Bnei Menashe (priests, Torah, tradition, missionaries, elders)

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This group on the India-Myanmar is believed to be of the lost tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh. Some have already made aliyah to Israel...

The Shinlung tribe (Menashe) on the India-Myanmar border

The Historical Background
The \"Shinlung\" Tribe, numbering between one and two million, lives in the mountainous region which straddles the border between India and Myanmar (formerly Burma),. On the Myanmar side a few hundred thousand live in the Chin Mountains, principally in the Tidim area. Nearly a million Shinlung live on the Indian side, in the states of Mizoram and Manipur. Mizoram is inhabited solely by Shinlung, whose principal language is Mizo.
They have autonomy subordinate to the Indian government.
The prevalent language among the Shinlung in Manipur are Manipuri and Kuki. Among the clans (large families) there are about 50 different dialects (for instance Gangata, Wipa, Hamar etc.). Sometimes this makes communication difficult. Most Shinlung in Manipur also know Mizo.
The tradition of their wanderings
After the conquest of the Ten Tribes by Assyria in the year 722 B.C.E. The Tribes were taken by Shalmaneser to Assyria, and then sent to Halah, Habor and the Gozan River. The Tribe of Menashe settled in Persia in 457 B.C.E. and lived under the rule of Darius and Ahasuerus.
In 331 B.C.E, Alexander the Great conquered Persia, Afghanistan and India and the Tribes were exiled to Afghanistan (Pakhton) and other countries, where they became shepherds. Subsequently they became idolaters.
With the Islamic conquest they were forced to convert to Islam. Because they spoke Hebrew, they were called the \"Semitic Speakers\". Throughout this entire period, they are said to have possessed a Torah scroll that was guarded by the elders and priests.

Historical Tradition
A clear tradition of Shinlung history was transmitted orally from generation to generation, primarily by songs and stories. No literature remains. If any literature did exist, the missionaries worked to destroy it. Nonetheless, a clear tradition of a relationship to Zion and the Land of Israel remains. At the center of this tradition is the knowledge that they are descended from the tribe of Manasseh and the tribe of Ephraim, and they arrived after wandering from the Land of Israel in the West through Afghanistan, the Himalayas, Mongolia, Tibet, China, and from there through Thailand and Burma to India, where they have lived for many years, principally in the states of Mizoram and Manipur.
One of their common names is \"Lu-Si\" which means \"the Ten Tribes\". Like the Karen, the Shinlung are familiar with stories of the Bible even though they had no encounter with Christianity or Judaism before the arrival of Christian missionaries. Like the Karen, upon the arrival of Christian missionary Adoniram Judson in 1813 with copies of the Bible (including the New Testament) they became very excited and very willing to convert to Christianity.
They, too, believe in one G-d called “Y´wa” and call out his name when offering sacrifices. The name may be pronounced only at the time of the sacrifice and when making a serious oath. They are not allowed to write the name (and for this reason some even mispronounce the name as \"Z´wa\").

http://www.shavei.org/article.php?id=185