Dzo

Dzo (Lushai), a numerous and warlike people on the north-east frontier of India between Hill Tipperah and Manipur west and east, and reaching southwards to the Chittagong district of Arakan; after long frontier troubles, finally reduced by the English in 1892. Dzo is the national name, though they are better known as Lushai, i.e. "Head-takers" (from lit, head, and sha, to cut) which is only the name of a particular clan. The Dzo are a branch of the wide-spread Kuki race [Kuki], and are divided into a great number of clans, with three main divisions (Sukpilal, Lalbora, Lalhi), all speaking closely-related dialects of the same Tibeto-Burmese language, and numbering collectively from 70,000 to 80,000 souls. (G. H. Dament; Captain Lewin, Exercises; Br. Nath Shaha, Lushai Grammar, 1884.)