Zomi USA: How a City in Oklahoma Became Home for an Ethnic Group from Southeast Asia ( Zomi Town )

TULSA, Oklahoma — When Cin Sianmang Hatlang arrived in Oklahoma more than a decade ago, he knew no English and nearly nothing about running a business.

Before he left his native Myanmar, Hatlang — who is Zomi, an ethnic minority in the Southeast Asian country as well as Bangladesh and India — picked up an English dictionary. Once in the U.S., he started listening to news radio, picking up on words and learning the English language. He later enrolled in a free class about running a small business in Oklahoma.

Today, the 35-year-old father of five children runs an Asian grocery store with his wife in Tulsa, just down the street from where a few of his kids attend school.

"This is from scratch. Everything came from scratch," he told NBC News, looking around his store, which he is planning to expand.

Zomi products in Hatlang's grocery store. Photo by Kristi Eaton / NBC News

Hatlang and his family are among the nearly 5,000 Zomis who have resettled in Tulsa, Oklahoma's second largest city, and now known as "Zomi Town" or "Zomi USA" because it is the largest concentration of Zomi people in the U.S.

Many Zomis in Tulsa and its surrounding suburbs have arrived and resettled because of their Christian faith. Myanmar, a predominantly Buddhist country, was under military dictatorship until a nominally civilian government came into power starting in 2011.

"THIS IS FROM SCRATCH. EVERYTHING CAME FROM SCRATCH."

But human rights violations are still present in the Southeast Asian country. The United Nations, Amnesty International, and other humanitarian organizations have condemned leaders for various abuses, including a continuing conflict with Muslim Rohingya, another ethnic minority group currently facing attacks and lack access to basic necessities including food, water, and medical care.

"All the Zomi are Christian and also they want the freedom to worship," Hatlang said, noting that a large cross in Tedim, Myanmar, was torn down. "People are afraid of that and struggling."

The Myanmar flag flies on the right next to a statue at Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Kristi Eaton / NBC News

The Zomis arrival to Tulsa dates back to the 1970s, and many in the Tulsa Zomi community point to Chin Do Kham as the catalyst. Kham, who died in 2013 from a heart attack, was Hatlang's uncle and mentor. Kham came to Tulsa to study and graduated from Oral Roberts University, a Christian university in south Tulsa. Over the years, more and more Zomi arrived at Kham's behest and with his help.

The Zomi population numbered about 50 in the late 1990s in Tulsa, with most studying in the city, according to TaangGo Khup, general secretary for Zomi Innkuan USA, a Tulsa-based organization founded to foster community development and support families and family members still in Myanmar, also known as Burma.

The population in Tulsa started growing rapidly in 2007 when the United Nation's Refugee Agency and the U.S. State Department started resettling Zomis from Myanmar through Malaysia to the United States, Knup told NBC News.

"Most of them are secondary resettlers from other states," said Knup, who was a university student in Yangon during an uprising in 1988 and led the Zomi Student Union to fight for their rights. "The Zomi population was estimated to be more than 500 in 2007 during a traditional festival of Khuado held in Tulsa."

The population has continued to grow exponentially every year, he said, noting that most Zomi in Tulsa are from the Chin State and surroundings states in Myanmar.

Kham, who was a minister and taught Christian leadership at schools around the world, helped other Zomi people get settled and acquainted in the area, Hatlang said. That included taking people to the bank to open up accounts, to the health department for medical checkups, to schools to enroll their children, and help finding jobs and learning the local customs.

Not only is Tulsa the home for many Zomis living in the U.S., but the Zomi population has increased exponentially with each year. Getty Images/Panoramic Images

Now, various agencies help newcomers to arrive and settle in to their new home, offering interpreters, help finding a place to live, a place to work and teaching about American customs.

At Jenks Public Schools, where a large number of Zomi children are enrolled, the focus is on trying to integrate the students and parents into the American education system as best as possible, said Jennifer Daves, coordinator for the district's English language development program. The district started seeing a surge in Zomi and Burmese students around 2009, Daves said.

The population of Zomi and Burmese students continues to increase each year at Jenks, doubling from 413 in 2013 to 984 currently.

At the district level, Jenks offers liaisons to Zomi parents to help with communication needs. For example, if a child is sick and the parent needs to let the school know but doesn't speak English, the parent contacts the liaison who then contacts the school.

Jenks Public Schools also contracts with a local behavioral health services group to offer parenting meetings several times per year to help newcomers acclimate to the American education system and culture. Parents learn about the differences between the education systems in the U.S. and Myanmar. Daves noted that in Myanmar, some of the parents may have been forced to pay for their schooling and experienced corporal punishment.

"THE UNITED STATES IS ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WORLD FROM THE HOMELAND OF THE ZOMI PEOPLE. IT IS TOTALLY A DIFFERENT WORLD IN THE CULTURAL, TRADITIONAL LIFESTYLE AND IN LANGUAGE."

The district also contracts with interpreters for parent-teacher conferences and has a counselor on staff who focuses on the Zomi and Burmese student population and their families, particularly those who have experienced trauma, Daves said.

"Even though it's a positive — many look at it as a positive leaving the refugee camps and coming to the United States — that is a huge transition in somebody's life to transition cultures, so he's there to help families work through that and for the children who need that type of support," she added.

At the various school sites, different levels of language and learning are offered for the students, depending on their abilities and when they arrived to the United States, Daves said. Teachers, as well, are trained to learn how to best interact with newcomers.

Knup, for one, believes that supporting community development and educating about cultural differences helps newcomers handle the difficulties they may encounter in their new home while also maintaining their cultural ties to their native homeland.

"The United States is on the other side of the world from the homeland of the Zomi people," he said. "It is totally a different world in the cultural, traditional lifestyle and in language."

Full Story>>> NBC NEWS - ZOMI TOWN

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FROM TONZANG to TEDIM : TRAVELS THROUGH MOUNTAINS CHIN STATE

TONZANG, Chin State — Just outside the Chin State town of Tonzang, on the way to Kale, our car was forced to make another stop. Up ahead, a landslide had blocked the road.

For Taung Paw Thar, meaning: those who live in the mountains, transportation difficulties—including blocked, destroyed or otherwise impassable roads—are a common occurrence.

Rule number one when traveling in Chin State: always fill your stomach in anticipation of long delays on the road.

It was my last day in this remote, northwestern state which has been ravaged by severe floods since late July and early August. After taking lunch at a nearby house while workers cleared the way, four hours later we were back on the road.

We arrived in Kale, Sagaing Division, at 7 pm that night, with time to reflect on theprevious days spent visiting the flood-wracked regions of western Burma.

On our first day in Chin State, we tried to reach Tonzang, but flooding, landslides and ongoing rain meant we were forced to stop several times.

There is an expression in Burma: “Don’t drive if you’re drunk and if you drive don’t drink.” In my experience, drivers in Chin State don’t strictly follow this maxim.

Faced with delays on the road, some drivers’ simply say “time to relax,” turnup the music and produce a bottle of whiskey. Drinking may also have the effect of boosting drivers’ confidence to traverse the state’s often perilous mountain roads.

Chin State is Burma’s poorest and least densely populated and this year locals have been forced to grapple with the impact of extreme weather, with floods and landslides affecting at least 20,000 people and destroying hundreds of homes.

Traveling through the state, evidence of recent landslides is frequent. Most areas impacted are located close to rivers or small streams where increased water flow dislodged large sections of soil.

Many dwellings in the mountainous region start at over 4,000 feet above sea level and locals are still anxious as to whether landslides will hit their villages. Some have elected to move to valley areas where they feel safer.

High Prices, Limited Opportunities

With poor transportation, the cost of commodities in Chin State is high—a fact exacerbated by the recent flooding. The price of a 50 kg bag of rice is 50,000 kyat, a bottle of drinking water is 1,000 kyat, a bottle of Myanmar beer, 2,500 kyat.

Many civil servants are reluctant to be posted in the state, but the government has offered the inducement of increased salaries. However, one civil servant in Tonzang told The Irrawaddy that although he received additional money in his first year, in his second, his wage was lowered.

A police officer in Tonzang said that when he first heard he had to serve in the town, he had no idea where it was.

“I didn’t wantto tell my wife that I had to come to Tonzang because she would worry for me,” he said.

Chin people however are more willing to serve in government-backed jobs in a region where unemployment is high. School teachers can earn around 200,000 kyat per month.

Some ethnic Chin seek work in Malaysia or other countries in the region and send money back home to their families—a crucial lifeline of support.

Tonzang, with a population of around 8,000 people,is typical of many towns in the isolated region. There is no phone line or electricity; only one guesthouse and a solitary restaurant.

Six villages in Tonzang Township were hit hard by floods and landslides. Perhaps the worst-affected was Hakha Lay, which has been abandoned as the danger of landslides still looms.

In Nat San village, one police officer was killed in flooding which destroyed a 170-foot long colonial-era bridge on the border with India.

As one of many bridges damaged or destroyed along the border, trade with the state’s neighbors in India has suffered—another reason why the price of commodities has risen.

Politics and Religion

 All is quiet in Tedim on Sunday, with its predominately Christian population busy visiting their local church. Food was impossible to come by in the small town, with most shops shuttered for the day.

Locals, young and old, file to church holding bibles from the early morning. They reappeared after prayers and sermons with bright faces, some breaking into Christian songs as evening begins to fall.

There are many different languages spoken across the state, which is officially home to 53 ethnic minority Chin subgroups. But the Christian religion binds many together, although their modes of worship and beliefs differ.

Churches in both Tedim and Tonzang townships often bear small signboards with messages such as “In God We Trust” or “We Must Be Born Again.”

Flooding and landslides across much of the state have also raised concerns over preparations for Burma’s upcoming general election, with some Chin politicians speculating whether the election should be postponed.

Cheery Zahau, an ethnic Chin human rights activist who is contesting a Lower House seat for the Chin Progressive Party, told The Irrawaddy earlier this month that candidates would face difficulties campaigning in the state, with some almost impossible to access.

At least six small ethnic parties will compete for seats in Chin State, alongside major parties the National League for Democracy (NLD) and the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP).

Laang Siam, a member of Tedim’selection commission,whose Burmese name is San Htoo, said the Chin parties would have been a more formidable electoral force if they had formed a coalition.

But there were issues over personal interest, he said, adding that the language barrier between different candidates may also have worked against any coalition force.

Dal Lian, a resident in Tonzang, said he would vote for the NLD as it was the only party he believed would work for his town. He didn’t trust the ethnic Chin parties to follow through on their promises.

“They speak very sweetly,” he said.“But after they win, they may not look after us.”

Src>>> THE IRRAWADY

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TNLA, MNDAA, and AA joint statement against on #BurmaArmy's policy to drop weapon for peace process.

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37 BIOGRAPHIES OF MYANMAR PROTESTANT CHRISTIANS

A Introduction

 Dear Reader, You will find here a rare treasure: a collection of 37 – amazingly as well as coincidentally the same number as the canonised Great Nats1 - short biographies about the lives of Burmese Christians. They were written by Burmese Christians from various Protestant denominations. They have a background story to it. This story is a joint venture that spans the continents from Myanmar to Germany.

A group of friends in Germany had connections to Burma and a concern for the land. They closely followed the troubled political developments in the country, with a particular eye for the minority Christian communities. Some of the group had contact with Burma stretching back years, while the interest of others had grown from being concerned tourists. In 2007, meeting in Hamburg, the group decided to call itself ‘Christian Friends of Myanmar in Germany’. On the Burmese side, there were also women and men at theological institutes in Yangon who were interested in meeting these little known Germans.

In 2009, there was an encounter in Yangon. For a period of a week, the ‘Myanmar Institute of 1 About all of the Great Nats were human beings who met violent deaths . Besides whose spirits can be called upon in times of need. Besides, there exist many „small“ nats of treesm waters and mountains etc. Group photo of the 2009 seminar iv Theology’ (MIT) hosted a series of seminars with the German group. A great number of themes were explored: women’s work in the German churches, German fascism, the role of the military in Asia, the New Testament as the foundation of faith, inter-religious dialogue, religion and evolution, etc. An undercurrent throughout our meetings was questions related to the nature of democracy and the role of religion in public life.

Since 2009, there have been numerous visits to and fro. Our relationship has been sustained through bridge-people, those who have learned to live in more than one culture. There is, for example, the theology professor, Saw Hlaing Bwa, who studied in Regensburg, Germany. On the German side, there are a few who have spent several years working in Southeast Asia, mostly in matters related to religion and church.

An idea came to the Germans. We felt the need for stories that would help us gain a greater understanding of the Burmese churches and could be a useful resource for others too. We proposed collecting biographies of Christians in Myanmar. Prof Bwa, with his students, colleagues and friends in Myanmar responded with their willingness to research and write up the life histories. It was agreed that the stories had to be short and introduce Christians who had made a contribution to country and church in the last two hundred years. We told our Burmese partners that we were eager to get some information about church leaders and people recognized for their achievements but also about ordinary Christians.

 A group at MIT chose the 50 men and women whose brief biographies would be told. Some members of the group of biographers travelled far and wide, including in the mountainous border regions, to undertake interviews with the chosen or with those who had known them. The collection of stories was then translated into English in Myanmar and the first translated texts arrived 2013 in Germany. Some of these stories have also been translated into German, and have been augmented with brief commentaries and a general introduction to the land and its history for publication. A translation of the historical overview can be found at the end of the collection of biographies.

 The aim here is to present all the English translated stories as they stand. The collection reflects the rich variety of religious adherence, ethnic background, and social setting that characterise the Protestant churches of Myanmar. In these, it is clear that circumstances of birth and the names of family members play an important role in telling the story of individuals.

The stories are without commentary in the English. They are of varied length and written in various styles. A few appear hagiographic in nature. It is also possible to see some inaccuracies of expression and, here and there, the meaning of a sentence is unclear. The stories require patience, v Title page of the German edition especially since they are translated materials. We have decided to leave them as they are, however, because a further editing process would have been too much for us to take on. Ideally, the English texts should be read in conjunction with a good, critical introduction to Burma and its religious makeup.

It is exciting to see these stories being published online and in book form. Often the impression is given that Christians in Myanmar are living in great isolation and under threat from the dominant Buddhist culture and unsympathetic military. The stories show us women and men, young and old, from different denominations and parts of the land, who have played an important role in their local communities and churches, often undergoing great hardship and sacrifice. We hope that this collection will be a valuable historical archive for scholars, academics, and others concerned about the peoples and religions of Myanmar. And we hope that it will provide a platform for a greater understanding of the rich heritage of Myanmar Christianity.

This collection contains 37 biographies. Some more are still in the pipeline at the end of 2015 and will be added in a second edition. The order of the texts follows the dates of birth of the people portrayed. Accidentally, the birthdates span exacly one century - from 1888 to 1988. The biographies can therefore be regarded as a special commentary to the troubled history of Burma/Myanmar from the end of the 19th century until today, and as a church history in the making.

What is presented here, are the texts submitted by the Judson Research Centre to the German editors. Some but most likely not all typos were corrected. Through this ”raw material”, the reader thus gets insights not just into the lives of the persons portrayed but into the assessment of these life stories of the biographers as well. In the booklet containing 15 selected biographies published in German, some editing was done to bridge the gap between the liveworlds of the two countries. In this edition, the commentaries of the respective editors are added. For the biographies not included in the German version the editors of this collection chose captions to highlight a characteristic feature of the respective person portrayed. These subtitles are vi located under the name of the author of the respective biography.

It is hoped that this way of presentation will help to view Myanmar`s Protestant Christianity in a multi-perspective way.

Some people involved in the project

In Myanmar, Prof Saw Hlaing Bwa is director of the ‘Judson Research Centre’, which is linked to MIT in Yangon. He has overseen the implementation of the project at the research centre, with the support of his assistant Mr Nathanayla, who has also contributed some biographies. In the dialogue office of ‘Bread for the World’, Ms Lai Ya has worked with the project and kept in contact with the many authors involved. The German group who started the dialogue consisted of four theologians: from Hamburg, Gerhard Köberlin, Peter Tachau, and Hans-Bernd Zöllner, and from Freiburg, now Edinburgh, Kenneth Fleming; the ethnologist Ulrike Bey, former director of the Burma Initiative of the Asia Foundation (now called the Stiftung Asienhaus in Cologne); Kathrin Jaschinsky, designer, Berlin; Sylvia Jaschinsky, teacher, Hamburg; Gertrud Wellmann-Hofmeier, librarian and synod member in Hamburg. For the financing of the project and publication costs, thanks go to ‘The Association of Protestant Churches and Missions in Germany’ (EMW) and to a donation by the German group. The translation work of some texts from German into English was done by Kenneth Flemming (this introduction) and Beverly Olson-Dopffel (the German introductions and commentaries, the historical context and the timeline). February 2016 Commentaries and questions on this volume are appreciated. Please contact Hans-Bernd Zöllner (habezett@t-online.de) or/and Gerhard Köberlin (gerhard.kob@gmx.de).
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PENTECOSTALISM IN MYANMAR by CHIN KHUA KHAI

It is a great honor for me to participate in the Theological Symposium on Non-Western Pentecostalism. I owe gratitude to Dr. Wonsuk Ma, the academic dean of APTS, Baguio, Philippines who encouraged me to take part in this event.  My appreciation also goes to Dr. Phil Hilliard, the senior pastor of Bethany Church of Alhambra under whom I am working, and Dr. Cecil M. Robeck, professor of church history and ecumenics at Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena for their good advice and encouragement.

            Myanmar, known as Burma before 1989, is a country in mainland Southeast Asia

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Posted:Saturday,February 21,2015

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In a modest building in a north Tulsa neighborhood bounded by highways and industrial areas, America’s only Burmese

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Myanmar’s opium fields grow even as its government calls for complete eradication

“I started growing opium nearby my village, because we were all very poor,” says a man in his 40s, who wants to remain anonymous. He lives in Tonzang, a small town of around 6,000 inhabitants high above the clouds in the mountains of northern Chin state, in Myanmar.

It’s one of the country’s poorest and most underdeveloped regions.

“There are no jobs there that can give you a sustainable income. Many families around us were already growing it and making money from it, so I decided to start too,” he says.

Just a few years ago, he was one of an increasing number of opium farmers in Chin state who grow opium for a living. But today, he works as a carpenter.

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