Turung people

The Turung people (also known as the Tai Turung, Thai: คนไทตุรุง) are a numerically small Buddhist community in the northeastern Indian state of Assam.

They originally migrated from Upper Burma and settled in Assam in the latter part of 18th century. During migration, they were captured and made slaves by the Singpho people and hence have had a lot of Singpho influences on their culture, language and lifestyle.

They presently reside in certain pockets in Upper Assam in the districts of Golaghat, Jorhat and Karbi Anglong.

Although the origin of the word Turung is not known, many believe that it is derived from the name of a river in Patkai region named Turungpani. Another school of thought is that the word Turung is derived from the word Tai Long meaning Great Tai, since these people were of Shan origin.

Their language is a dialect of the Tai language spoken throughout South East Asia, with large influences of Singpho language. The language has become almost extinct, since only a handful of elderly people use it.

The present population of the community is unknown but is believed to be around 10,000.