The Chin are a large group of people in the mountainous west of Burma. They live south of the better-known Naga, on either side of the border to India and Bangladesh, and they are divided into ca. 40 subgroups. There are the Dai-Chin, Mon-Chin, Makan-Chin, Opu-Chin and many more. Amongst them also the N’men-Chin: when a young man of these N’men-Chin loves a girl, admires her and wishes to marry her, he must go hunting. On this hunt he must kill as many muntjac deer as possible. These relatively small muntjac deer live in south and southeast Asia; their two upper canine teeth project to the left and right, downwards, out of their mouths like small wild boar tusks. The old customs of the Chin are concerned with these two canine teeth. The young wooer of the bride must collect as many as possible of the canine teeth from the muntjac deer he has killed (each deer has only two such ‘tusks’). He must give his collected muntjac teeth to the father of the bride, in order to convince him that he is a good hunter and that he can provide for a family. If the father of the bride accepts the muntjac ‘tusks’ of the young man, the wedding is understood to be decided. The bride now crafts the traditional ‘Hla ha’ jewellery out of the muntjac teeth that the groom has given her as a ‘bride price’. This large necklace consists of two parts: all the muntjac teeth are pierced and sewn in rows on a fabric cushion. This creates one half of a ‘Hla ha’. At both ends of this cushion full of deer teeth, two shells and many strands of pierced and threaded semi-precious stones (generally carnelians), red glass beads or shiny metal rings – as with our object – are firmly affixed. The important ‘Hla ha’ necklace is thereby completed and the bride will wear it proudly at her wedding: the side with the teeth touches her left shoulder and the small, decorative strands her right. As a married woman, she will appear at all major festivals wearing it. With the present ‘Hla ha’ bride necklace, three rows of muntjac canine teeth were sewn on to a blue-green fabric cushion. In these three rows are found ca. 178 teeth of muntjac deer (with two teeth per deer, this results in 89 deer which were killed by the enamoured bride groom). At both ends of the tooth cushion, one shell each and four strands of threaded metal rings are attached. A very rare object with visible traces of long use. No age-related damage (that some teeth are missing is possible, but difficult to ascertain). L: 57 cm (total). (ME)

Provenance: Austrian Private Collection.

Lit.: ‘Mantles of Merit’ by David W. & Barbara G. Fraser, fig. 305a, 305b, 306.

additional image:
A WOMAN of the N`men-Chin in Mindat, West-Burma. She wears necklaces of rounded carnelian beads and a large necklace “Hla ha”, which indicates her high social status as a well-to-do “married woman”. She has put this “Hla ha necklace” on correctly: the white teeth of the many Muntjak deer killed by her husband lie on her left shoulder.
Photo from: “Mantles of Merit” by David W. & Barbara G. Fraser