Ahom Religion

The Ahom religion is the ethnic religion of the Ahom people. The Ahom people entered Assam, a state in northeastern India located south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys, in 1228. Tai prince Sukaphaa led this relocation of 9,000 of his relatives and subjects from the South China Tai state of Mong Mao to Assam. The Ahom intermarried with the local people. The immigrants included two clans of priests, joined later by a third, who brought alon their traditional religion, rituals, practices and scriptures which are based ancestor worship that required animal sacrifice. There was at least one Buddhist influenced ritual that excluded sacrifice. Ancestor worship and the animistic concept of khwan are two elements it shares with other Tai folk religions. Ancient peoples of the Ahom homeland believed that a human being is a union of thirty-two organs, each of which has a spirit, or khwan, that resides within and protects them. These spirits often wander beyond the body causing a spritual imbalance which might lead illness. Ceremonial countermeasures involve a blessing from a respected elder who ties white cotton strings around a person’s wrists while uttering prayers that invite wayward guardian spirits back into a person's body. The string symbolizes the rebinding of the thirty-two spirits and promotes good luck and prosperity. There is no idolatry in the Ahom religion except for the titular god of the Ahom dynasty, Chumdeo or Chum Fra Rung Mung or Chumpha. The size and shape of the Chumdeo is no longer known, but it is described as being a stone. The Ahom acknowledge the existence of a heaven, or of a heavenly kingdom called Mong Phi. They do not acknowledge the existence of a hell.