Textiles and Dress

Ahom people

The Ahom (Pron: ) or Tai Ahom (Ahom: 𑜄𑜩 𑜒𑜑𑜪𑜨; Assamese: টাই-আহোম) are an ethnic group primarily found in the Indian states of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh. They are the admixed descendants of Tai peoples who migrated into the Brahmaputra Valley and of indigenous populations incorporated into their society over the course of history, through a process called Ahomisation. Traditional accounts place the arrival of the Tai group led by Sukaphaa in 1228 and date the foundation of the Ahom kingdom to the same year. Recent scholarship has, however, questioned this chronology, arguing that the available Tai and Chinese sources may instead indicate that the Ahom polity was established in the 14th century. Over the following centuries, the kingdom expanded across much of the Brahmaputra Valley in present-day Assam and endured until the signing of the Treaty of Yandabo in 1826. The modern Ahom people and their culture are a syncretism of Tai and local Tibeto-Burman speakers. A 2024 genome-wide study found substantial admixture of modern Ahoms with local Tibeto-Burman and other South Asian populations, and concluded that they had substantially lost the genetic ancestry associated with their ancestral Southeast Asian homeland. The mixture of immigrants and local peoples who underwent Ahomisation came to be known as "Ahom". Many local ethnic groups that came in contact with the Tai settlers, including the Borahis, were completely subsumed into the Ahom community. Members of other communities were accepted as Ahoms based on their allegiance to the Ahom Kingdom or the usefulness of their talents. A 2004 genetic study has found that in the "tribal" and "caste" continuum, the Ahom people occupy an ambiguous position in the middle, along with the Koch-Rajbanshis and Chutias. Even though the already admixed group, Ahom, made up a relatively small portion of the kingdom's population; they maintained their Ahom language and practised their traditional religion until the 17th century, when the Ahom court as well as the commoners adopted the Assamese language. Currently, they represent the largest Tai group in India. Ahom people are found mostly in Upper Assam division in the districts of Golaghat, Jorhat, Sivasagar, Charaideo, Dibrugarh, Tinsukia (south of Brahmaputra River); and in Lakhimpur, Sonitpur, Biswanath, and Dhemaji (north) as well as some areas of Nagaon in Guwahati.

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See also

• ▸Islam in Denmark
• ▸Carlo Barone
• ▸Drag Race Philippines

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