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The Mohana (Template:Lang-sd), Mohano (singular) (Template:Lang-sd) or Mallah, Mirbahar, Mirani (ملاح، میربحر، میراڻی), is an ancient tribe of Sindhi people who live in the province of Sindh, Pakistan.
Culture
They often refer to themselves as "Mir Bahar" (meaning Lord of the sea). They are mostly Sunni Muslims and speak the Sindhi language.
The Mohana are known for living on houseboats in the centre of Lake Manchar, entire families and communities subsisting off of the lake’s bounty of fish. They obtain these fish not only via traditional methods (such as nets or fishing rods) but through the use of trained birds, utilising cormorants and night herons; the birds are kept as companions in the houseboats and benefit from the excess fish caught by their human caretakers. In addition to Lake Manchar, populations of Mohana reside along Pakistan’s southern coast, as well as in Karachi, Thatta, and Keti Bandar.
The traditional way of life has been under threat for decades. The exclusive fishing rights which were granted to them by government were removed with the creation of Pakistan, causing many of them to become dependent as workers for the fishing contractors who subsequently outbid them in auctions for those rights. Regional water shortages and the construction of dams along the Indus River have also significantly impeded their lifestyle, which is so centred on that river that attempts to resettle them elsewhere in the 1970s failed.
References
- "▷ Mohana tribe, the descendants of Mohenjo Daro". Last Places. Retrieved 2023-06-30.
- "The Last Mohana People". Visa pour l’image. Retrieved 2023-06-30.
- "Mohana Tribe: The Honorable Sindhi Tribe". Sindhi Dunya. 2016-05-16. Retrieved 2018-07-08.
- Raza, Syeda M.; Aslam, Mariyam; Vazhayil, Alvin M. (2023). "A Tail-End Tale: The Story of the Indus Delta". River Culture: Life as a dance to the rhythm of the waters. UNESCO Publishing. p. 228. ISBN 9231005405.