Ziona

Ziona was born Zionnghaka on 21 July 1945 at Hmawngkawn village in Serchhip district, which is to the south of Aizawl, the capital of Mizoram. He is popularly known among the Mizo natives as Pu Ziona, He married his first wife Zaṭhiangi, who is older than him by three years, at the age of 17. By the time he took up the leadership, he already had more wives than his father. He has 26 sons-in-law and his daughters live separately with their families. He said that he has named all his children and grandchildren and he remembered the names of every member of his family. Ziona's wives do the cooking, and his daughters attend to cleaning of the house and take care of washing laundry. Men of the family attend to livestock rearing, agriculture (jhum cultivation), small cottage industries of wood furniture (carpentry), aluminum utensil making, and so forth. On 7 June 2021, he became seriously ill and became unconscious on 11 June. Doctors at Baktawng found that he had anaemia. He was already unconscious when they reached the hospital at around 2:30 p.m., and was revived briefly using CPR. The doctors pronounced him dead at 3:00 p.m., 10 minutes after he was admitted. He is survived by 38 wives, 89 children and 33 grandchildren.As his body was brought home in the night of 13 June, his pulse regained. The family declared the pulse stopped at 9:00 p.m. on Monday. After two days of preparation, the official funeral and burial were done on 17 June 2021. == Religious faith ==

Ziona was chief of the group known as Chana Pâwl (Pâwl means sect, group, or organization), a Christian sect that practices polygamy. or grandfather, according to some sources), Khuangtuaha founded the sect on 12 June 1942 at Hmawngkawn village, and was named Lalpa Kohhran Thar ("The Lord's New Church"); but was more popular as Khuangtuaha Pâwl. At the time the mainstream Christian church in Mizoram objected to the use of pagan practices in Christian worship, including the use of a traditional drum called khuang. Khuangtuaha Pawl believed that the drum was harmless and adopted it as one of the key instruments for worship. The sect also advocated millennialism by accepting the literal event of Bible's Revelation Chapter 20 to "Kum Sang Rorel" or the rule of 1,000 years by Jesus Christ on Earth. Khuangtuaha also decreed that a man may marry as many wives as he can support. The Presbyterian Church excommunicated them with the support of British officers, After Khuangtuaha's death, his brother Chana inherited the sect leadership. but they also used a formal name "Lalpa Kohhran" (meaning "The Lord's Church") for their denomination. The sect were allowed settled in Baktawng. After Ziona led the sect, they assumed a new name for their community as Chhuanthar (meaning the "New Generation"), and the sect became sometime referred to as Chhuanthar Kohhran'' ("The Church of New Generation"). The sect celebrate their founding day as "Bawkte Kut" (literally meaning "Festival of the Hut") on 12 June every year. As of 2021, the sect has over 2,000 followers in 433 families, who all reside in the Baktawng Tlangnuam village. == World record ==

Although it is popularly reported that Ziona is the world record holder as heading the biggest family in the Guinness World Records, even in government sources, it is not included in the Guinness. (Guinness has no record for biggest/largest human family.) By 2005, with 15 wives and more than 100 children, he could have been eligible for the Guinness record. In 2011, he explained to a CNN reporter, the reason he declined the record was that "he doesn't want the publicity." The same year, The Wall Street Journal listed the family as "The Biggest Family in the World". Ziona was listed as "head of the world’s biggest family" in the London World Records in 2019. In 2011, ''Ripley's Believe It or Not!'', while recording Ziona's family as the largest living family in the world, observed: "It's a safe bet that Ziona Chana would not be impressed watching 19 Kids and Counting or Sister Wives. The 75-year-old Indian man had 39 wives, 94 children and 33 grandchildren and 1 great grandchild." Ziona and his family was included in 2013's Ripley Believe It or Not book 9. ==References==