Religion and Society in the Himalayas

If any social scientist is asked to say about the most characteristic aspect of the Himalayas, then the answer would be 'religion'. Of course religion is an integral part of the non-Himalayan societies also, but there its role is rather disintegrative while in the Himalayan societies it is just as it should be an integrating and cementing force.

The importance of religion in the Himalayan societies is immense though not much exploring has been done in this field. The earlier writers on the Himalayas have mostly been concerned with delving into the theosophical bases of religion, particularly Buddhism. The Tantic aspects of Buddhism as practised by the not-Gelugpa sects, have also attracted the attention of very many scholars recently. But the animistic religions of the Himalayas have received relatively lesser attention of scholars. Barring a few such works, confined to the southern Himalayas and descriptive accounts of the religious practices of the trives of Arunachal Pradesh, the rich field of the study of the religion has remained rather ignored. This is probably because the entire attention was directed towards Tibet-the destination of many a missionary and scholar right from the seventeenth century. But even in Tibet the religious studies are mostly confined to the elite Buddhist centres of learning, or the few urban and administrative centres. The Buddhism as it exists in more remote and more inaccessible parts of the eastern and north-eastern provinces has not been properly studied.

Such lapses are more pronounced in areas like Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Darjeeling and in countries such as nepal and Bhutan. It was to fill this gap that the Centre for Himalayan Studies organised a national seminar on 'Religion and Society in the Himalayas' on March 13-15, 1986. Being an 'area study' centre, established especially for the study of Tibet and Bhutan, the focus of this seminar was on these countries though the hinterland areas of these could not be excluded in this regard. These two countries being still inaccessible for primary research, our Centre has been carrying on researches mainly on their hinterland - Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, eastern Nepal and Darjeeling-while preparing itself to enter into their heartlands as and when the situation would permit.

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