Pau Cin Hau dreamt of an alphabet for a language that had never been written down. So began the religion of Laipianism
In July 2019, I visited Siang Sawn, a small village in Chin State, western Myanmar. Sparsely populated, mountainous and underdeveloped, Chin State is one of the least accessible regions in Myanmar. In the monsoon, roads across Chin State – mostly dirt lanes – turn into pools of sludgy mud, extremely toiling to traverse. Stunning mountains shrouded in clouds dominate the horizon.
On a rain-soaked monsoon afternoon, I was in Siang Sawn to learn about Laipianism, a local religion practised in Chin State. It is one of the last surviving, well-organised Indigenous faiths that emerged in the early 20th century as a response to the spread of Christianity in colonial Southeast Asia. Siang Sawn is considered the ‘spiritual homeland’ of Laipianism, a religion that has only about 5,000 followers. In the overwhelmingly Christian Chin State, this remote village is an exclusive home to its followers. With a population of a little under half a million, the Chin people (also called Zo) are considered a taingyinthar – ‘Indigenous’ race – in Myanmar. At least 90 per cent of the Chin adhere to one or another denomination of Christianity. The rest follow Theravada Buddhism, Burmese nat cults, and Laipianism. Home to 300 people, Siang Sawn is a self-sufficient pastoral community of farmers who cultivate paddy, keep kitchen gardens and rear animals.
Walking past a few evenly spaced, bungalow-like brick houses through the main street in Siang Sawn, I came upon distinctive Laipian religious architecture: a dome-shaped mirrored building that housed an effigy and heavenly portraits of a revered man, Pau Cin Hau. The building is a place of worship, and Pau Cin Hau’s portraits also adorned the doors of each house.
