ABSTRACT
The implications of an inter-relationship between cross-border migration, ethnicity, culture and identity are important. It is, therefore, imperative to map a cultural construction in working out relations between ethnic minorities and the nation states within which they are located. Throughout Asian history ethnic politics inevitably calls forth images of conflict between indigenous peoples and larger immigrant groups. The earliest report on the existence of a trading channel between south-western China and India comes from the Shiji, the first Chinese dynastic history compiled between 104 and 87 bce. The Tai-Ahoms have a belief in the conception of an omnipotent god, the Great God known as Pha Tu Ching Frong Hum. Ahoms worship non-Tai gods prompted some historians to call them ‘Hinduised Ahoms’. A large number of Hinduized Ahoms are Vaisnavites, although there are also many Ahom Sakta worshippers who practise a goddess cult devoted to Durga, Kali or Tara.
