Lilium mackliniae

The Shirui lily or Siroi lily (Lilium mackliniae) is a rare Indian species of plant found only in the upper reaches of the Siroi hill ranges in the Ukhrul district of Manipur, India, at an elevation of 1,730–2,590 metres (5,680–8,500 ft) above sea level. It is located near the boundary of Myanmar to the east, Shiroi village in the west, Choithar village in the south and Sihai village in the north.

This shade-loving lily has pale bluish-pink petals but has seven colours when observed through a microscope. In the wild it flowers in the monsoon months of June and July. They are seasonal flowering plants and at their best in May and June when it blooms. The peak season of its bloom is May 15 to June 5. The height of the plant is 1–3 feet (0.30–0.91 m). and has one to seven flowers per plant.

Its unique characteristic is that one can’t plant the flower in any part of the world besides the Siroi hill. During the british raj in Manipur, the british repeatedly attempted to propagate the flower to other places only to be faced with utter failure. After a prolonged effort,they gave up the attempt to do so. They felt Siroi lily was the daughter of the goddess, which rules the Siroi hill. Hence, one cannot separate the Siroi lily from the Siroi hills (truly endemic).

Shirui

Shirui also misnomerly called 'Shiroy'/Shiroi is a village located north of Ukhrul in Ukhrul district, Manipur state, India. The village is 15 kilometers from Ukhrul. National Highway 150 Imphal-Kohima via Jessami passes through the village. The village is divided into two parts Shirui ato and Shirui aze, however, both the parts are under one chief. Shirui is famous for the rich and flora found on Shirui Kashong or Shirui peak and especially for blooming of the rare Lilium mackliniae during the start of Monsoon. The village is flanked by Ukhrul in the west, Langdang in the south, Mapum in the east, Sihai in the North east and Lunghar in the north. Locally inhabitants speak Shirui dialect which belongs to the Tibeto-Burman language family.

Total population

According to 2011 census, Shirui ato has 100 households with the total of 472 people of which 296 are male and 176 are female. Of the total population, 49 were in the age group of 0–6 years. The average sex ratio of Shirui ato is 595 female to 1000 male which is lower than the state average of 985. The literacy rate of the village stands at 90.31%. Male literacy rate stands at 93.02% while female literacy rate was 86.06%.

Lily Festival

Lily Festival (百合祭, Yurisai) is a 2001 Japanese movie directed by Sachi Hamano, based on the novel Yurisai by Houko Momotani. The film focuses on the sexuality of older women and won the Jury Prize for "Best Feature - Lesbian" at the Philadelphia International Gay & Lesbian Film Festival.

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Ukhrul district

Ukhrul (Pron:/ˈuːkˌɹəl or ˈuːkˌɹʊl/) is a district in the north eastern state of Manipur in India. It lies about 84 kilometres (52 mi) north east of Imphal.

History

It was marked out first as a Sub-Division in 1919 during the British Raj. It was later upgraded to a full-fledged district, bearing the nomenclature of Manipur East District in November 1969 by the Government of India.

Linguistically, the Tangkhuls belong to a large language family called Sino-Tibetan, within that family to the sub-family Tibeto-Burman. In general this points towards an origin in the north, that is south-west China and Tibet. The earliest home of the Tangkhuls was the upper reaches of Huang heo and Yangtze Rivers which lies in the Zinjiang province of China. Like the other desert areas of the world, the people including the Tangkhuls, due to hardship of life, dispersed from this place to different directions. One group moved towards east and southeast to be become known as Chinese, another group moved southward to become the tribes of Tibeto-Burman which includes the Tangkhuls and other Naga sub tribes. That was between c, 10,000 B.C. to 8000 B.C. This movement has continued into recent historic times. S.K. Chatterjee noted that from 2000 B.C. onwards, Sino-Tibetan speakers from China pushed south and west and entered India. According to W.I. Singh, in his “The History of Manipur”, the Tangkhuls settled in Samshok (Thuangdut) area in Myanmar. They belong to Yakkha tribe in China. The Tangkhuls were first noticed in Manipur by Poireiton, one of the earliest kings of a principality in Manipur valley.