thumb|Donyi-Polo flag seen over a house in [[Itanagar, Arunachal Pradesh, India, indicating that its inhabitants follow the religion.]]
Donyi Polo is the designation given to the indigenous religion, of animistic and shamanic type, of the Tani and other Tibeto-Burman ethnic groups of Arunachal Pradesh and Assam in Northeast India. The name "Donyi-Polo" means "Sun-Moon", and was chosen for the religion in the process of its revitalisation and institutionalisation started in the 1970s. The religion has a total of 363,853 followers, of whom 362,553 live in Arunachal Pradesh, 800 in Assam and 500 in Tibet, China. The majority of its followers are found in India.
The religion has developed a congregational system; hymns to be sung, composed in the Tani ritual language of shamans; a formalised philosophy-theology; and an iconography of the gods and temples. The pioneer of the revival was Talom Rukbo. Donyi-Polo is related to the Hemphu-Mukrang religion of the Karbi and the Nyezi-No of the Hruso.
History
On 28 August 1968, a meeting of Adi intellectuals was held in Along, West Siang, to discuss countermeasures to be taken against the gradual erosion of indigenous identity and traditions attributed to India's policy of integration of Arunachal Pradesh, and particularly the spread of Christianity in the area since the 1950s which has caused an enduring crisis in the cultural mosaic of the north-eastern state. The meeting's aim was also that of uniting the Tibeto-Burman folks under a collective identity and values for a good life. As a result of the religious initiative, 36,954 inhabitants of erstwhile Siang district identified themselves as adherents of Donyi-Polo in the 1971 census.
Talom Rukbo emerged as the father of Donyi-Poloism, a term that was coined for the institutionalisation of the Tibeto-Burman folk religion. According to Rukbo, the main reason for the easy erosion of the traditional culture was that it lacked written literature. So, with the aim of recovering the endangered rituals, prayers, and hymns, within 1986 three major cultural organisations were founded: the Tani Jagriti Foundation, the Donyi-Polo Youth Federation, and the Donyi-Polo Yelam Kebang.
Rikbo expressed the need for institutionalization of the traditional faith in these terms:
Many Adi and Tani intellectuals reflected Rukbo's ideas, and these gradually spread across the tribes and even beyond the Tani people. The 31 December, the day of establishment of the Donyi-Polo Yelam Kebang in 1986, has been made the "Donyi-Polo Day" celebrated each year.
Since then, templar areas () have been consecrated, religious literature and prayer hymns have been collected and published. To meet the growing number of adherents in the revival, the Donyi-Polo Yelam Kebang established orientation courses—which take place twice a year—and trained groups of youth to send back with books and icons to their home village, to encourage people to construct temples and conduct prayers. During the last two decades the spiritual revival has spread all over Arunachal Pradesh.
Supporters of the revival have coined the slogan «Loss of culture is loss of identity» which has become very popular. The indirect implication is that those who convert to Christianity lose their culture and hence their identity.
Gangging
A is a general name for a prayer place of the Donyi-Poloist faith, and especially in the Adi areas. The as a sacred enclosure is a concept popularised by the Donyi-Polo Yelam Kebang since 1996.
According to Talom Rukbo, the word is derived from Gangging Siring, the concept of land or holy tree that mediates between the spiritual and the natural worlds, and from which any thing, living or non-living, comes into existence.
Gangging congregants have to follow certain rules: for example, male members must sit on the left in rows, and female members on the right, cross-legged. Within the prayer place, there should not be any noise during prayer except the sound of the hymns. Prayers are organized in the prayer place on Sundays, and all of the branches established in each of the villages under the Siang district are centrally regulated by the Donyi-Polo Yelam Kebang. Through the prayer place, codified rituals and practices, and iconographies of the Gods and Goddesses have been introduced.
Nyedar namlo
thumb|Nyishi women dancing during the annual festival, Nyokum Yullo.
Nyedar namlo is a place of worship of the Nyishis following the faith. Many of them were built after the late twentieth century CE during the faith's revivalist movement in the eastern part of Arunachal Pradesh. The material and non-material culture of the place borrows elements from Christianity and Hinduism. Sociologist Bhaswati Borgohain and Indigenous scholar Mekory Dodum suggest that these places 'exists in the liminal space between tradition and modernity where the notions of the sacred and spiritual blend with the social and cultural identity of the indigenous tribes, all of which are in transition.'
See also
- Tribal religions in India
- Bathouism
- Indigenous religion
- Sanamahism
- Sarnaism