Ahom Burial Mounds in Assam

In News

• Recently, the Union Government has decided to nominate Assam’s Charaideo Maidams for the UNESCO World Heritage Centre.

About

• Nomination:
  • It has been selected from among 52 sites across the country seeking the World Heritage Site tag.
• Charaideo Maidams:
  • Assam’s Charaideo Maidams are the Ahom equivalent of the ancient Egyptian pyramids. 
  • The maidams represent the late medieval (13th-19th century CE) mound burial tradition of the Tai Ahom community in Assam.
  • The Charaideo Maidams enshrine the mortal remains of the members of the Ahom royalty, who used to be buried with their paraphernalia. 
  • Out of 386 Maidams or Moidams explored so far, 90 royal burials at Charaideo are the best preserved, representative of and the most complete examples of mound burial tradition of the Ahoms.
  • After the 18th century, the Ahom rulers adopted the Hindu method of cremation and began entombing the cremated bones and ashes in a Maidam at Charaideo.

Image Courtesy: TH

• Significance:
  • There is currently no World Heritage Site in the category of cultural heritage in the northeast.
  • The nomination of the Charaideo Maidams has attained significance at a time when the country is celebrating the 400th birth anniversary of Lachit Barphukan.
• Ahom Kingdom:
  • The Ahom dynasty was founded by Chao Lung Siu-Ka-Pha in 1253.
  • The Ahom rule lasted for about 600 years until the British annexed Assam in 1826. 
  • Charaideo, more than 400 km east of Guwahati, was the first capital of the Ahom dynasty.

Source: TH