Digging Deep

Recent excavations raise questions about Mizoram’s history / Communities

- Soumya Mishra

Eight years ago, a team from the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage travelled to the eastern hills of Mizoram and identified a few potential heritage sites. One of these was in the village of Vangchhia, in Champhai district, where they stumbled across around 170 menhirs—tall, upright stones from prehistoric times—of varying heights. They were embossed with scenes from what appeared to be traditional Mizo hunting practices, and images of Mizo musical instruments and heroes from the community’s legends. In May this year, following an excavation that had begun in January, the Archaeological Survey of India announced that it had found the remains of a lost civilisation.

Vangchhia was not a new discovery for 82-year-old P Rohmingthanga, who has been the convenor of INTACH’s Mizoram branch since 2009. When we met in Delhi this May, he told me he had caught a glimpse of Vangchhia in 1973, while on a helicopter tour during his first deputation as an Indian Administrative Services officer. He recounted seeing a hilltop without any forest cover, and massive erected stones. At the time, Vangchhia had no motorable road connecting it and could only be reached by foot. Rohmingthanga left Mizoram in 1976. Although he returned in the late 1980s as chief secretary, his planned trips to Vangchhia were repeatedly deferred because of the insurgency in the area or road repairs. Two decades on, he decided to pursue his interest in Mizo culture.