Brill’s Encyclopedia of the Religions of the Indigenous People of South Asia Online

Get access Subject: Asian Studies


Edited by:
Marine Carrin (Editor-in-Chief), University of Toulouse Jean Jaurès, and Michel Boivin, Centre for South Asian Studies (CNRS-EHESS), Gérard Toffin, Centre d’Études Himalayennes, Paul Hockings, University of Illinois at Chicago, Raphaël Rousseleau, Université de Lausanne, Tanka Subba, North-Eastern Hill University, Harald Tambs-Lyche, University of de Picardie-Jules Verne (Section Editors)

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Brill’s Encyclopedia of the Religions of the Indigenous People of South Asia strives to reflect the diversity of indigenous cultures of South Asia with its many language groups and religious traditions. Shaped by their own mythologies, these tribal religions differ in form and content from Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Islam, Sikhism, and Christianity, though variants of the latter traditions have been adopted by some indigenous people. Religion is taken in a broad sense and includes aspects of morality, symbolism, identity formation, environmental concerns, and art. Far from being simple survivals of an earlier stage, these religions often show remarkable capacity for adaptation and change. The approach is contemporary rather than a reconstruction of an anterior state, though it does not overlook relevant historical processes.

More information: Brill.com

Kham Magar

(7,185 words)

Author(s): de Sales, Anne
The population of the Kham Magar is some 50,000, or barely 3% of almost two million Magars (1,8887,733), the population name under which they appear in the 2011 demographic census. They live in high valleys (2,000–2,500 m altitude) in the north of the districts of Rolpa, Rukum, and Baglung, in Nepal’s midwest, concentrated in five rural municipalities or  gaupālikās (Nisikhola, Putha Uttarganga, Bhume, Thawang, and Sunchhahari). The linguist D.E. Watters coined the name Kham Magar in the early 1970s to distinguish Kham speakers of Khamkura from the Mag…
Date: 2021-11-10

Khasi

(7,120 words)

Author(s): Lyngdoh, Margaret
The Khasi communities – which include the Khynriam, Pnar, Bhoi, War, and Lyngngam – comprise a group of indigenous peoples in northeastern India that make up the majority of the ethnic population of the Meghalaya state. There are other minority groups among the Khasis, such as the Biate, Nongtrai, Muliang, and Marngar. The endonym popularized among the Khynriam Khasi group to designate all the Khasi communities is Khun Hynniew Trep (“Children of the Seven Huts”), following the origin myth wherei…
Date: 2021-11-10