The Hajong (হাজং) tribe is one of the scheduled tribes of India.They speak Hajong dialect influenced by the Assamese and Bangla language. These ethnic tribal people predominantly inhabit in the plain belts of Meghalaya and sporadically in neighboring places like Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, West Bengal and in Bangladesh.

  

A Hajong family with their
 traditional costume

It is mentioned by E. T. Dalton (1872) in his book, Descriptive Ethnology of Bengal, that the Hajongs are one of the branches of the Kachari race early settlers of Assam. A. Mitra (author of ‘West Bengal: District Handbooks’, Jalpaiguri, Govt. of West Bengal, 1953) also narrated that the Hajongs belong to the Indo-Mongoloid race and have similarities with other members of Bodo group such as Garo, Kachari, Mech, Koch, Rabha, and others.

Origin: Myth and history

According to a belief, Hajo was the ancestral home place of the Hajongs. The saga tells that Hajo or Hajgoya was a powerful ruler who dominated other Koch Chiefs (Bhuyans) and subjugated the whole of Rongpur and a large portion of the Kamata Kingdom and subsequently a place was selected for  the capital of his kingdom. The place was called Hajo after his name for his commemoration. The clan of Hajo were called themselves Hajbongsis and in course of time these Hajbongsis became simply Hajongs.

According to another popularly known legend, the Hajongs are the descendants of Surya and they claim themselves as Kshatriyas. The story narrates that in Abantinagar there was a king named Pusparatha. Parshuram, the enemy of the Kshatriyas, beheaded Pusparatha and the widowed daughter-in-law of Pusparatha Rani Swarupa fled away the Abantinagar kingdom with her followers and took shelter at Kammuni in Kamrup. In course of time Swarupa’s son Padanku brought Hajo kingdom under his control. During the reign of Bhaskar Barman, the last king of the dynasty, there was the downfall of Hajo kingdom and some twelve thousand people migrated from Hajo to Barohajari, a place in present West Garo Hills still known as Barohajari Joar. Those migrated and descended twelve thousand people from Hajo, were known as Hajons or Hajongs. 

After their settlement in Garo Hills the Hajongs began to plough the plain land as insects. These group of people became the insect of soil and the Garos called them Hajongs. Because in Garo language Ha.a or a.a means land or soil and jong means insect. (Source : The Hajongs and their struggle).

    

Anthropometry :

In 1901 an investigation and research was initiated by Waddell in physical anthropology of the tribes of Northeast India. Later on researchers accumulated data of these Northeast tribes in different course of time and among these tribes the Hajong tribe has also been analyzed from different angles to establish its ethnic affiliation. 
The tribes of Northeast India are mongoloid origins who are referred to as Indo-mongoloid. As many of the scholars claim that the Hajongs are of mongoloid group and a branch of Boro or Bodo group, therefore, for further investigation and research an anthropometry table is presented below in comparison to other ethnic groups of Northeast India.  

Tribes	Stature	Head               length	Head     breadth	Cephalic     index	Total facial          height	Bi-zygomatic breadth	Total        facial       index	Nasal           height	Nasal           breadth	Nasal    index	Source
Hajong	159.03	17.81	13.96	79.96	10.66	13.41	80.14	4.82	3.56	74.37	Phookan &       Das -1973
Rabha	161.25	18.85	14.20	75.40	11.20	13.50	83.04	4.76	3.83	81.52	Das-1960
Garo	160.70	18.75	14.14	75.45	11.39	13.82	82.57	4.73	3.97	83.34	Das-1960
Boro-        kachari	163.05	18.69	14.33	76.74	11.43	13.70	80.25	5.00	3.84	76.99	Das-1960
Dimasa-        kachari	159.87	18.77	14.51	77.41	11.74	13.49	86.92	5.09	3.75	74.27	Phookan-      1969

(Source : New perspectives in anthropology - by S. Seth)

Religion :

The Hajongs are Hindus by their religion and predominantly follow their own traditional way of worship.They worship prominent gods and goddesses like Shiva, Parvati, Brahma, Vishnu, Durga, Lakshmi, Saraswati, Kartik, etc. and celebrate puja with ardent fervor. These gods and goddesses are held in high esteem and worshiped in every household.

A very unique feature among some of the Hajong clans is that a priest called "Adhikari" who assumes the responsibility for performing all religious rites and other social events such as birth, marriage and death ceremonies. This tradition is held in very high regards and strictly followed by them.