Published Paper Details:

Abstract The Misings are a tribal community of Assam. They belong to Mongoloid group and linguistically they are Tibeto-Burmans. Census of 2011 records the total population of the Mising as 680,424 and most of them are settled in Upper Assam. The Mising have their own traditional religious beliefs and practices that falls within the purview of Animism. Animism is the belief that inanimate objects and natural phenomena have souls. The Misings believe in Do:nyi-Po:lo (Sun-Moon) as their eternal heavenly beings on all animistic rites, but they do not worship them as their deities. This is because they believe in the supernatural powers of these spirits. Another characteristic of their belief is offering prayers to their forefathers. In every ritual, they recall the name of their forefathers of up to ten or more generations. However, the Misings since the last decade of the 20th century have made an attempt to institutionalize their traditional beliefs and practices. This started after the formation of �Do:nyi-Po:lo Yelam K�bang�. The objective of the paper is to look into the factors responsible for the recent attempt to institutionalize the traditional beliefs and practices by means of�Do:nyi-Po:lo Yelam K�bang� and its impact upon the Misings. Keywords: Misings, Donyi-Polo, Kebang, Religion