The Peoples of the Lost Book: Connecting Northeast India to Central Asian Migration through Oral History

October 20, 2026 · Margot Crossing, Founder, Lost Tribes Institute

Written for the Scientific Symposium of the World Epic Festival, Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, June 28, 2019.

Also available as a PDF.

Introduction

We have all heard about the peoples of "The Book," the ancient Hebrews and the world religions that grew from them. Even more epic may be the collective memories of the peoples of "The Lost Book."

Across cultures stretching from east of Afghanistan in Central Asia, through the deserts of the Tarim Basin into China, down to the borders of southwestern China and northern Myanmar, and into neighbouring India, there is a common theme: a people who once had a special book and lost it. What follows are the collective memories of these varied peoples, joined together by myth and legend.

Northern Myanmar and Northeast India

Don Richardson documented ten hill-tribe peoples in and around northern Myanmar whose stories overlap strongly, not only geographically but culturally and orally, through their shared memory of a "Lost Book" and through rituals similar to those of the people of "The Book."

The Karen version of the Lost Book, as told by Reverend Baw Ney,¹ goes like this:

After Y'wa created the earth he decided to go on a long journey, and so he called his sons together and gave each a book of life. To the Karen, the eldest, he gave a Golden Book of Life. To the others he gave other books of life, until finally to the white man, the youngest brother, he gave a White Book of Life. The white brother took his White Book of Life and went away to the west, and was never seen again. As long as the Karen read and followed his Golden Book of Life, his life was happy and prosperous.

One day the Karen brother was burning and clearing a field in the forest. He put his Golden Book of Life on a stump in the field while he was doing his work. In his carelessness, the Golden Book of Life was burned, leaving only fragments that he brought back to his house. Gradually the older brother neglected these fragments, until one day they fell through the cracks of the bamboo floor in his house, and the pigs and chickens underneath ate them up. When he no longer had his book of life, his life became more and more wretched with fears, sickness, crop failures, and persecutions from outsiders.²

The Karen brother hoped that one day his white younger brother would return on the wings of a great white bird floating on the water, bringing his White Book of Life to share with his older brother. The Karen waited for him to restore the prosperity Y'wa had intended for them from the beginning.³

The discovery in the early 1800s that the Karen held remarkable Hebrew-like traditions caused quite a stir in Britain and other European countries. Had the "Lost Tribes of Israel" wandered that far? George Moore, M.D., devoted a chapter to the Karen in his 1861 book, and in 1860 Dr. McGowan presented a paper to the British Association referring to them in connection with the Ch'iang (Qiang) of China.⁴⁵ An early missionary account makes the point clearly:

"It is supposed by some that the Karens are part of the lost tribes of Israel. How numerous would be the members of these tribes were the sum of all who are set down as belonging to them told! It certainly is convenient when you meet with a people whom you cannot account for, to give 'the lost tribes' the benefit of the doubt. There is, however, this to be said for the above-mentioned theory, that Dr. and Mrs. Mason found very remarkable and accurate traditions regarding the creation, the fall, and future regeneration of man."⁶

Other ethnographers have recorded a striking Karen tradition that may date their wanderings to the first captivity of the two and a half tribes of Israel by the Assyrians around 740 BC. Their journey appears to have taken them through the Taklamakan Desert⁷ with its rivers of sand:

"The Karen reckon 2010 to be their year 2749. This means that they look to BC 739 as the year of their founding. In their legends Karen speak of coming from the land of 'Thibi Kawbi' which some have thought may indicate Tibet and the Gobi desert. Some Karen oral traditions refer to crossing a river of 'running sand' as an important event in their history. There are Chinese sources which refer to the Gobi Desert as the 'river of sand,' and it is probable that the Karen originated in an area bordering Tibet. They crossed the Gobi Desert into China, and gradually made their way into the mountainous areas of Burma."⁸

Other Hill Tribes with a Lost Book

The Karen are not alone. Nine other hill tribes in the region hold similar oral traditions.⁹

Kachin: Like the Karen, the Kachin believe that Karai Kasang, their name for a kind supernatural Being "whose shape and form exceeds man's ability to comprehend," once gave their forefathers a book, which they lost.¹⁰
Lahu: Their tradition says Gui'Sha, the Creator of all things, gave their ancestors a law written on rice cakes. During a famine they were forced to eat the rice cakes to survive.¹¹ The Lahu also built "long houses" for the awaited return of the book; these can still be found in their villages today.
Wa: The Wa await a white brother who will bring back their Lost Book.¹²
Shan and Palaung: These peoples look for a fifth Buddha, Phra Ariya-Metrai, who was foretold in their scriptures, scriptures that were lost in war in Laos.¹³
Kui: Kui tribesmen expected a messenger who would return their Lost Book to special places of worship built for that event.¹⁴
Lisu: In Yunnan province, China, the Lisu believe a king of their own will one day rule over them and restore their book in their own language, even though the Lisu had no writing or alphabet.¹⁵
Naga: Of the twenty-four Naga tribes, at least one, the Rengma, remembers that "the Supreme Being gave His words to their forefathers by writing them on animal skins. But the forefathers did not take care of the skins. Dogs ate them up!"¹⁶
Mizo: Mizo researcher Zaithanchhungi writes: "According to the oral tradition of Mizo, the leather scrolls in which all ancestral history of the tribes and families were written, were lost due to continuous slavery. The leather scrolls in which they had written about their origins, family histories and narratives of their travels were said to have been left behind in their labour camps when they fled China. According to another legend of the Mizo, the leather scrolls were eaten by a dog of the keeper of the scrolls."

The Burning of the Books: China, 213 BC

Zaithanchhungi offers an explanation. In 213 BC, the Emperor Shih Huang Ti (Qin Shi Huang) burned all books except those on agriculture and medicine in his drive to unify China. He also relocated whole populations¹⁷ to stamp out every philosophy other than his own, known as Legalism. He may have earned the insulting title of "dog," and so over time the emperor who burned their books may have become remembered as the "dog" who ate their scroll.¹⁸

Britannica describes the emperor this way:

"As emperor he initiated a series of reforms aimed at establishing a fully centralized administration, thus avoiding the rise of independent satrapies. Construction of a network of roads and canals was begun, and fortresses erected for defence against barbarian invasions from the north were linked to form the Great Wall."¹⁹

Notably, the Mizo remember escaping through a hole they dug in a great wall.²⁰ Britannica continues:

"Confucian scholars strongly condemned Shihuangdi and it is said that 460 of them were executed for their opposition. The continuous controversy between the emperor and Confucian scholars who advocated a return to the old feudal order culminated in the famous burning of the books of 213, when, at Li Si's suggestion, all books not dealing with agriculture, medicine, or prognostication were burned, except historical records of Qin and books in the imperial library."²¹

We need to ask whether this book burning etched itself into the collective memory of the Peoples of the Lost Book and was passed down through oral tradition.

Epics Connect the Mizo, Kuki and Chin to Israel

The Mizo, Kuki and Chin are branches of the same people, and they link the hill tribes of Myanmar not only back to China but back to Israel itself. Kuki ethnographer Dr. Khuplam Milui Lenthang documents his people as the people of Manmasi. He writes that their themthu and lapi, poems and chants, are reliable sources concerning their origin and genealogy.²² He spent fifty years collecting these poems and chants and publishing them in both English and Kuki so that the history would be preserved, the very thing the World Epic Festival hopes to achieve. He adds: "These sources also prove that we once possessed the scroll but later lost it."²³

Dr. Lenthang records volumes of these poems and chants. Here is one among many:

During the reign of Kutpi maangpa
the Red Sea had gone dried
cloud in the day and fire in the night led the people
many days and many nights together,
like wild animals the water had swallowed
we fetch water that originated from rock (stone)
to satisfy the thirst of the people and their flock.²⁴

No doubt these people of "The Lost Book" are also people of "The Book." The story of the Israelites is unmistakable in this Kuki poem.

In the 1980s, Zaithanchhungi interviewed thousands of tribal elders aged eighty-five to one hundred and four. Contrary to her own expectations, their consistent testimony was that their ancestor's name was Manasi (Menashe). Together with the documented Hebrew-like customs, this led her to conclude that the Mizo ancestor was Manasseh, one of the famous twelve tribes of Israel.

Kyrgyzstan and the Altai, Siberia

West of China, across the Taklamakan Desert, another people have a legend that echoes those of the Kuki, Mizo and Chin of northeast India: the Kyrgyz. Richard Hewitt writes that Ashim Jakypbek's version, Tengiri Manas, records that Kitai leaders burned Kyrgyz scrolls:

"When the Kitai, who say, 'We are the only ones in this world who have knowledge,' robbed the sacred fort and burned sacred writings from the treasury, they said, 'May the darkness that has fallen on the Kyrgyz also come on their minds, so they might not know another writing.'"²⁵

Do the Mizo memory of a lost book and the Karen story of a burned book point to the same event, the book burning of 213 BC? And does that connect to the burned sacred writings in the Kyrgyz Epic of Manas?

Could the loss of this important book explain why the Kyrgyz preserved their history in epics, and why the Manmasi²⁶ of northeast India preserved theirs in poems and stories? Dr. Lenthang writes: "Although the scroll was lost, the people evolved some games as in the old days. To some extent this helped to maintain continuity of the customs and culture."²⁷

North of the Kyrgyz, the Altai people have a legend of a Golden Book, just like the Karen. The Altai Golden Book is kept in a golden chest, reminiscent of the golden Ark of the Bible. In their version, the chest falls into the water while the people are crossing a river. They take out the Golden Book to dry its pages, a cow eats them, and the book is lost.²⁸

China: The Migration Bridge from the Manas of Kyrgyzstan to the Manmasi of Northeast India

Let us return to China as the migration path of these Peoples of the Lost Book. In her book The Hidden Qiang, "Sons of Sheep," Esther Chen argues that wave after wave of tribes came into China from Central Asia and beyond, tribes she considers largely Israelite under many different names. Most assimilated into the wider Chinese population. But, she says, a select group of priestly families moved into the mountains of southwestern China to preserve their customs, so that their traditions and history would not be lost.²⁹

I believe it is in this context that Rev. Thomas T. Torrance, in 1925, found a Qiang priest performing a ritual that resembled Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement of the children of Israel described in the Torah. His son, Thomas F. Torrance, wrote in the foreword to the 1988 second edition of his father's book:³⁰

"In 1925 I had the privilege of being present at the village of Oir, some ten thousand feet above sea level, situated in a lateral valley behind Weichou, when a venerable Chiang priest revealed to my father for the first time the full rite of the Day of Atonement in the Chiang liturgical year. When my father read to him the sixteenth chapter of the book of Leviticus, the priest leapt off his seat in excitement, exclaiming that these were the lost Chiang Scriptures."³¹

This priest went on to identify himself and his family with the people of the Book that Torrance was reading from. So are the Peoples of the Lost Book one and the same as the people of the Book?

Conclusion

These peoples with a lost-book legend, from Kyrgyzstan through China to northeast India, show an urgent need for further research. Consider what we have:

Peoples across this whole region who remember a lost book.
At either end of the route, the Kyrgyz and the peoples of northeast India carry a similar name for their ancestor: Manas, Manasi, Manmasi.
The Karen date their founding to almost the same year that the half-tribe of Manasseh and two other tribes of Israel were taken captive and relocated east by the Assyrians.
The Kuki remember, in poem form, crossing the Red Sea.
The Qiang of Sichuan, China, performed a Day of Atonement ritual.
The Epic of Manas contains many references to the biblical patriarchs, as Richard Hewitt has documented at earlier World Epic Festivals.

Surely the legend of the Peoples of the Lost Book has some connection to the people of "The Book." The World Epic Festival, and events like it, may well be the key to unlocking these truths.

Bibliography

Avichail, Rabbi Eliyahu. The Tribes of Israel. Amishav, Jerusalem, 5765.
Chen, Esther. The Hidden Qiang, "Sons of Sheep." Sichuan, China, 2012.
Collins, Steven M. Israel's Lost Empires. Bible Blessings, Royal Oak, MI, 2004.
Collins, Steven M. Parthia: The Forgotten Ancient Superpower and Its Role in Biblical History. Bible Blessings, Royal Oak, MI, 2004.
Gawler, Col. J. C. Our Scythian Ancestors Identified with Israel.
Grant, Asahel. The Nestorians, or the Lost Tribes. John Murray, London, 1841.
Halkin, Hillel. Across the Sabbath River. Houghton Mifflin, New York, 2002.
Lendering, Jona. Alexander the Great: The Demise of the Persian Empire (340–320 BC). Athenaeum–Polak & Van Gennep, Amsterdam, 2004.
Lenthang, Dr. Khuplam Milui. The Wonderful Genealogical Tales of Manmasi (Kuki-Chin-Mizo). Maxford Books, Delhi, 2013.
Mallory, J. P., and Victor H. Mair. The Tarim Mummies: Ancient China and the Mystery of the Earliest Peoples from the West. Thames & Hudson, 2000.
Moore, George, M.D. The Lost Tribes and the Saxons of the East and of the West, with New Views of Buddhism, and Translations of Rock-Records in India. Longmans, Green, Longman, and Roberts, 1861.
Richardson, Don. Eternity in Their Hearts. 3rd ed. Regal Books, Ventura, CA, 2005.
Risbek (Hewitt, Richard). Manas – Lost & Found: A Bridge Linking Kyrgyzstan's Epic to Ancient Oracles. Risbek, California, 2012.
Shachan, Dr. Avigdor. In the Footsteps of the Ten Lost Tribes. CreateSpace, 2007. Translated from the Hebrew Towards the Sambatyon River: A Journey in the Footsteps of the Ten Tribes, Hakibbutz Hameuchad, Tel Aviv, 2003.
Torrance, Rev. Thomas T. China's First Missionaries: Ancient Israelites. 2nd ed. Daniel Shaw Co., Chicago, 1988.
Zaithanchhungi. Israel-Mizo Identity. Hope Lodge, Aizawl, 2008.

Reverend Baw Ney was the founder of the village of Tee Mae Ker Lah, Thailand. ↩
http://www.stolaf.edu/people/leming/film.htm#Scene3 (accessed August 14, 2014). ↩
Ibid. ↩
George Moore, The Lost Tribes and the Saxons of the East and of the West (1861), has a chapter on the Karen. ↩
Dr. McGowan, paper read before the British Association, 1860; Modern Missions, p. 90. ↩
John Trew, "Journey from Rangoon to Toungoo, and Six Weeks in the Toungoo Mountains of Burma," Mission Life, Vol. V (1874), pp. 564–565 (Project Canterbury). ↩
According to Dr. Avigdor Shachan, "Taklamakan" can be read as a Hebrew phrase meaning "You will be destroyed here." ↩
http://www.infomekong.com/peoples/karen/ (accessed August 14, 2014). ↩
Don Richardson, Eternity in Their Hearts, chapter 2, "Peoples of the Lost Book," 3rd ed. (2005). ↩
Richardson, p. 76. ↩
Richardson, p. 77. ↩
Richardson, p. 78. ↩
Richardson, p. 79. ↩
Richardson, p. 80. ↩
Ibid. ↩
Ibid.; Tegenfeldt, A Century of Growth, p. 46. ↩
Just as the Assyrians had done half a millennium earlier, in a past homeland. ↩
Zaithanchhungi, Israel-Mizo Identity, pp. 18–19. ↩
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Shihuangdi (accessed April 24, 2019). ↩
From many conversations with local people and with Zaithanchhungi while the author lived in Mizoram, 2009–2019. ↩
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Shihuangdi (accessed April 24, 2019). ↩
Dr. Khuplam Milui Lenthang, The Wonderful Genealogical Tales of Manmasi (Kuki-Chin-Mizo), p. 163. ↩
Ibid. ↩
Ibid., Appendix II, p. i. ↩
Risbek (Richard Hewitt), Manas – Lost & Found, p. 126. ↩
Manmasi is the ancient name of the ancestor of the Kuki of Manipur, northeast India. ↩
Lenthang, p. 164. ↩
Brontoi Yangovich Bedyurov, Chairman of the International Association of the Altaian Peoples, author and Soviet award recipient, speaking at the WEF Scientific Symposium, Bishkek, June 28, 2019. ↩
Esther Chen, The Hidden Qiang, "Sons of Sheep"; also an interview with the author, November 2016. ↩
Thomas T. Torrance, China's First Missionaries: Ancient Israelites, 1st ed. (London, 1937). ↩
Ibid., p. vi. (Qiang, Q'iang and Ch'iang are different spellings of the same name.) ↩