Noatia
ETHNIC DIVERSITY (Socio-cultural and ethnic diversity)
Noatia : tribes of tripura
Noatias are one of the important tribal groups in tripura. Though they are a part of tripuris still they are treated as 'New Comers'. In fact Noatias had been at Arakan Hill tracts for a long time be-fore they have migrated to the South part of tripura via Chittagong Hill tracts. Ethnically Noatias have similar Origin of other Mongoliod 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 was happened in between the then tripura king and Arkakan king. In that battle Arakan king took lead and captured hundreds of tripuri army. They had to stay at Arakan. During their stay they had contact with the local tribals for which their language and culture were changed to some extent. Till now in the life and culture of Noatias influence of their old culture are still found in their physi-cal structure, skin color, food habit, language, rites and rituals.
Noatias have 11(eleven) major clans. These clans are Anokia, Khaklu, Totaram, Murasing,Noatia, Deildak, Keowa, Garjan, Tongbai Kalicha and Aslong. Noatias are Hindus and observe all pujas and festivals as per their tradition and customs. Among them Vaishnamism also have great influ-ence. They also observe Garia and Baisu festivals like other Kok-Borok speaking tribes.
In tripura Noatias are concentrated in South tripura and Longthorai Valley Sub-division. As per 2001 Census their population in tripura is 6655 persons. The main reason is that Noatias in course of time took title as "tripura".