Bhumij

Abstract

The term Bhumij denotes one who is born from the soil. They are believed to be a branch of the Munda tribe. The tribe is found mainly in Mayurbhanj district and is sparsely distributed in the districts of Sundergarh, Keonjhar and Balesore of Odisha. Besides they are also found in Medinapur, Purulia, Bankura, Chabish Parganas of West Bengal and Tamad, Bundu and Manbhum areas of undivided Bihar. They are multi-lingual and are conversant in local languages like Odia, Hindi and Bengali. The Bhumij tribe is endogamous and has four endogamous divisions like Tamudia or Tamaria Bhumij, Haladipokhoria Bhumij, Teli Bhumij and Desi or Dehuri Bhumij who are known by their different traditional occupations. Cultivation is the mainstay of their subsistence economy supplemented byother pursuits like wage earning, collection of minor forest produce, animal husbandry, leaf plate making,hunting, fishing, small business etc. They are non-vegetarians. The tribe professes their autonomous animistic tribal religion which has certain elements of Hinduism. They worship marang buru and sing bonga or dharma debta (the Sun God) as their supreme deities. They have the religious institution of village sacred grove (jahirthan) where their village deities areworshipped. They also have the cult of ancestor worship. In these days, their society and culture is undergoing transformation under the impact of planned change and modernization. This photographic documentation on the life style of the Bhumij is a part of the series on the Tribes of Odisha published by SCSTRTI, Bhubaneswar. Hopefully, this book would be of immense help for the tribal lovers, tribal tourists, tribal researchers and general readers.