Ziona Chana, A man who had 39 wives, 94 children Dies in India.

India. 15 June. A man who had 39 wives, 94 children, and was said to be the head of the world’s largest family died in north-east India, the chief minister of his home state said. Ziona Chana, 76, the head of a polygamist Christian sect, died on Sunday, Zoramthanga, chief minister of Mizoram, said in a tweet. Ziona had a family of 167, including 33 grandchildren, which local media claimed was the world’s largest. However, Winston Blackmore, the leader of a polygamous Mormon sect in Canada, has about 150 children with 27 wives, or 178 people in total. Ziona lived with his family in a vast, four-storey pink structure with about 100 rooms in Baktawng, a remote village in Mizoram. The home became a tourist attraction, Zoramthanga said. The sect, named Chana, was founded by Ziona’s father in 1942 and has a membership of hundreds of families. Ziona married his first wife when he was 17, and claimed he once married 10 women in a year. They shared a dormitory near his private bedroom, and locals said he liked to have seven or eight of them by his side at all times. Despite his family’s great size, Ziona told Reuters in 2011 that he wanted more. “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.”