Noatia

Noatia is one of the 21 scheduled tribes of the Tripura state of India. The tribe mainly lives in the hills of Dhalai and the North Tripura districts of the Tripura state of India. They speak the Noatia dialect of Kokborok which is of Tibeto-Burmese origin.

Noatia's one of the important tribal groups in Tripura. Many people believed Noatias is a part of Tripuris, they are treated as ‘New Comers’. In fact, Noatias were at Arakan Hill Tracts for a long time before they migrated to the southern part of Tripura via the Chittagong Hill Tracts. Ethnically Noatias have a similar origin as other Mongoloid tribes and their language is also Kok-Borok. It is said that Noatias is not their actual tribe name, they were actually Tripuris. Legend says that once a furious war took place between the then Tripura king and Arakan king. In that battle, Arakan king took lead and captured hundreds of Tripuri soldiers. These Tripuri soldiers had to stay at Arakan. During their stay at Arakan, they had contact and interaction with the local tribals and as a result their language and culture developed changes to some extent. Even today in the life and culture of Noatias influence of their old culture are still found in the form of their physical structure, skin colour, food habit, language, rites and rituals. As per 2011 Census, their population is 14,298. Noatia have 16(Sixteen) major clans. These clans are Anokia, Khaklu, Totaram,landa,ramsaa, Debbarman,lagung, Murasing, Noatia, Deildak, Tripuri,Keowa, Garjan, Tongbai Kalicha and Aslong . Noatias are Hindus and observe all pujas and festivals as per their tradition and customs. Vaishnavism has great influence over the Noatias. They also observe Garia and Baisu festivals like other Kok-Borok speaking tribes.

Noatia also reside in about all the part of Tripura like South Tripura, Sepahijala Tripura, Nort Tripura, Dhalai Tripura, Gomati Tripura and West Tripura district. At Garjee, Takma Chara, Kalaban & Rothaicherra under Udaipur sub-division of South Tripura there are many Noatia families, as well as in Sepahijala district at like Chandul, Twiwandal, Khamarbari and Twisa Khandal,noabari and even at Urmai Kalakhet and also many Noatian families in sonamura subdivision like Manai pathar, Nidaya, Jamtali(Kalikhala), Jagatrampur, and also many other parts of tripura where Noatia culture is existing which are yet to be known so far the work is in progress.