Sanamahi-Pakhangba A living relationship of the Meitei with Water - Part 2 - |
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By: Debabrata Roy Laifungbam & Anna Pinto * |
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A very brief overview of the aspects of Meitei life, lands, waters and our environment is useful for understanding its
significance.
These institutions are entrusted primarily to the Maibi, the institution of Meitei shaman priestesses that also occupied a high political profile by advising the chiefs on temporal matters, revenue, war and peace negotiations, domestic arrangements, and as oracular advisors of individuals and the collective. The Maibi Loisang, a formal college or institution of the Maibi, is the repository and vehicle through which the Meitei cultural, spiritual and social – including traditional – knowledge is transmitted from generation to generation. This is done in many ways but the most important is the prolonged annual ritual worship, called the Lai Haraoba or the 'Happiness of the Ancestors'. During the Lai Haraoba, different clan and tribal ancestral deities, called Umang Lai or forest deities, are worshipped through complex and strictly ritualised ceremonies and devotional acts. The community participates as a whole, but women, men, youth and children also participate as segregated groups. It is through these segregated groups, partaking in the Lai Haraoba, that the Maibi impart traditional cultural and technological knowledge and values. The deities are always derived from and return to the waters, channels and wetlands at the beginning and end of each Lai Haraoba. The spirits of our ancestors are in communication through the vehicle of water and rivers. This is one of the core elements of the Sanamahi Pakhangba worship among the Meitei. To be continued ... * Debabrata Roy Laifungbam & Anna Pinto jointly wrote this article. Debabrata Roy Laifungbam is Director of Health Development and Human Rights at the Centre for Organization, Research and Education (CORE), Manipur, India. He coordinates various cross-sectoral research projects on public health, environment, human rights and gender and has participated in several international meetings to advocate ethnic minority rights. Anna Pinto is Director of the Women and Children division at CORE. She is actively involved in the advocacy of Indigenous Women’s and Children’s Rights. CORE (Website here ) can be contacted at coreloisanglen(at)gmail(dot)com . This article was presented by Hanjabam Shukhdeba, a PHD Scholar from TISS - hanjabam(at)gmail(dot)com . This article was webcasted on February 03rd, 2008. |
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