Assam’s moidams debut on World Heritage List

The moidams of Choraideo, the mound-burial system of the Ahom Dynasty in Assam, have become the 43rd Indian site to be added to UNESCO’s World Heritage List.

Delegates at the 46th session of the World Heritage Committee, meeting in New Delhi, approved the addition as part of their review of applications from around the globe to join the World Heritage List.

Moidams are vaulted chambers where bodies of royals from the Tai-Ahom clan were laid to rest on raised platforms alongside objects like royal insignia and jewellery that were likely used by the deceased in their lifetime. 

While moidams have been observed in other places, such as Viet Nam, Laos, and Thailand, the site in Che-Rai-Doi or Choraideo, at the foothill of the Patkai hills in Assam, stands out as being the largest concentration of these vaulted chambers, representing a grand burial landscape.

Choraideo holds significance as the first capital of the Ahoms and the heart of their kingdom after their migration from China between 12th to 18th CE. The site, which means “a dazzling city above the mountains” in their language, was revered as a sacred land where the souls of departed kings could transcend into the afterlife.

Text records from the time list the use of bricks and stones cemented by a mixture of black pulses, molasses, duck eggs, barali fish and lime (from limestone and snail shell) for construction of the Moidams. An arched passageway allows access to the moidams while the base is reinforced by a polygonal toe-wall. 

The mounds, which are covered in vegetation and resemble hillocks, have drawn comparison with burial systems in ancient China as well as the Pyramids of Egypt. 

Texts from the time also depict the intricate crematory rituals of the Royal Ahoms at the site, which witnessed burials for 600 years until the Tai-Ahoms converted to other religions and adopted other funerary rituals.