Ethnographic Notes on the Mru and Khumi of the Chittagong and Arakan Hill Tracts : A Contribution to Our Knowledge of South and Southeast Asian Indigenous Peoples Mainly Based on Field Research in the Southern Chittagong Hill Tracts

This book is a "thick" description and interpretation of the ethnography of the Mru and Khumi, who live in the Chittagong/Arakan Hills straddling Bangladesh, India, and Burma. They are Tibeto-Burmese speaking horticulturalists practicing swidden agriculture. The work is the outcome of several periods of fieldwork dating back to 19551957, 1964, and 1990. Lorenz G. Löffler describes in great detail the material and spiritual culture of these populations: from dwellings and implements to life cycle and social structure, from folklore to religious rituals. All the important local terms are given in Mru and English. The book includes a number of Mru texts along with their translations. It is illustrated by nearly a hundred color photographs and some thirty drawings and designs.