Ziona (born Zionnghaka; 21 July 1945 – 13 June 2021)
was the leader of
Lalpa Kohhran Thar
Lalpa Kohhran Thar () is a millennialist Christian sect and dissenters of the Presbyterian Church in Mizoram, India.' Started by a World War I veteran Khuangtuaha in 1942, it flourishes in Serchhip district. Originally from Hmawngkawn village, ...
(meaning "The Lord's New Church"), informally referred to as Chana Pâwl or Chhuanthar Kohhran ("The Church of New Generation"), a
polygamy-practising Christian sect
A sect is a subgroup of a religious, political, or philosophical belief system, usually an offshoot of a larger group. Although the term was originally a classification for religious separated groups, it can now refer to any organization that b ...
in
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 people, Mizo", the endonym, self-described name of the native inhabitants, and "Ram", which in the Mizo ...
, India.
He was often referred to as a world record holder for being the head of the "world's largest existing family"
or the "world's biggest family". In 2011, as officials of the ''
Guinness World Records
''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...
'' made verification, he refused the world record title as he shunned publicity.
His was nonetheless listed as the "Biggest Family" in the world in 2011 by the World Record Academy,
and ''
The Wall Street Journal
''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
'' in 2011,
and then by the London World Records in 2019.
The religious sect he led was formed by his uncle Khuangtuaha in 1942 as a
millennialist denomination, which survives in
Serchhip district
Serchhip District is one of the eleven districts of Mizoram state in India. The district occupies an area of 1421.60 km². Serchhip town is the administrative headquarters of the district. This district came into existence on 15 September 1 ...
in Mizoram state of India, sharing borders with Bangladesh and Myanmar.
After migration from Hmawngkawn village, the sect settled in Baktawng village Mizoram, India.
In 1997, Ziona succeeded his father Chana, who in turn had succeeded Khuangtuaha in 1966. He had 39 wives, 94 children, 14 daughters-in-law, 33 grandchildren and one great grandchild; 181 family members in total and counting. His family and their four-story residence are one of the major tourist attractions in Mizoram.
He was featured in ''
Ripley's Believe It or Not!
''Ripley's Believe It or Not!'' is an American franchise founded by Robert Ripley, which deals in bizarre events and items so strange and unusual that readers might question the claims. Originally a newspaper panel, the ''Believe It or Not'' feat ...
'' top 11 strangest stories for the year 2011,
and in 2013's ''Ripley Believe It or Not'' book 9.
Life and family
Ziona was born ''Zionnghaka'' on 21 July 1945 at Hmawngkawn village in
Serchhip district
Serchhip District is one of the eleven districts of Mizoram state in India. The district occupies an area of 1421.60 km². Serchhip town is the administrative headquarters of the district. This district came into existence on 15 September 1 ...
, which is to the south of Aizawl, the capital of Mizoram. He is popularly known among the
Mizo natives as Pu Ziona,
and commonly misnamed in the non-native media as Ziona Chana.
His father was Challianchana, leader of the Christian sect, Chana Pâwl.
He married his first wife Zaṭhiangi, who is older than him by three years, at the age of 17.
Zaṭhiangi is the head wife and directs the household chores of the family with strict discipline.
After Chana's death on 27 February 1997, Ziona was elected as the successor.
The sect called him by the title "Hotupa" (literally meaning leader or master).
By the time he took up the leadership, he already had more wives than his father.
He married ten of his wives in the span of one year.
Ziona built a four-storied mansion, which appears like a boarding house, to accommodate his large family.
The house is called the "''Chhuan Thar Run''" (meaning the House of the New Generation) and is located in the mountainous village of Baktawng.
There is also a "''Khualbuk''" (a guesthouse) to accommodate visitors coming to the village.
Ziona had a double bedroom in the ground floor of this mansion and his wives took turns to sleep with him according to a roster. His younger wives stayed close to his room on the same floor and there were always seven to eight wives attending to his needs during the day. All older wives live in the dormitories on the first floor of the mansion, while his younger wives live on the ground floor. His wives claim that there is no rivalry among them.
Of his 39 wives, 22 are below the age of 40 and they got a week to spend with him.
He has 26 sons-in-law and his daughters live separately with their families. He said that he has named all his children and grandchildren and he remembered the names of every member of his family.
He married his last wife in 2004.
It is not known exactly how many wives he had had in his lifetime. By 2005, three were dead and some abandoned him.
Ziona's family is self-reliant, growing crops for their food requirements. He has also established a school for his children, and his younger brother looks after its functioning. Though teaching in the school is based on a curriculum prescribed by the government, he has added some subjects specific to his Chana sect. He did not seek any assistance from the government.
Ziona's wives do the cooking, and his daughters attend to cleaning of the house and take care of washing laundry. Men of the family attend to livestock rearing, agriculture (
jhum cultivation
Slash-and-burn agriculture is a farming method that involves the cutting and burning of plants in a forest or woodland to create a field called a swidden. The method begins by cutting down the trees and woody plants in an area. The downed veget ...
), small cottage industries of wood furniture (carpentry), aluminum utensil making, and so forth.
Ziona's 68th birthday was celebrated on 21 July 2013 with 150 guests.
Later life and death
At age 75, Ziona was diagnosed with
hypertension
Hypertension (HTN or HT), also known as high blood pressure (HBP), is a long-term medical condition in which the blood pressure in the arteries is persistently elevated. High blood pressure usually does not cause symptoms. Long-term high bl ...
and
diabetes mellitus
Diabetes, also known as diabetes mellitus, is a group of metabolic disorders characterized by a high blood sugar level ( hyperglycemia) over a prolonged period of time. Symptoms often include frequent urination, increased thirst and increased ap ...
. On 7 June 2021, he became seriously ill and became unconscious on 11 June. Doctors at Baktawng found that he had
anaemia
Anemia or anaemia (British English) is a blood disorder in which the blood has a reduced ability to carry oxygen due to a lower than normal number of red blood cells, or a reduction in the amount of hemoglobin. When anemia comes on slowly, th ...
.
In critical condition, he was brought to Trinity Hospital at Aizawl in the afternoon of 13 June (Sunday). He was already unconscious when they reached the hospital at around 2:30 p.m., and was revived briefly using
CPR
Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is an emergency procedure consisting of chest compressions often combined with artificial ventilation in an effort to manually preserve intact brain function until further measures are taken to restore sponta ...
.
The doctors pronounced him dead at 3:00 p.m., 10 minutes after he was admitted. He is survived by 38 wives, 89 children and 33 grandchildren.
Announcing his death,
Chief Minister of Mizoram
The Chief Minister of Mizoram is the chief executive of the Indian state of Mizoram. As per the Constitution of India, the governor is a state's ''de jure'' head, but ''de facto'' executive authority rests with the chief minister. Following elec ...
,
Zoramthanga
Zoramthanga (born 13 July 1944) is an Indian politician who is the Chief Minister of Mizoram. He is the president of Mizo National Front (MNF) party. He had served as the Chief Minister of Mizoram from December 1998 to December 2008, for two ...
, posted on
Twitter
Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
, and said:
With heavy heart, Mizoram bid farewell to Mr. Zion-a (76), believed to head the world's largest family, with 38 wives and 89 children. Mizoram and his village at Baktawng Tlangnuam has become a major tourist attraction in the state because of the family. Rest in Peace Sir!
As his body was brought home in the night of 13 June, his pulse regained.
Oximeter showed stable pulse and his body remained warm the following day.
The family declared the pulse stopped at 9:00 p.m. on Monday.
After two days of preparation, the official funeral and burial were done on 17 June 2021.
Religious faith
Ziona was chief of the group known as Chana Pâwl (Pâwl means sect, group, or organization), a Christian sect that practices
polygamy
Crimes
Polygamy (from Late Greek (') "state of marriage to many spouses") is the practice of marrying multiple spouses. When a man is married to more than one wife at the same time, sociologists call this polygyny. When a woman is married ...
.
His uncle (father's elder brother,
or grandfather, according to some sources), Khuangtuaha founded the sect on 12 June 1942 at Hmawngkawn village, and was named ''Lalpa Kohhran Thar'' ("The Lord's New Church");
but was more popular as ''Khuangtuaha Pâwl''. At the time the mainstream Christian church in Mizoram objected to the use of pagan practices in Christian worship, including the use of a traditional drum called ''khuang.
'' Khuangtuaha Pawl believed that the drum was harmless and adopted it as one of the key instruments for worship. The sect also advocated
millennialism
Millennialism (from millennium, Latin for "a thousand years") or chiliasm (from the Greek equivalent) is a belief advanced by some religious denominations that a Golden Age or Paradise will occur on Earth prior to the final judgment and future ...
by accepting the literal event of
Bible
The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a ...
's Revelation Chapter 20 to "Kum Sang Rorel" or the rule of 1,000 years by
Jesus 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 ...
on Earth.
Khuangtuaha also decreed that a man may marry as many wives as he can support.
The Presbyterian Church excommunicated them
for propagating a
theology
Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...
considered "wrong and dangerous".
A popular account that the Chief of Hmawngkawn banished them in 1942,
with the support of British officers,
is false. Khuangtuaha died in 1955 at Hmawngkawn and is interred at Hmawngkawn cemetery.
After Khuangtuaha's death, his brother Chana inherited the sect leadership.
The sect then became popularly known as Chana Pâwl,
but they also used a formal name "Lalpa Kohhran" (meaning "The Lord's Church") for their denomination.''
''
It was only in 1967, following political turmoil in Mizoram due to the Mizo National Front uprising, that the government relocate them along with hundreds of small villages. The sect were allowed settled in Baktawng. After Ziona led the sect, they assumed a new name for their community as ''Chhuanthar'' (meaning the "New Generation"),
and the sect became sometime referred to as ''Chhuanthar'' ''Kohhran'' ("The Church of New Generation").
The sect celebrate their founding day as "Bawkte Kut" (literally meaning "Festival of the Hut") on 12 June every year.
As of 2021, the sect has over 2,000 followers in 433 families, who all reside in the Baktawng Tlangnuam village.
World record
Although it is popularly reported that Ziona is the world record holder as heading the biggest family in the ''
Guinness World Records
''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...
'',
even in government sources,
it is not included in the Guinness.
(Guinness has no record for biggest/largest human family.
) By 2005, with 15 wives and more than 100 children, he could have been eligible for the Guinness record.
In 2007, he was proposed for entry into the Guinness, but as the officials visited him, he refused to have his photograph taken.
In 2011, he explained to a ''
CNN
CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...
'' reporter, the reason he declined the record was that "he doesn't want the publicity."
Ziona's family is recorded by the World Record Academy as setting the world record for the "Biggest Family". At the time of the record entry in 2011, Ziona had 39 wives, 94 children, 14-daughters-in-laws and 33 grandchildren.
The same year, ''
The Wall Street Journal
''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
'' listed the family as "The Biggest Family in the World".
Ziona was listed as "head of the world’s biggest family" in the London World Records in 2019.
In 2011, ''Ripley's Believe It or Not!'', while recording Ziona's family as the largest living family in the world, observed: "It's a safe bet that Ziona Chana would not be impressed watching ''19 Kids and Counting'' or ''Sister Wives''. The 75-year-old Indian man had 39 wives, 94 children and 33 grandchildren and 1 great grandchild."
Ziona and his family was included in 2013's ''Ripley Believe It or Not'' book 9.
References
External links
Family PhotoHis 66th birthday celebration (in Mizo)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ziona
1945 births
2021 deaths
20th-century religious leaders
21st-century religious leaders
Christianity in Mizoram
Indian Christian religious leaders
Mizo people
People from Serchhip district
Polygamy
World record holders