (IBC - B),

Bangladesh Baptist Church Sangha The Bangladesh Baptist Church Sangha is a Baptist Christian denomination in Bangladesh. It is affiliated with the Baptist World Alliance. The headquarters is in Dhaka. History The Bangladesh Baptist Church Sangha has its origins in a British mis ...

(BBCS), Church of Christ (COC) and Bangladesh Missionary Church (BMC) etc.

References

External links

*
Bawm Christianity

Ethnologue profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bawm People Ethnic groups in Bangladesh Kuki tribes