Ukhrul north east of Imphal.It was marked out first as a Sub-Division in 1919 during the British Raj. It was later upgraded to a full-fledged district, bearing the nomenclature of Manipur East District in November 1969 by the Government of India. Linguistically, the Tangkhuls belong to a large language family called Sino-Tibetan, within that family to the sub-family Tibeto-Burman. In general this points towards an origin in the north, that is south-west China and Tibet. The earliest home of the Tangkhuls was the upper reaches of Huang heo and Yangtze Rivers which lies in the Zinjiang province of China. Like the other desert areas of the world, the people including the Tangkhuls, due to hardship of life, dispersed from this place to different directions. One group moved towards east and southeast to be become known as Chinese, another group moved southward to become the tribes of Tibeto-Burman which includes the Tangkhuls and other tribes. That was between c, 10,000 B.C. to 8000 B.C. This movement has continued into recent historic times. S.K. Chatterjee noted that from 2000 B.C. onwards, Sino-Tibetan speakers from China pushed south and west and entered India. According to W.I. Singh, in his The History of Manipur, the Tangkhuls settled in Samshok area in Myanmar. They belong to Yakkha tribe in China. The Tangkhuls were first noticed in Manipur by Poireiton, one of the earliest kings of a principality in Manipur valley. The Tangkhuls as also other Naga tribes came to Manipur, Nagaland, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh through Myanmar . Some of them also settled down in Myanmar and did not venture further. However, their movement over Myanmar and into India was spread over a period of time. They entered the present habitat in waves following one another and in some cases in close succession. The Tangkhuls came together with the Maos, Poumeis, Marams and Thangals because all of them have references to their dispersal from Makhel a Mao village in Senapati district. They had also erected megaliths at Makhel in memory of their having dispersed from there to various directions. The Tangkhuls point out to the association of their forefathers with the seashore. Most of the ornaments of the Tangkhuls such as kongsang, huishon, etc. were made of sea shells, cowrie and conch shells a prominent feature of the people who live on the shore. By the 2nd century AD the Tangkhuls were living in Samshok . The Tangkhuls began disperse from Samshok after the invasion of Ko-lo-feng and his successor I-mau-shun the king of Nan-chao in the closing part of the 8th century AD and beginning of the 9th century AD. They were further driven towards the north-west of Myanmar by the Shan people. Thus, the Tangkhuls as also other Naga tribes have travelled from China to Myanmar, and from there finally they came into their present land traversing through innumerable snow-covered landscapes, mountains and wild forests confronting wild beasts and wild tribes. The exodus of the Tangkhuls from China to Myanmar and finally to India is indeed a story of heroism of human migration, courage and endurance. In course of time every Tangkhul village became a small republic like the Greek city states. Every village had an unwritten constitution made up of age-old conventions and traditions. The Tangkhul villages were self-sufficient except for salt, and self-governing units ruled by hereditary or elected chief assisted by a Council of Elders. The chief was a judge, administrated and commander rolled into one. However, absence of a national government was disastrous for them in the mediaeval period as the small village states were unable to withstand the onslaught of the organised army invasion like Khagi invasion. During the reign of King Khagemba 1596-1651 AD of Kangleipak Kingdom, he just not only protected Chinese invasion but even defeated and conquer a Chinese Chieftain rule town somewhere in present Yunan provinces of China. The ancient Tangkhul history is hitherto an unrecorded past. History however became more enlightened by the beginning of the 13th century owing to the cultural, trade and sometimes turbulent relations which had grown up with the people of the valley. We find a reference to the Tangkhuls as early as the 13th century during the reign of Thawanthaba was a childhood lover of King Tabungba while they were young, before he take the throne in 1359. There has always been some form of relationship between the Tangkhuls and the Meiteis in terms of political alliance and trade relation. Some items of Hao . During the reign of the most powerful Meitei King Pamheiba a.k.a. Garib Nawaz . In 1779 king Bhagyachandra established a new capital at Langthabal about seven kilometers south east of Imphal. For the next 17 years Langthabal remained as the capital. He employed many Tangkhul and Kabui Nagas in the digging of moats around the new capital of Langthabal. Of the Tangkhul chiefs, Khullakpa of Hundung and Ukhrul made friendship with the king. The relationship between the Tangkhuls and the Meiteis during the mediaeval period was not only of wars and conquests. They also carried on trade and commerce. The Tangkhuls supplied cotton to the valley. They also came and did sale and purchased in the Sanakeithel which was the principal market in Imphal. The Tangkhuls used Manipuri coin of bell-metal locally called sel as a medium of exchange which was first introduced during the reign of Khagemba , and by the Burmahs Lagwensoung, now tributary of Manipoor. As a result of this boundary demarcation without the knowledge let alone consent of the Tangkhuls, many Tangkhul village situated in Somrah hills are include under Burma . Later, when India and Burma attained national independence, the Tangkhuls found themselves totally dismembered belonging to two different countries.
Gangtok , Dimapur , Imphal , Agartala , Kohima , Itanagar , Aizwal , Shillong , Cherrapunjee , Bishenupur , Kiphire , Champai , Kolasib , Williamnagar , Khonsa
