Paihte or Paite is a name given by the Lusei and Pawi to people living in Tedim, in the southern and eastern parts of Manipur district and in the Somra Tract.
Thaute or 'fat people' is also a name given to them by the Lusei.
Among Paite themselves thaute refers only to the Sizang. In literature the term Kuki also covers part of the Paite. The clans of the Paihte are Guite, Ngaihte, Teizang, Thado (Khuangsai), Sukte, Sizang, Khuano, Saizang, Vaiphei, Baite, Gangte, and Yo. Most Paite clans claim to be descendants of Songthu, who is listed as one of the earliest Zo men. In the absence of written records however less important men have been forgotten, and only those with power have been remembered. Songthu, or Cawngtu, must have been a powerful man, as Songthu songs are still sung in ceremonies among the Lusei and Paite
The Paite tell of early settlement in the Tuikang or Chindwin valley, where they lived with the Khamang people, who may have been the Shans. According to Vum Ko hau97, the migration of these people to the hills was due to the oppressiveness of the Shan Sawbwa of Kale. Lai Biak Thanga39 also mentioned a cruel king as the reason for the Lusei's migration to the hills. Vum Ko Hau dated the time of the Sizang's migration to the hills as 1374, the time when the Kale Sawbwa was building the Kale palace.
The Paite claim they first settled down at Ciimnuai when they migrated from the Kale-Kabaw-Myittha valley. Ciimnuai offered them good cultivable land, but sometime during the sixteenth century Ciimnuai grew so overcrowded that people moved away. Some of-the Paite moved south, or 'down the hill side'; thus they were called "Sukte", a people going south. They founded their home in Mualbem. Sizang, Thado, Vaiphei and Yo said they lived together for many years, until the Sizang and Thado quarreled..... and so on if you Click this Link
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