Shinlung

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The Shinlung is the collective name for a group of tribes in the Northeastern Indian state of Mizoram, who think of themselves as one of the Lost Tribes of Israel.

In recent decades a number of Southeast Asian-looking tribespeople from Mizoram, Assam and Manipur have begun identifying as Jews. They are known collectively as Shinlung, and include Chin, Lusha, Kuki and Mizo. "Several hundred have formally converted to Orthodox Judaism, [while] thousands many thousands more quite openly practice an Orthodox type of Judaism". The Shinlung do not see themselves as converts, but believe themselves to be ethnically Jewish, descendants of one of the Lost Tribes of Israel (see Bnei Menashe).

The self-identification of some Mizos and others with Judaism owes its origin to the activities of Christian Evangelical missionaries in the area, beginning in 1813 but not reaching its full intensity until the decades after 1870. The missions were massively successful, and the 1981 Census recorded that 83% of the population of Mizoram (and 30% of Manipur) were Christian, by which time the original culture of the Mizo and other hilltribes had been almost totally destroyed. The religious ferment, the disappearance of traditional culture, plus the sudden and overwhelming impact of modern commercial relations and cultural values, produced in turn a reaction in some quarters against Christianity. In the 1930s the Mizo revivalist Saichhunga began preaching that the Mizo were the lost tribes of Israel. Saichhunga's preachings had a limited impact, but the Shinlung movement really developed impetus after 1951, when Challianthanga, head deacon of the United Pentacostal Church in the village of Buallawn, had a vision in which it was revealed to him that the Mizo were one of the Lost Tribes and consequently must follow the laws given for Jews in the Book of Deuteronomy and make their way to Israel.

Shinlung might thus be defined as a Jewish Christian movement with strong nativist elements, combining a belief in the imminent coming of the Messiah, the imperative need to return to Israel, the observance of strict Jewish law, and a belief that this is not an innovation, but the recovery of an ancient identity. The movement received a strong impulse from the 'Mizo Unrest', an independence movement which raged from 1966 to 1986, and which convinced many Mizo that the End Times were at hand. New prophets and leaders continued to spring up, reinforcing the message that the Mizo were in reality descendants of Israel, and by the final years of the 20th century the belief had emerged that they were specifically descended from the Tribe of Mannaseh.

The cause of the Shinlung - or the Benei Menashe, their own preferred name - has been taken up in Israel by, among others, Rabbi Eliyahu Avichail and Amishav ("My People Returns", an organisation dedicated to finding the Lost Tribes) and by Gush Emunim ("Block of the Faithful", a nationalistic, Messianic group in Israel). Several dozen young Benei Menashe formally converted to Judaism and were allowed to move to Israel, and in 1991 Avichail visited the Benei Menashe in Mizoram. In 1993 Avichail erceived a request from from settlers in the Gush Katif Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip for Benei Menashe to replace Palestinian workers. On 1 April 2005, the Chief Rabbi of Sephardic Jews in Israel, Shlomo Amar, recognized the Benei Menashe as authentic descendants of the Lost Tribes of Israel, and a contingent of Rabbis was sent to India to perform formal Orthodox Jewish conversions, allowing the Mizo Jews to move to Israel under the Law of Return.

DNA testing has found that although the male side of the group do not have genetic Jewish ancestry (see Y-chromosomal Aaron), the female side of the tribe has distinct Middle Eastern features. The difference between the masculine and feminine sides may be explained by the marriage of one of the mothers of the tribe, who came from the Middle East, to a local native.