Ming Mvng Lung Phai

A Manuscript, in the possession of Tileswar Mohan, Parijat village, Sibsagar District, Assam. According to Chaw Junaram Sangbun Phukan, the senior Ahom priest, this manuscript is called Ming Mvng Lung Phai, literally 'the tutelary spirit of the country comes down moving.' The manuscript would have been performed at ceremonies held to 'call back the spirit of the country', ceremonies that would have been held in times of trouble, violence, famine and so on; times which in the belief of the Tai people indicate that the spirit of the country (khon in Tai Ahom) had gone away. The contents of the manuscript are as follows: 1r1 to 1r8 Introduction; The priest explains why the spirit is being called and how powerful the country is 1r8 to 2v5 About the richness of the kingdom. This section of the manuscript consists of a repeated phrase <ko si to ban nai khen ni> 'up to today it is better', in between text about the bounty of the kingdom is presented 2v5 to 5v8 About the holy chickens; Describing the chickens clearing the skies of rain clouds, coming down to earth, bearing chicks that go on to be the ancestors of the different occupations within Tai society and provide riches for the country 5v8 to 7v5 Calling the tutelary spirit of the country; A pair of these holy chickens are used in this ceremony; this section consists of many sections in which the possible location of the missing spirit is given. These sections are preceded by the phrase <khon mav chau khai pha pai yu tam> 'You spirit of my king, go and live there!' and conclude with <mav ko ma te na chau vi> 'You come, please come, Lord!'. As each possible location is mentioned, the spirit is called back from there 7v5 to 9r3 The spirit comes down;This section describes how the spirit comes down and brings great riches to the country Whilst both Ahom priests Tileswar Mohan and Junaram Sangbun Phukan, our principle aids in the translation of these manuscripts, had a good idea of the overall meaning of the manuscript, neither is able to give an accurate word-by-word literal translation. For this work, it was necessary to build a team consisting of Chaichuen Khamdaengyodtai, an expert in reading Tai manuscripts and an expert in Tai literaure, working together with Stephen Morey, and the Ahom priests, assisted by the younger Ahom priest Medini Mohan, and several students from Gauhati University, Zeenat Tabassum and Karabi Mazumder. We were also greatly aided in this translation by revising each of thes manuscripts with the help of Nabin Shyam Phalung, a retired officer from the Tai Section of the Department of Historical and Antiquarian Studies, Guwahati, a native speaker of Tai Aiton and an expert in reading Tai manuscripts of Assam