choose any tribal people living in india today. find about their customs and way of life, and how their lives have changed in the last 50 years.

TheAhom(Pron: ˈɑ:hɒm or ɑ:həm, Assamese আহোম, Tai/Thai อาหม, people ofAssam) are the descendants of the ethnicTai peoplethat accompanied the Tai princeSukaphaainto theBrahmaputravalley in 1228 and ruled the area for six centuries. Sukaphaa and his followers established theAhom kingdom(12281826) and theAhom dynastyruled and expanded the kingdom until the British gained control of the region through theTreaty of Yandaboupon winning theFirst Anglo-Burmese Warin 1826. The kingdom established by the Ahom people gave Assam its name.

The modern Ahom people and their culture are a syncretic blend of the original Tai culture, the indigenous Tibeto-Burmans and Hinduism. Many of the Tai followers of Sukaphaa were unaccompanied males who subsequently married into the local communities. Some ethnic groups, including the Tibeto-Burman speaking Borahi people, were completely subsumed into the Ahom community. Members of other communities, based on their allegiance to the Ahom kingdom or the usefulness of their talents, were accepted as Ahoms. Gradually, theIndo-AryanAssamese language replaced theAhom languageas the Ahoms converted to Hinduism and other aspects of Indian culture though one-third of the Ahom population still follow Tai original religion, Furalung. The Ahom language, till a few years ago was known by approximately 400-500 members of the Ahom priestly class. Deeply concern about the Ahom language, Tai Ahom organisations are now trying to revive Tai Ahom language again among masses of Tai Ahom people by establishing various Tai schools in Upper Assam. Many institutes like P.K.Buragohain Institute for Tai and South East Asian Studies,Guwahati,Central Tai Academy,Patsaku,etc. have come up in recent days. In coming days more Tai schools are planned to be established across Assam^[1]

Starting in the late 20th and continuing into the early 21st century, there has been renewed interest among the Ahoms in their culture and language leading to increased study and attempts at revival.^[2]The 1901 census of India enumerated approximately 179,000 people identifying as Ahom. The latest available census records slightly over 2 million Ahom individuals however, estimates of the total number of people descended from the original Tai-Ahom settlers are as high as eight million.