Inbuan (Mizo Wrestling)
The Mizo wrestling of Mizoram in which bending the knees is forbidden; the winner lifts his opponent clear of the ground.
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About Inbuan (Mizo Wrestling)
Inbuan is the traditional wrestling of the Mizo people of Mizoram in north-eastern India. Its beginning is placed in the fourteenth century, when the Mizo came into the Chin state of Burma, and in 1750 it is documented in the village of Dungtlang; it took settled shape after the Mizo moved into the Lushai Hills. The year 1750 therefore marks not the origin but the earliest record, and this page presents it that way. The rules are unusually spare, and it is precisely the restrictions that make inbuan what it is. Bouts are held in a circle fifteen to sixteen feet across, on carpet or grass, over three rounds of thirty to sixty seconds. Both men wear a firm belt around the waist, which they hold and which must stay tight throughout the match. It is forbidden to kick, to step out of the circle and, the strangest and at the same time the most important rule, to bend the knees. The winner is the one who lifts his opponent completely clear of the ground without breaking any of these rules. The ban on bending the knees means that the classic wrestling throws over the hip or the leg are impossible, and everything has to be solved by the strength of the back, by work on the belt and by exact timing. Historically inbuan was practised by boys in the village dormitories, and matches also accompanied funeral processions between villages; today it belongs to the home sports that Mizoram keeps up as part of its own identity.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.