Interweaving Faith and Culture: Sacred Dimensions of Tangsa Societal Beliefs

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-533-1_54How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Tangsa; Societal; Indigenous; Belief

Abstract

The cultural identity of the Tangsa people, an indigenous population primarily residing in Assam and Arunachal Pradesh, India, as well as portions of Myanmar, is rooted in a complex and deeply ingrained set of societal ideas, grounded in animism and ancestral worship. Their culture reflects their beliefs, including animism, nature worship, and clan-based social structures. Utilising the methodology, the study documents religious traditions through participant observation, fieldwork, and interviews with Tangsa elders and practitioners. The study highlights the importance of religious practices and societal ideas in preserving the Tangsa people’s cultural identity in Assam. Tangsa society values animism, environmental respect, and ancestors. For instance, the Tangsa people consider the ‘main pillar’ of their home to be of utmost importance since they obtain permission from it in the name of their /t̪um-mɔt̪i/ ‘ancestors’ to conduct any kind of spiritual rite. The study highlights Tangsa society’s belief in celestial events as spiritual energies, integrating nature into their social and spiritual fabric. They believe that in earthquakes, there is a /tɔkpen/ ‘tortoise’ that holds the earth in its shell; when it moves, the earth faces the earthquake. In a nutshell, this study shows how Tangsa societal ideas and language are closely related, with natural and celestial phenomena playing a significant role in cultural expression and highlighting the importance of maintaining their language and beliefs for cultural preservation and understanding of their values and spiritual beliefs.

Copyright

© 2025 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

Download article (PDF)

TY  - CONF
AU  - Tapashi Barman
PY  - 2025
DA  - 2025/12/31
TI  - Interweaving Faith and Culture: Sacred Dimensions of Tangsa Societal Beliefs
BT  - Proceedings of the International Conference on Smart Systems and Social Management (ICSSSM-2 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 921
EP  - 927
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-533-1_54
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-533-1_54
ID  - Barman2025
ER  -