Guwahati: Animism followers retaining historical beliefs of worshipping intact have been delivered to mild in tribal-inhabited Goalpara and Karbi Anglong districts of Assam by the state directorate of Indigenous and Tribal Faith and Culture (ITFC).
The staff headed by ITFC director Ranjana Sharma, as desired by ITFC minister Nandita Gorlosa and beneath the instruction of particular secretary of the division, Seema Rekha Bhuyan, arrived in Baikhow Than at Sildanga in Goalpara, positioned within the interiors of a sacred forest, dotted with centuries-old saal bushes. The staff visited Goalpara district to conduct a survey of the locations of worship and establishments spearheading the safety and dissemination of Rabha customs and rituals on March 11.
“The hymns and prayers recited by the followers of animism in Sildanga have been passed on to successive generations orally,” mentioned Sharma, citing the tour report.
The shrine at Sildanga is enclosed by bamboo fence and within the centre is the sacrificial pit the place pigs, birds and goats are sacrificed. Locals mentioned it’s tough thus far the antiquity of the shrine, which they imagine goes again to a number of centuries. “Though the rituals, hymns and prayers has been passed on since generations, slowly concerns are rising that the touch of modernity in socio-cultural life may alter the rituals,” mentioned Kemnath Rabha, organising secretary of Baikhow Huri Assam, a newly constituted state-level committee to protect the rituals linked to animism in Assam.
“Over 100 deities and the prayers offered to them will be documented in book format. The process has started recently. It will be like a guidebook for the followers of animism in Goalpara and elsewhere,” he mentioned.
The ITFC, in its report, famous that the religion of the Rabha neighborhood, the most important tribal neighborhood in Goalpara, is principally an animistic religion, i.e., perception in a supernatural energy that organizes and animates the fabric universe and that each one pure phenomena, together with vegetation, rocks, and so forth share one very important high quality — the soul or spirit that energises them.
A pageant, referred to as the Baikhow, which has agricultural origins, is held yearly on the day of Purnima within the month of Jeth or Jyaistha (between May and June). The Deori is the top priest and Maktak conducts the animal sacrifice. “Prasada or religious offering consists of a mixture of Dhekia or fiddle head fern (Diplazium Esculentum), Foksak (another variety of wild ferns), Pithaguri (rice flour) and meat of the sacrificed animal,” mentioned the report.
But the directorate has discovered that Baikhow Thans are unfold throughout the districts of Goalpara, Udalguri, Darrang, Sonitpur, Golaghat, Dhemaji and Tinsukia. The revelations have given a broader realm of examine on animism in these districts positioned on north, jap and western components of the state by ITFC division that was created on the initiative of CM Himanta Biswa Sarma on July 30, 2021.
The staff headed by ITFC director Ranjana Sharma, as desired by ITFC minister Nandita Gorlosa and beneath the instruction of particular secretary of the division, Seema Rekha Bhuyan, arrived in Baikhow Than at Sildanga in Goalpara, positioned within the interiors of a sacred forest, dotted with centuries-old saal bushes. The staff visited Goalpara district to conduct a survey of the locations of worship and establishments spearheading the safety and dissemination of Rabha customs and rituals on March 11.
“The hymns and prayers recited by the followers of animism in Sildanga have been passed on to successive generations orally,” mentioned Sharma, citing the tour report.
The shrine at Sildanga is enclosed by bamboo fence and within the centre is the sacrificial pit the place pigs, birds and goats are sacrificed. Locals mentioned it’s tough thus far the antiquity of the shrine, which they imagine goes again to a number of centuries. “Though the rituals, hymns and prayers has been passed on since generations, slowly concerns are rising that the touch of modernity in socio-cultural life may alter the rituals,” mentioned Kemnath Rabha, organising secretary of Baikhow Huri Assam, a newly constituted state-level committee to protect the rituals linked to animism in Assam.
“Over 100 deities and the prayers offered to them will be documented in book format. The process has started recently. It will be like a guidebook for the followers of animism in Goalpara and elsewhere,” he mentioned.
The ITFC, in its report, famous that the religion of the Rabha neighborhood, the most important tribal neighborhood in Goalpara, is principally an animistic religion, i.e., perception in a supernatural energy that organizes and animates the fabric universe and that each one pure phenomena, together with vegetation, rocks, and so forth share one very important high quality — the soul or spirit that energises them.
A pageant, referred to as the Baikhow, which has agricultural origins, is held yearly on the day of Purnima within the month of Jeth or Jyaistha (between May and June). The Deori is the top priest and Maktak conducts the animal sacrifice. “Prasada or religious offering consists of a mixture of Dhekia or fiddle head fern (Diplazium Esculentum), Foksak (another variety of wild ferns), Pithaguri (rice flour) and meat of the sacrificed animal,” mentioned the report.
But the directorate has discovered that Baikhow Thans are unfold throughout the districts of Goalpara, Udalguri, Darrang, Sonitpur, Golaghat, Dhemaji and Tinsukia. The revelations have given a broader realm of examine on animism in these districts positioned on north, jap and western components of the state by ITFC division that was created on the initiative of CM Himanta Biswa Sarma on July 30, 2021.
