Mishing people
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 920,000 | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
 India (Assam) |
870,000 |
|
India (Arunachal Pradesh) |
50,000 |
| Languages | |
| Mishing language | |
The Mishing people or Misíng (Assamese: মিছিং) also called Miri (মিৰি), are an ethnic tribal group inhabiting the districts of Dhemaji, Lakhimpur, Sonitpur, Tinsukia, Dibrugarh, Sibsagar, Jorhat and Golaghat of the Assam state in India. The total population is more than 1 million in Assam but there are also more than 50,000 Mishing, divided among three districts: East Siang district, Lower Dibang Valley, and Lohit districts of Arunachal Pradesh. Few of them have settled themselves permanently in National capital Delhi and few hundreds in Mumbai which is the financial capital of India. They are the second largest tribal group in North-East India, first being the Bodos in Assam. They were earlier called Miris in historical days. and the Constitution of India still refers to them as Miris.
Mishing derives from the two word Mi and Toshing/Anshing. "Mi" means man while Anshing/Toshing means worthiness or cool. So Mishing means man of worthiness. The word mi is familiar to many tribe in south east Asia. To depict non-tribal outsiders the word Mipak is used extensively which means man of unworthiness. So Mipak is the opposite meaning of Mishing.
They belong to greater Tani people community which comprises many tribes in Arunachal Pradesh in India and Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) in China. All Tani tribes share linguistic, cultural and ritual similarities.
By virtue of Tibeto-Burman linguistic symmetry, the mishings have also shared ethnologically the Chinese root and the soil. They were believed to be original inhabitant of the northern part of Shansi river stretching Mongolian steppe and said to be remained there during Shang dynasty(1766 to 1122 B.C) up to Chou rule(1122 to 225 B.C) within the pockets of primitive communities which were collectively known as Miao.
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Wikipedia