RELIGION AND CULTURE OF NORTH EAST INDIA

The people who have been influenced by the religion of their neighbors have also built temples or sanctuaries like their neighbors. In the Buddhist region of Kameng, every village has a Gompa or temple and every house has its own chapel and altar with a statue of the Buddha. The Buddhist monastery or Tawang, which accommodates a magnificent statue of the Buddha, is the largest of its kind in India. During the Buddha Purnima, the Mompas celebrate the Losar festival in a spectacular manner with the accompaniment of musical instruments, like clarionet – made of silver, brass and wood, reed-pipes, horns, shells cymbals, drums and gongs. There are many shrines and temples in Khamba and Memba village of Subansiri.

But still a considerable number of people of the North-East Frontier follow what may be called tribal religion or the so-called animism which is a sort of primitive religion to be found anywhere in the tribal societies. The characteristics of primitive religion, as Will Durant has observed, “ are an animistic fear and worship of spirits lurking anywhere, a poetic reverence for the impressive forms and reproductive powers of earth, and an awed adoration of a heaven whose energizing sunlight and fertilizing rains are parts of the sky. This definition of animism is corroborated by Prof. E.O. James who writes : “The doctrine or animism represents a complex attempt to interpret the material and spiritual aspects of the phenomenal world by revolving the universe into a fundamental dualism of Body and Soul”.

The Adis of Siang, the Akas and Khowas of Kameng, the Nishis of Subansiri, the Mishmis of Lohit and the Wanchos and Tangsas of Tirap believe in a number of heavenly spirits and offer sacrifices to propitiate them. The Akas regard the sun and the moon as the male and female god and goddess respectively who have the powers of peace and prosperity, and they offer sacrifices to enlist their support. The Nishis regard moon as male and sun as female deity and trace their descent from their union. The Adis of Siang and the Mishmis of Lohit regard Donyi-Polo or the Sun-Moon god as the supreme reality and offer sacrifices for his favors. The Wanchos believe in Rang, the benevolent god of the skies, who cares for men and beasts, and Baurang, the Malevolent god of earth and destroyer of living creatures, and offer sacrifices to appease them.

The remarkable feature of the tribal religion as practiced in the North-East Frontier is the absence of shrine or temple, as also of image worship. Nor is any organized clergy or priesthood dependent on religious performances as distinct from the rest of the community to be found among the tribes except some religious functionaries like the Epak Miris and the Nyibo of Adi society and the Tumsawa of Singphos and the Opa or Nampa Aja, Rampa and the Rammi of the Wancho society. Women usually do not take part in religious functions, worship among them means prayer and offering sacrifices. Sacrifice is followed by community feast and wine is consumed on the occasion of offering sacrifices.

Emile Lasbax, in an article on Rhythm of Sacrifice and Prayer, has observed, “Primitive sacrifice is always an offering under one aspect or another; it is a sacrifice of the firstlings. The sentiment which inspires it is that the materials should never be used without some reserve; for it becomes an absolute master who has himself produced them to sacrifice them without some reserve. It should not be forgotten that their true creator is God, and therefore, it is equitable to offer Him the first fruit, which it has permitted to us together, in gratitude for this first gift. The sacrifice of man thus appears to be the exact counterpart of the creative work of God”.

But the tribes of the North-East Frontier are practical people. Their attitude to religion might originally have been influenced by the sense of awe and reverence, but it is now based on the system of barter and purchase. So the sacrifices performed by them are mostly performed for worldly gains. The agricultural ceremonies and sacrifices are performed with a view to ensuring good growth of healthy crops and preventing disease and failure of crops. Other rites are performed either to keep away the evil spirits or to bring in prosperity. Thus, their sacrifices have nothing to do with the firstlings as suggested by Lasbax.

The world of the spirits is not confined to the forces above the earth alone; it extends to the world of the dead as well. Most of the tribes believe in a separate world of the dead. The Akas believe that the spirits of the dead go under the earth and proceed westward until they come to the place where the sun and moon set; then they ascend to heaven. But the souls of those who die unnatural death and of the children too……… ascend direct to heaven without undergoing the pilgrimage under the earth. The Nishis have similar notions about the dead, but they hold that there are villages under the earth for those who die a natural death and villages in heaven for those who die unnatural death and for the children`s spirits. The Misings and the Mishmis also ascribe an abode underneath for the spirits of the dead.

Since the tribes believe in the existence of the spirits of the dead, they put in the graves of the dead some food, clothes, weapons and other items of daily use to aid the journey of the spirits. The Adis place in one hand of the dead a small knife as an aid for getting food on the way to the spiritual home. A ground of rice beer is tied under the grave and various garments of the deceased; any heads of mithum, etc. killed by him and used to feast the community are suspended on the posts nearby or under the shelter. The Akas and Nishis hang a basket of rice, meat, beer, etc., near the grave of the departed. The Mishmis put the corpse on a wooden couch, fully clothed and armed and with food.