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Man who fathered 94 children with 39 wives dies in India

Ziona Chana lived with his family in a vast, four-story pink structure with around 100 rooms in a remote village that became a tourist attraction.
Image: Ziona's family members pose for group photograph outside their residence in Baktawng village in the northeastern Indian state of Mizoram,
Ziona Chana's family members pose for group photograph outside their home in Oct. 7, 2011.Adnan Abidi / Reuters file
/ Source: Reuters

A man thought to have been the head of the world's largest family — with 39 wives and 94 children, according to Reuters — has died in northeast India, according to officials.

Ziona Chana, 76, the head of a local Christian sect that allows polygamy, died on Sunday, the chief minister of the state of Mizoram, in the northeast of the country, announced via Twitter.

Chana lived with his family in a vast, four-story pink structure with around 100 rooms in Baktawng, a remote village that became a tourist attraction, said Zoramthanga, the chief minister who goes by one name, on Monday.

Image: Ziona Chana in October 2011.
Ziona Chana in October 2011.Adnan Abidi / Reuters

According to Reuters, the sect, named Chana, was founded by Chana's grandfather in 1942 and counts hundreds of families as members. Chana married his first wife when he was 17 and claimed he once married 10 wives in a single year.

While illegal, polygamy is practiced in some communities in India.

The wives shared a dormitory near his private bedroom, and locals had told Reuters that he liked to have seven or eight of them by his side at all times.

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Despite his family's huge size, Chana told Reuters in a 2011 interview that he wanted to grow it even bigger.

"I am ready to expand my family and willing to go to any extent to marry," he said. "I have so many people to care for and look after, and I consider myself a lucky man."

The BBC reported that with a total of 167 members, the clan was named the world's largest family by "Ripley's Believe It or Not," although this depends on whether you count the grandchildren, of whom Chana has 33.

Winston Blackmore, the head of a polygamous Mormon sect in Canada, by contrast, has around 150 children from 27 wives — 178 people in total.

CORRECTION (June 15, 2021, 5:48 p.m. ET): A previous version of this article misspelled the father's name in two captions. He is Ziona Chana, not Chanda.