Ahom people

The Ahom (Pron: /ˈɑːhɒm/) or Tai Ahom (Ahom: 𑜄𑜩 𑜒𑜑𑜪𑜨; Assamese: টাই-আহোম) is an ethnic group from the Indian states of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh. The members of this group are admixed descendants of the Tai peoples who reached the Brahmaputra Valley of Assam in 1228, along with indigenous peoples who joined them over the course of history. Sukaphaa, the leader of the Tai group and his 9,000 followers, established the Ahom kingdom (1228–1826), which controlled much of the Brahmaputra Valley (now in Assam) until 1826, when the Treaty of Yandabo was signed.

The modern Ahom people and their culture are a syncretism of Tai and local Tibeto-Burman speakers. The mixture of immigrants and local peoples who underwent Ahomisation came to be known as Ahom.

Many local ethnic groups that came in contact with the Tai settlers, including the Borahis, were completely subsumed into the Ahom community. Members of other communities were accepted as Ahoms based on their allegiance to the Ahom Kingdom or the usefulness of their talents. Currently, they represent the largest Tai group in India, with a population of nearly 4.6 million in Assam. Ahom people are found mostly in Upper Assam division in the districts of Golaghat, Jorhat, Sivasagar, Charaideo, Dibrugarh, Tinsukia (south of Brahmaputra River); and in Lakhimpur, Sonitpur, Biswanath, and Dhemaji (north) as well as some areas of Nagaon in Guwahati.

Even though the already admixed group Ahom made up a relatively small portion of the kingdom's population; they maintained their Ahom language and practised their traditional religion till the 17th century, when the Ahom court as well as the commoners adopted the Assamese language.