In a small village in Manipur called Kangathei, in a family of subsistence farmers who earned their living from a small jhum field, was born the woman who would become the first and only female boxer in history to win six World Amateur Boxing Championship gold medals and the first Indian woman to win an Olympic bronze in boxing. Mangte Chungneijang Mary Kom, born to a Kom tribal Christian family in remote Manipur, has carried her people, her sport, her country, and her family across two decades on the world boxing stage. Behind every championship round sit her parents — subsistence rice farmers who could not initially understand why their daughter wanted to box — and a husband and three sons who form the heart of her life now.

The Family's Roots: The Kom Tribe of Manipur

Mary Kom belongs to the Kom tribe — a small Christian tribal community of around 15,000 people, native to Manipur in northeast India. The Koms speak the Kom language, a Tibeto-Burman language; they were converted to Christianity by missionaries in the early twentieth century.

Mary was born in Kangathei village, Churachandpur district, Manipur, on 1 March 1983 (some sources say 24 November 1982). The family lived a subsistence farming life — her parents worked a small jhum (slash-and-burn) field where they grew rice and corn for the family's own consumption.

Her Father: Mangte Tonpa Kom — The Rice Farmer

Mangte Tonpa Kom is a subsistence farmer in Kangathei village. He worked rice and corn fields his entire life and, in Mary's early years of boxing, did not know that his daughter was secretly training — she had not told him out of fear that he would forbid it. He found out only when her name appeared in a newspaper after she won a national medal at sixteen.

Her Mother: Mangte Akham Kom

Mangte Akham Kom is the homemaker who raised Mary and her three siblings in the Kangathei village home. Like her husband, she did not initially support Mary's boxing — boxing was unheard of for Kom women — but became one of her most fervent supporters once she won her first international medal.

Her Siblings

Mary is the eldest of four children. Her younger siblings have stayed away from public attention. She supported their education and the family's economic improvement out of her boxing winnings throughout her career.

Her Husband: Onler Kom — The Childhood Sweetheart

Karong Onkholer "Onler" Kom, also from the Kom tribe, met Mary at a national tournament in Delhi when both were teenagers. He was studying law at the time. They dated for several years and married on 12 March 2005.

Onler has been Mary's lifelong manager, fiercest advocate, and the parent who has shouldered most of the daily logistics of raising three sons while Mary trained and competed around the world. He runs the MC Mary Kom Regional Boxing Foundation in Imphal — a free boxing academy that has trained dozens of underprivileged Manipuri children, several of whom now box internationally.

Their Children: Twins Rechungvar and Khupneivar, and Adopted Daughter Prince

Mary and Onler have three sons:

  • Mangte Rechungvar Kom and Mangte Khupneivar Kom — twin sons, born 2007. Mary continued boxing after their birth and won three more World Championship gold medals as a mother of twins.
  • Mangte Prince Kom — their third son, born around 2013.

The Kom Family Tree at a Glance

Community / Origins

  • Kom tribe (Christian, Tibeto-Burman) of Manipur
  • Native village: Kangathei, Churachandpur district, Manipur

Parents

  • Father: Mangte Tonpa Kom — subsistence rice and corn farmer
  • Mother: Mangte Akham Kom — homemaker

Siblings

  • Mary is the eldest of four siblings

Mary Kom

  • Born Mangte Chungneijang Mary Kom, 1 March 1983 (or 24 November 1982 per some sources), Kangathei, Manipur
  • Loyola Higher Secondary School, Imphal
  • 6× AIBA World Boxing Championship gold (2002, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2018) — record for most golds at the AIBA Women's World Championship
  • London Olympics 2012 — bronze (first Indian woman with an Olympic boxing medal)
  • 2014 Asian Games gold
  • 2018 Commonwealth Games gold
  • Padma Vibhushan (2020), Padma Bhushan (2013), Padma Shri (2006), Khel Ratna (2009)
  • Member of Indian Parliament, Rajya Sabha (2016 – 2022, nominated)

Husband: Onler Kom

  • Kom tribe; lawyer
  • Married Mary on 12 March 2005
  • Founder, MC Mary Kom Regional Boxing Foundation, Imphal

Children

  • Rechungvar Kom and Khupneivar Kom — twin sons (b. 2007)
  • Prince Kom — son (b. ~2013)

Six World Championships and an Olympic Bronze

Mary's record speaks for itself: six AIBA World Amateur Boxing Championship gold medals — a record held by no other boxer (male or female) in the history of the sport's amateur era. She has competed in fly-weight, light-fly-weight, and various other categories, adapting her weight class as boxing's structures changed.

Her 2012 London Olympics bronze was, at the time of winning, the first Olympic boxing medal of any kind by an Indian woman, and it was won in the women's boxing's debut Olympics. She has since served as a member of the Rajya Sabha (2016–2022) and continues to coach and run the boxing foundation in Manipur.

What the Kom Family Story Teaches Us

The Mary Kom story is the modern tribal-India story written at its most extraordinary scale. A subsistence-farmer father who only learned about his daughter's boxing when her name appeared in a newspaper. A tribal Christian household in a remote Manipuri village. A lawyer husband from the same tribe who became the manager of the most decorated female boxer in history. Twin sons born in the middle of her championship years. An adopted son who came later.

For every family — large or small, famous or otherwise — the Mary Kom story carries the same lesson. Where your family comes from matters — the village name, the tribe, the language, the church. Mary's children are growing up speaking Kom, English, and Hindi; their family tree starts in a jhum field in Churachandpur and ends with an Olympic medal hanging in a Manipur living room. Write all of it down. The most ordinary villages produce the most extraordinary stories.

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