Man with 39 wives wants to marry more

Zionnghaka Chana, aged 67, has 39 wives and has accumulated more than 120 children and grandchildren. But he still wants more.

Some men discover that fatherhood is a major calling in their lives, but being a father of close to a 100 kids, and a husband to 39 different women is a hair-raiser. Come on, sometimes raising one kid can be a handful—imagine 100!

If the wives of this man were to pick up some sex tips from Malaysia’s Obedient Wives club—namely that men are encouraged to have sex with all wives at once—it would really look like an harem orgy in their household. OK enough of visualizing; let’s bring it back to a PG-13 read…

We thought that having a large two-digit family was a thing of the past. These days, a family would usually consist of a couple of kids –preferably a boy and a girl and then the baby-making “factory” can be shut down. Well, that is usually the case for most modern day monogamous families. Apparently this is not the case in the state of Mizoram.

One gargantuan family

Let’s look at the numbers again, shall we? Zionnghaka Chana (good luck with the pronuniation), aged 67, has 39 wives and has accumulated more than 120 children and grandchildren.

Guess what? That’s right, they are all staying under the same roof. This could be the world’s largest family –39 wives, 94 children, 14 daughters-in-law and 33 grandchildren. The grand total amounts to 181 members in ONE single family.

Zionnghaka is a tribal Christian cult leader in the northeastern state of Mizoram. When asked what his plans were, he voiced that he has intentions to expand the already gi-normous family by marrying a few more ladies. He expressed to reporters: “I can travel beyond the borders of Mizoram or even India to marry as that would help me to expand my family.”

One of Zionnghaka’s sons, Nunparliana said: “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.”

The more the merrier, a cult following

This family is part of a Christian cult that goes by the name Channa, paying tribute to Zionnghaka’s father Challianchana who founded the cult in the early 1930s and passed on in 1997. The cult has spread over four generations and has over 1,700 members.

We guess Zionnghaka wants to break his father’s record for he was believed to have had 50 wives—Zionnghaka was the eldest. There is no count available on how many children Challianchana had. We are not surprised, are you? Just “countless”…

If you’re wondering about the living conditions of this family — wonder no more. This very unique family dwells in a 100-room, four story building that is perched on a hilltop location in the village of Baktawng.

The youngest wife sleeps in a room close to Zionnghaka’s bedroom. Every wife gets her alone time with hubby as there is a rotation system among the wives to share Zionnghaka’s bedroom. We wonder if Zionnghaka’s ever needs a night off to take a break from the hectic and grueling schedule. Well, depending on how demanding the wives are; we suppose.

Opposition

As you can predict, church leaders are not agreeable to this way of life and reject the cult’s claim to be Christians. A Presbyterian Synod leader in Mizoram’s capital Aizawl said: “Christianity does not allow polygamy and hence accepting the cult as Christian does not arise at all. Polygamy is very rare in Mizoram.”

Mizo-where?

For those who have never heard of Mizoram, it is a predominantly Christian tribal state with over a million in population. It is located at the border of Myanmar and Bangladesh. This state is India’s third highest literate state and Christians account for about 88 percent of the population.

Also read: Study finds the most desirable qualities in husbands and wives

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