Age Old Traditional Beliefs of the Missing and Its Challenges

Abstract Mising is one of the ethnic groups inhabiting in Assam. They belong to the Tani group of language. Tani refers to a cluster of Tibeto-Burman language situated at the eastern end of Himalayas, in an area spread on four sides by Tibet, Bhutan, Assam and Burma. The Mising community is recognized as a schedule tribe by the constitution of India in 1950 as ‘Miri’. The Mising were earlier called ‘Miri’ but they themselves preferred to be called as ‘Mising’. It has its population of 8 lakhs approximately according to 2011 census. The Mising in Assam is observed to be one of the most influential tribes assimilating to different culture, typically the Assamese and others thereby facing lots of erosion in different cultural fields. It is observed in religious belief system which is a mixture of traditional belief and Hindu. They have been undergoing challenges including cultural erosion, marginalization and environmental threats since putting their foot in the land of Assam from the 12th century onwards. This paper would try to look into the challenges faced by this particular tribal group called Missing from the religious perspective in the 21st century.