The Thokchom family
Doesn’t this sound like a hit movie or a hit novel. Well, its not actually. I am writing here some of my personal informations off the main theme of this blog. So, from where do I start? Let me start from this -that my surname is Thokchom and this Thokchom is a big surname in the whole of Manipur. There are other big surnames too, but still, Thokchom is included among some of the biggest surnames as far as I know. The Thokchom family comes under the Moirang yek or say clan. So Thokchom people are often found refering themselves as Moirangcha- the sons of Moirang. The first person who started to put this surname in his name was a decendent of Moirang clan, and hence Moirangcha. That is the brief history of Thokchom surname.
My village Nilakuthi has a small inhabitant of Thokchom family clustered in the Nilakuthi Maning Leikai. There is an annual meet of the thokchom family in different parts of Manipur. This type of practice is also common in other surnames too. But not all Thokchoms participate in it as again there are hundreds of division in a single surname to make the meet/feast feasible. We call this Chafu Kaiba or chaphu kaiba. I had participated in some of the feast and it is really a very good step taken up by the people of Manipur as it bring together all the brothers and sisters of distant relatives on a single spot on a single day. And every surname family has a puya or holy book which contains all the sons and wifes of every person belonging to the surname. So the ancestry can be easily traced back for anyone who is a Manipuri. Our Thokchom puya contains the brief story of the life of the founder, then his sons and daughter-in-laws and so and so. The only thing which I feel unsatisfied in it is the absence of the names of daughters in the list. But still, the wifes of male members are clearly given with their respective parental surnames. I believe that everyone in Manipur can be made related to each other by compiling all the puyas of every surname in Manipur. And lastly I am proud to be in the Thokchom family or being Moirangcha.