Hajong people
The Hajong people are an ethnic group from Northeast India and northern parts of Bangladesh.[5] The majority of the Hajongs are settled in India and are predominantly rice-farmers. They are said to have brought wet-field cultivation to Garo Hills, where the Garo people used slash and burn method of agriculture.[6] Hajong have the status of a Scheduled Tribe in India[7] and they are the fourth largest tribal ethnicity in the Indian state of Meghalaya.[8]
Geographical distribution[edit]
It is believed that the original heartland of the Hajongs in Garo Hills was in the area lying mostly along the Northeast and Southwest foothills of Garo Hills and part of the southern foothills of Khasi and Jaintia Hills. This wide and plain switch of land in the foothills, half encircling these two hills falls partly in the present-day Goalpara district of Assam, partly in the Garo Hills district of Meghalaya, and partly in the Mymensingh and Sylhet districts of Bangladesh.
According to folklore, the Hajong habitation was said to have started from a small Hajong village called Hwârkuna Situated in the northeastern corner of the foothills of Garo Hills, and ended at another small Hajong village called Jumakuna situated in the southeastern corner of the foothills of Jaintia Hills. The Hajong habitation was said to have extended only this far and no further beyond these two villages in either direction.[14] Today, the Hajongs are spread out across northeast India and Bangladesh with the majority of the population on the India side of the border.
In India, Hajongs are found in both the Garo and Khasi Hills of Meghalaya, largely along the South-West Garo Hills District of Meghalaya and Bangladesh border. They also live in the Dhubri and Goalpara districts of lower Assam, Dhemaji, and other districts of upper Assam into Arunachal Pradesh.[15] In Bangladesh, Hajongs are found in the northern Dhaka division, although there are unconfirmed reports of some Hajong living in Chittagong division. The narrow strip of borderland that stretches from Sherpur district in the west as far Sunamganj district in the east can be considered the southern outpost of the greater Hajong community.[6]
Traditional Ornaments of the Hajongs.
Kankurya
Puspohar or Chondrohar
Social divisions[edit]
Obsolete clans[edit]
Originally the Hajongs were divided into six clans.[24] The present generation is hardly aware that this clan system had ever existed in the past.[note 2] The origin of these clans are traced back to the twelve thousand Hajongs who had crossed the Brahmaputra river and entered Garo Hills from Hajo. The descendants of these twelve thousand people were divided into six groups under the leadership of six heads: Harang, Bhajalu, Manik, Teper, Satodol, and Manji. These six clans were named after these tribal heads.