Ethnic origin of Tani in Northeast India

Introduction

This article explores the origin of the Tani people who lives in northeast India and southeastern Tibet. The word Tani comes from their legendary ancestor by the name of Abo Tani; Abo means father and Tani was his name.

The Tani people lives mainly in Arunachal Pradesh along the Siang river and Subansiri river valleys.

In China, they are called the Luopa/Lhoba ethnic group which was originally called Lopa (ལྷོ་པ།) by the Tibetans to mean 'southern people' . The Lhoba are mostly found in prefecture-level city of Nyingchi in southeastern Tibet.

Homeland

The homeland of the Tani people is in Nyingchi prefecture in southeastern Tibet and Siang River basin in northeastern India and part of the region was known in medieval texts as Lhoyü (珞瑜). See map below.

Their homeland came under the control of Tibetan Tubo kingdom from the 7th century AD onwards.

The oral traditions of the Tani in Arunachal Pradesh points to southern Tibet as their original habitat. Most came to Arunachal Pradesh quite recently; for example, Tangam tribe came as late as the 18th century AD.

This is confirmed by the fact that the highest genetic diversity is found in the northern reaches of Siang River basin.

Migration to other parts of northeast India

From the Siang River basin, some tribes expanded westward to the Subansiri River basin forming the western branch of the Tani people today whereas the Tani tribes who remained in Siang River basin forms the eastern branch.

Around the 19th century AD, we find the south-westward spread of the Mising tribe, following the course of the Siang River down into northern Assam.

Migration path in red

Migration to southeastern Tibet

Where did the proto-Tani come from before they reach southeastern Tibet?

According to the legends of the Lhoba tribes, Tibetan books and archaeological evidence, the Tani people are formed from the merging of the natives of Lhoyü with some tribes living on eastern Tibetan plateau in ancient times.

The oral traditions of the Lhoba said that their ancestors came from 'further north'. This and the fact that their languages is a branch of Sino-Tibetan, it can be inferred that the proto-Tani came from southeastern Qinghai/northwestern Sichuan which is the homeland of proto-Sino-Tibetan.

Most probable migration path in purple

Further research needs to be done to evaluate exactly which branch the Tani languages fall under Sino-Tibetan language family which will give us the most possible northern homeland.

Tani languages

The video below shows the various Tani tribes in northeast India.

The Tani languages can be grouped into Western Tani and Eastern Tani branches.

Eastern Tani: Mising, Padam, Minyong, Bori, Simong, Tangam, Karko, Asing, Pasi, Panggi
Western Tani: Tagin, Nyishi, Apatani, Hill Miri, Galo aka Gallong, Bengni, Yano, Bokar, Pailibo

Western Tani (yellow) Eastern Tani (blue)

Their food and clothing are influenced by the Tibetan culture after the Tibetan Tubo kingdom expanded into their homeland.

This is a video of the Tani people doing their cultural dance in Tibet.

British colonization

From 1859 to 1913 AD, the British leader Henry McMahon attacked the homeland of the Tani people. 

Simla Treaty

In 1914 AD, the Tibetan government agreed to give northern Arunachal Pradesh to British India on the condition that China agree on creating an Inner Tibet and Outer Tibet regions which the Chinese didn't agree thus the Tibetans considered the Simla Treaty invalid.

Outer Tibet (U-Tsang) region would have more autonomy in administration than Inner Tibet (Kham and Amdo) region.

In 1938 AD, the British started invading the Tani homeland again. By 1960 AD, the Indian army managed to annex all the regions of Arunachal Pradesh below the McMahon line which caused the separation of the Tani people into two countries. 

Note that only the northern region of Arunachal Pradesh was annexed from Tibet and not the eastern region bordering Myanmar. The boundary between Tibet and Arunachal Pradesh became known as the McMahon line; and Arunachal Pradesh is still claimed by China but controlled by India.

Closest ethnic relative

Tani's closest ethnic relative are the Digaro people who are also found in both Tibet and northeast India. The Digaro are called Deng (僜) in China and lives in the same Nyingchi prefecture as the Tani people. The Digaro are their eastern neighbours.

The number of Digaro people is very small which consists of Idu aka Yidu Lhoba tribe and Taraon/Tawra aka Darang tribe.

In 2009 AD, Fudan University and Xizang Minzu University tested the Deng people and found that their majority haplogroup is O3 which is the majority haplogroup of Sino-Tibetan people. The Digaro languages also has more similarities with the Tani languages.

In northeast India, they are called Mishmi people and live mainly in Dibang River valley.

Dibang River basin (yellow)

The Kaman aka Miju Mishmi tribe is actually a part of the Lolo-Burmese branch but mistakenly grouped with the Digaro people as part of Mishmi due to areal linguistic influence.

Conclusion

The Tani's homeland is along the Siang River basin and Subansiri River basin; they are a branch of the Sino-Tibetan people who originally came from the Tibetan plateau. 

As a result of British colonization, the Tani people's homeland is split into two countries which are India and China.

Related links

Origin of Sino-Tibetan tribes

http://eastasiaorigin.blogspot.com/2018/08/origin-of-sino-tibetan-tribes.html

Sources

• Prosody and typological drift in Austroasiatic and Tibeto Burman: Against “Sinosphere” and “Indosphere”. Mark W. Post The Cairns Institute, James Cook University
• Xiaoming Zhang (2004). China's Tibet. 五洲傳播出版社. p. 23. ISBN 7-5085-0608-1.
• A Historical-Comparative study of the Tani branch. Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Linguistics, University of California, Berkeley. By Sun, Tianshin. 1993.
• https://www.tibettravel.org/tibetan-people/lhoba-people-in-sountheast-of-himalayas.html
• The Dragon in the Land of Snows: A History of Modern Tibet Since 1947. By Tsering Shakya
• Tawang’s history affirms China’s sovereignty. By Jia Liang. Center for Tibetan Studies of Sichuan University
• The ‘Mishmi’ languages, Idu, Tawra and Kman: a mismatch between cultural and linguistic relations. By Roger Blench. 2017.
• https://kknews.cc/history/qezv5by.html 
• https://kknews.cc/agriculture/2aek8kz.html

Last updated: 21 Apr 2021
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