Buddhist Philosophy and Its Influence on the Khamtis

Religion plays an important role in the socio-cultural life of every individual or group of individuals. Religion is the origin of rites and rituals; the meaning the system of faith and worship shapes one's culture in one way or another. Rites and rituals are most important practices of human culture. They are the expression of manner and type of adjustment effected by people with their concept of supernatural. The Khamtis are a group of tribes living mainly in the Namsai district and adjoining Changlang district of Arunachal Pradesh and Lakhimpur district of Assam, most of them professing Buddhism as their religion. Different communities living in North-East India have rich tradition of culture and religion. Among them the Khamtis of North-East India are keeping alive a great Buddhist tradition of Theravada Buddhism. The Khamtis belongs to the Theravada faith of Buddhism who have regular establishment of priestswho are well versed in the recondite mysteries of their religion; and a large proportion of the laity can read and write in their own language, having a separate script of their own. This paper tries to highlight the influence of Buddhist Philosophy upon the Khamtis as well as their religious practises based on the essence of Theravada Buddhism in true spirit. This paper aims to present an explanatory analysis based mostly on secondary data, some of them corroborated by primary data collected by the present researcher in consultation with his supervisor.