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Summary Zionnghaka Chana, 67, is still keen to expand his family by marrying a few more women.
With 39 wives and more than 120 children and grandchildren, all staying together, a tribal Christian cult leader in Mizoram could perhaps claim to head the world’s biggest family.“I can travel beyond the borders of Mizoram or even India to marry as that would help me to expand my family,” a beaming Zionnghaka said. From a playground to a school and a church, the village of Baktawng resembles any other tribal village but for the fact that the community members belong to one single family of 181 members -- 39 wives, 94 children, 14 daughters-in-law and 33 grandchildren.“We are all happy and like any other church we believe in the existence of god but the only distinctive difference is that our denomination allows us to marry more than one wife,” said Nunparliana, one of Zionnghaka’s sons.The family is part of a Christian cult called Channa, named after Zionnghaka s father Challianchana who died in 1997. The cult, founded by Challianchana sometime in the early 1930s, is now spread over four generations and boasts of having some 1,700 members.Challianchana was believed to have had 50 wives.
