(3)  Fieldwork was undertaken in Bandarban district of the Chittagong Hill Tracts (henceforth CHT) in Bangladesh from April 2006 to November 2006. This dissertation project attempts to understand the livelihood strategies of ethnic minority people living in remote areas of the CHT in Bangladesh. The present research is focused on the Khumi, one of the peripheral ethnic minority groups of the CHT. The Khumi have generated distinctive livelihood strategies -the way they lead and maintain their course of life to survive -utilizing the space and resources, they possess in natural conditions of CHT. Besides traditional and historical engagement in Jhum Chash (Swidden Cultivation) for hundreds of years, the Khumi have recently invented the systems of Bagan (gardening), Khamar (farming), livestock rearing, and fish-cultivation to cope with the growing demand of essentials in everyday life. Bagan usually includes the cultivation of various kinds of fruit-trees, such as mango, orange, banana, jackfruit, guava, papaya, and lemon. The products of Bagan meet not only the communities' needs but also provide considerable surplus for export to market, which brings a little comfort to their life. Khamar includes production of different kinds of spices and vegetables, which cover their everyday needs. To some extent, Khamar-goods are also sold at market, providing money to facilitate their daily lives. The Khumi tend to keep various livestock -cows, pigs, hens, goats and dogs -in every house. These are essential to maintaining their every convention and ritual as well as for religious festivals, because presenting hens, slaughtering cows and sacrificing pigs are the common means of performing Khumi rituals and religious festivals. Previously, they had few livestock and they had to depend on other communities in times of wants. Now, they have their own. Most remarkably, the Khumi have started cultivating fish in Jhiri, a small lake of run-off from the hill, to supplement their daily meals. Previously they couldn‘t include fish in their meals for sensible reasons: they reside in a remote area of the CHT, and fish used to rot in the two days it can take for the Khumi to travel from Bazar (the market place) back to their villages. That‘s why fish was completely absent in Khumi daily meal.
           Inventing these new sorts of livelihood strategies along with traditional Jhum Chash, the Khumi people are in the process of transformation in their social settings and cultural context. In the course of bringing their Bagan-goods and Khamar-goods to market regularly, they have gradually been connecting with the town and urban communities over recent years, which plays a huge role in transforming their social and cultural institutions. The present research tries to understand not only the mechanism of Khumi livelihood strategies, but also to more deeply discern how these strategies are influencing the social network of Khumi life and its social & cultural setting in remote areas of CHT.