The Bawm People: Unique Ethnic Community
The Bawm people are a small ethnic group who live in the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh. In 2004, there were about 10,000 Bawm people in India, and the total population of Bawm people across all countries was around 24,500. In 2011, there were 12,000 Bawm people in the Chittagong Hills of Bangladesh and 2,500 in Myanmar. They speak a language called Bawm, which is part of the Sino-Tibetan language family.
Bawm Settlements: Tracing Their Roots
The Bawm people in the Chittagong Hill Tracts refer to their settlements as “Bawmram,” which means an area or region inhabited by Bawm people. This name has also been used by the Mizos of Mizoram and the Chins of Chin Hills.
In the northeastern part of present-day Chittagong and Chittagong Hill Tracts, there are archaeological relics, ruins of villages, and other remnants that provide evidence of the early Bawm settlements. The Bawm, along with other Kuki-Chin tribes, were the first inhabitants of the Chittagong Hill Tracts, and they were often referred to as “Kuki” by the Bengalis. In Myanmar, they are also known as Chin.
Religious Transformation: The Impact of Christianity
Starting in 1918, Baptist Christian missionaries supported by the British government began working with the Bawm people, and as a result, the majority of them have converted to Christianity.
It is believed that all Bawm people are now Christians who strongly believe in Christ. There are many Bawm pastors, evangelists, and elders serving in various Christian churches, including the Evangelical Christian Church (ECC), Presbyterian Church in Bangladesh (PCB), Bangladesh Christian Church (BCC), Evangelical Reformed Presbyterian Church (ERPC), Bangladesh Bawm Tribal Baptist Church (BBTBC), Independence Baptist Church Bangladesh (IBC – B), Bangladesh Baptist Church Sangha (BBCS), Church of Christ (COC), and Bangladesh Missionary Church (BMC), among others.