Bathousim

Bathousim Latest News

Recently, the government of the Bodoland Territorial Region (BTR) in Assam has included ‘Bathouism’ as an official option in the religion column of various application forms.

About Bathousim

• 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).

Beliefs of Bathousim

• 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).
• The Sijou is planted in the Bathou altar at the centre as the symbol of Bathou religion of the Bodos.
• 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.

Bathousim FAQs

Q1. Who is the god of Bodo?

Ans. Bathou Bwrai

Q2. What is Bodo language?

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Ans. Bodo language, a language of the Tibeto-Burman branch of Sino-Tibetan languages having several dialects

Q3. Which is the biggest festival of Bodo?

Ans. Bwisagw is the greatest seasonal festival of the Bodos.

Source: DTH