Tripuri people

Tipra (Tripuri) people

Tipra children in traditional attire grouping up for song presentation
Total population
1.3 million (2011)
Regions with significant populations
Tripura (India) Bangladesh, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Assam and West Bengal
Languages
Kokborok (Debbarma, Reang, Jamatia, Tripura, Noatia, Rupini, Kalai, Murasing, Uchoi, Roaza, Dhamai)
Religion
Hinduism, Christianity, Animism
Related ethnic groups
Bodo, Garo, Dimasa, Kachari people and Jingpo people, Halam People

The Tripuri (also Tipra or Tipperah) people are the original inhabitants of the Kingdom of Tripura in North-East India and Bangladesh. The Tripuri people through the Royal family of the Debbarmas ruled the Kingdom of Tripura for more than 2,000 years until the kingdom joined the Indian Union in 1949.

The people from Ttripura are considered part of the Tibeto-Burman ethnic group. Originally they migrated from near the upper courses of the Yangtze and Yellow Rivers in present-day Western China. They had left China long before the Sui dynasty came to power. At the time of migration they were animists. So it may be reasonably assumed that they migrated before 65 AD, the year Buddhism was introduced in China. The common reference to these people as "Kiratas" and "Cinas" in the early Sanskrit texts of India unmistakably indicates that they came down to the Assam valley long before the dawn of Christian era.

Tripuris entered their present country through its north-eastern corner, settled there and gradually expanded their settlement and suzerainty over the whole of Tripura. They were able to expand their influence as far south as Chittagong, as far west as Comilla and Noakhali (known during the British period as 'plains Tipperah') and as far north as Sylhet (all in present Bangladesh). The ruling dynasty passed through several vicissitudes of history and ruled Tripura for several centuries till 18th century, after which it became a colony of Britain. On 14 October 1949, Tripura was merged into the newly independent India.