Bathouism:
The Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) in Assam has included ‘Bathouism’ as an official option in the religion column of various application forms.
- It is the traditional faith of the Bodos, the largest plains tribe of Assam.
- The word ‘Bathou’ is derived from the Bodo language, where ‘Ba’ means ‘five’ and ‘thou’ means ‘deep philosophical thought’.
- The faith system is based on five elements: Bar (Air), San (Sun), Ha (Earth), Or (Fire), and Okhrang (Sky).
- The community worships Bwrai Bathou as the supreme god. In the Bodo language, the word ‘Bwrai‘ refers to the ‘eldest’ man concerning power or knowledge.
- The Bathou faith is centred on the Sijou plant (Euphorbia splendens).
- In Bathou religion, the Sijou plant has an important place and has been widely accepted as the symbol of life or soul by the Bodo people since time immemorial.
- This plant is the living symbol of Bathoubwrai, the supreme God of the Bodos.
- Bodos plant the sijou tree on an elevated altar encircled with a bamboo fencing of eighteen pairs of posts weaved with five pieces of bamboo split.
- The five bamboo strips signify the five bindings of Bathou, viz. (i) birth, (ii) marriage or procreation, (iii) sorrow, (iv) happiness and (v) death.
