Mizo Tlawmngaihna: Then and Now

Tlawmngaihna is a living cultural tradition among the Mizos in spite of the fact that the Mizo community has undergone social transformation in making a choice in adopting Christianity as the new faith. Once become Christian, the Mizos have to abandon their animistic practices and were integrated into Christian theological world view. Obviously, they had to abandon spirit worship, its rituals and move into a space of prayers and commandments aspiring to the grant of the all-compassionate Lord’s mercy. However, Tlawmngaihna meaning ‘service before self’, as a cultural characteristic, continued and got integrated into the Christian concept of ‘fellowship.’ The present paper is an attempt to examine this living tradition in its changing cultural contexts including the Covid-19 pandemic scenario of the present time.