Textual Reconstruction of Zo History

Chhînlung is not a literal cave nor a primordial homeland, but a mythologized memory of frontier enclosure and displacement experienced by Proto-Zo populations during the Nanzhao period, later resemanticized through Zo linguistic categories and oral tradition. Zo ethnogenesis is here understood as a gradual process unfolding within the Upper Chindwin–Kabaw frontier, shaped by political collapse, displacement, and sustained cultural contact rather than a single migration event. The paper first analyses the linguistics of Chhînlung, before triangulating evidence from Meitei chronicles, Arakan-Burmese traditions, and Chinese frontier documentation to deductively reconstruct Zo migration and ethnogenesis up to their movement into the Chin–Lushai Hills by the sixteenth century. Adopting a multidisciplinary framework, this study critically reconstructs early Zo history while situating it within the broader geopolitical and social dynamics of western Burma.