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The people of Mizoram follow the traditional religion of Animism. They believe in the supreme God to be the sole creator of everything in the universe. The benevolent God is known to them by the name of Pathian. According to their belief Pathian has almost nothing to do with humanistic affairs as many demons and spirits residing there are more powerful. The spirits known as Huais are of two types: good and evil. These spirits mainly reside in trees, mountains, rocks, streams and caves. The good huais on the other hand causes good to mankind and sometimes it is said that it acts as Pathian. The evil spirits are non benign spirits that cause harm to people. They believe that all types of calamities, failure of growing crops, ill health, disease, death and other misfortunes are due to evil demons called ktwavang. According to the Mizos their Puithian are aware which particular spirit is the cause of the trouble and consequently it prescribes, according to the nature and magnitude of the misery, what particular sacrifice is necessary to appease the spirit. A member of the clan as recommended by the Puithian, sacrifices pigs, fowls and other domestic birds or animals. The number and method of sacrifices varies from clan to clan. 
The Mizos also believes that the good person's soul after demise goes to heaven (pialral). In heaven they would lead a comfortable and luxurious life having access over all good things. On the other hand the bad person's soul is punished in the hell (Mithikhua) which is a village of dead person with sorrow and distress. After staying in this place for sometime the bad person's soul is to get their rebirth in the lower position of life. According to their belief those who have given five big feasts and have killed an elephant, a bear, a wild boar, a wild mithun (bison), a king cobra they can go easily to heaven (pialral).
Few of the Mizos are Animist which was spread sometimes before 1927. The first Presbyterian Missionary Rev. William Williams followed by Savidge and Lorrain entered into north Lushai Hills (Mizoram) in 1891 from Khasi Jaintia Hills. This incident took place after the setting up of British administration and Military Headquarters at Aijal (Aizawl). Now almost 95 per cent of the Mizos are Christian. The Missionaries set up in Mizoram have been successful in spreading Christianity among the Mizos. Most of them are Protestant and some of them are Catholic, Union Penti-costal, the American Baptist Mission, the North East India General Mission, Salvation Army and the Presbyterian Church. The main institutions instrumental in spreading Christianity among the Mizos are The Roman Catholic Mission, the Seventh Day Adventist, Independent Church of India and many more. They are very keen on going to the Church for Sunday service and very rarely miss it. Different Tribes of Mizoram follow different religion. The Chakmas are Buddhist people who reside in the south-western corner of the State along with some Mog and Riang people. The Mogs follow Buddhism whereas the Riangs are mainly Animist though they also worship Hindu God and Goddess. All these people are different from the Mizos in language, culture and religion. The Mizos are superstitious people who believe in not killing specific animals as they regard them to be unlucky. There do not follow totemism but they strongly believe in witchcraft and black magic. Besides these they even believe in evil spirit which is thought to enter the bodies of good person to make trouble. As per their belief each person has possessed three types of spirits: Khawhrin general the medium type, Thlarao wiseness and Thlarao foolishness. Mizos believe in rebirth. |
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