Ramhuai Worship

I take immense offence at anyone who dismiss pre-Christian Mizo religious life as just ramhuai bia or, more dismissively, thing bul, lung bul bia. Demon worship, for one. The second being just nature worshipping in essence, yes, which is in itself not even offensive but it is always delivered with a tone of superiority, looking down at it from a higher angle. Just random worshiping of spirits and tree stumps and boulders because they were scared of everything because they didn’t know anything because they were so simple. Offensive, definitely.

I am a Christian. I was born a Christian and I am a born-again Christian. However, I take Christianity at the social level with a pinch of salt, always. I do not agree with anyone who need to praise Christianity by belittling people who do not follow the same faith. It is enough to just profess the faith, I’ve always thought. Christianity can stand on its own without its followers spitting on others of other faiths. I agree with Mahatma Gandhi when he said if all Christians behaved like Christ, the world would be Christian. Perhaps it is oxymoronic that the religion whose God specifically told his followers to not judge others would do it with such righteous gusto but here we are.

I do agree with my mother when she says perhaps old Mizo religious sacrifices were probably mostly appeasement to demons the humans did not want to cross. On the other hand, a lot of Christians are Christians because they have been righteously traumatized and groomed to be terrified of Hell. It’s the same thing, at the level of the abstract. In this, I have no issues.

I could go into a whole soliloquy over elementary forms of religious life, tribal gods and deities, totems and idols and even impersonal forces that you can bargain with. But that might fall on deaf ears for the uninterested and honestly, I don’t want to bore or offend anyone. So let’s wrap it up with this thought that yes, I think from a Christian standpoint, we could have been seen as worshipping demons and even the big bad – Satan hissssself – honestly, anyone else who isn’t Jehovah God. But also, I think in essence, to be fair and just to the old Mizo, it wasn't random ramhuai worship. We had just been worshipping other gods.

I think it really is just as simple as that.