Garo (tribe)
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The Garos are a tribe in Meghalaya, India, and Mymensingh, Bangladesh, who call themselves Achik. They are the second-largest tribe in Meghalaya after the Khasi and comprise about a third of the local population. The majority of Garos are Christian. There are a large number of Baptists and Roman Catholics. There is also a sprinkling of Seventh-day Adventists, Anglicans and others belonging to some new denominations. Much like the Mizos, there were very few Garos who still follow their traditional Animist-Hindu beliefs.
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[edit] Geographical distribution
They are mainly distributed over the Kamrup, Goalpara and Karbi Anglong Districts of Assam, Garo Hills in Meghalaya, and substantial numbers, about 200,000 are found in Mymensingh district of Bangladesh.
[edit] Language
The Garo language belongs to the Bodo branch of the Bodo-Naga-Kachin family of the Sino-Tibetan phylum. As the Garo language is not traditionally written down, customs, traditions, and beliefs are handed down orally.
[edit] Historical accounts
According to one such oral tradition, the Garos first came to Meghalaya from Tibet about 400 years ago, crossing the Brahmaputra River and tentatively settling in the river valley. It is said that they were later driven up into the hills by other groups in and around the Brahmaputra River. Various records of the tribe by invading Mughal armies and by British observers in what is now Bangladesh wrote of the brutality of the people.
The earliest written records about the Garo dates from around 1800. They "...were looked upon as bloodthirsty savages, who inhabited a tract of hills covered with almost impenetrable jungle, the climate of which was considered so deadly as to make it impossible for a white man to live there" (Playfair 1909: 76-77). The Garo had the reputation of being headhunters.
[edit] Culture
The Garos are one of the few remaining matrilineal societies in the world. The individuals take their clan titles from their mothers. The youngest daughter (nakma) inherits the property from her mother. Sons leave the parents' house at puberty, and are trained in the village bachelor dormitory (nokpante). After getting married, the man lives in his wife's house.
[edit] External links
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