- Ruata Lungchuang
Khua and Pathian were a race of beings that were considered divine by the Mizos.
The term Khua is a very important term in the Mizo religion. Today, it is mostly used as a term for human settlement. Khua can be translated as a Village, a Human settlement or even a city. Aizawl is a Khua so is Neihdawn a village of about 200 houses Khua. A community is a Khua, nature is khua and the gods are Khua as well. So according to Mizo philosophy, everything is intertwined in Khua. One of the most popular divine being that the Mizos refer to is the Khuanu or Mother of Khua. Khuanu encompasses everything on Earth and can be considered the supreme goddess of the earth. The Mizo word for religion is Sakhua which is also a combination of two words, Sa and Khua. Sa refers to the body or diety, Khua as we have mentioned is the principal force that binds everything together, the divine force. The various Mizos tribes had their own Sa and have ritual days to honour their sakhua, they called this Sa Serh. The Mara Sakhua revolves around Khuapa while the principal deity in the Lusei Sakhua is Khawzingpa or Khawzing pathian . Khua comes up in a lot of Mizo vocabulary, the term for Community in Mizo is Khawtlang, while the word for the citizen is "Khua leh tui". Khua leh tui literally translate as Khua and Water, Khawtlang means Khua and hills. Here, the word khua does not specifically refer to the village or city where this community resides but instead refers to the living souls and essence of life that is connected to the Khua diety.
The Elven Queen Chawngtinleri, as portrayed by singer Michelle Varte
According to the modernist Mizo Sakhua teaching every human being is connected to the Khua and once we leave our body when we die we will be reunited with the Khua or Pathian. Khua is still used in its original term in many post-Christian Mizo vocabulary such as Khuarel which means fate when literally translated - decided by the Khua, The Christian God is also often referred to as Khuanu to this day.
The Mizo religion also had a god above and sometimes equal to the Khuas called the pathian or pu Vana . Although Supernatural beings such as Khuas and Huais made a lot of appearances in mizo mythologies the pathian makes very little appearance in Mizo folklore and mythologies. One of the few instances where Pathian made an appearance is in the story of Kungawrhi where the Pathian couple advises Kungawrhi and her rescuers on how to use the seeds of fire, water and thorns when attempting to evade the weretiger Keimi who was chasing them. Some scholars opined that the Mizo word Thian and the Chinese word Tian(Heaven) may have the same origin. Pathian is often represented as a deity who lives in the Sky and is not much involved in the daily affairs of Humans. According to Rev.CL Hminga Pu Vana is the supreme God, Khuanu his wife and Pathian their son. Mizo Bible translator picked Pathian over Khua. However, by the turn of the 19th century Pathian has become synonymous with the word god and is used by Mizos to refer to any kind of gods.
It is quite difficult to write about the ancient beliefs of the early Mizos as it was quite diverse and not many written records are available.