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The mite, spirits, of Songsarek practice among the Garo of Meghalaya in northeastern India, among them Tatara Rabuga, the creator, and Misi Saljong, the sun god associated with fertility and the harvest. Songsarek, meaning the way of the forefathers, is the indigenous Garo religion practised alongside a now Christian majority Garo population, and it centres on agricultural ritual, sacrifice and the mediation of the community's ojhas, or ritual specialists, rather than on a fixed scripture.

Facts
Structure
Structure of the Pantheon
A supreme creator above a working order of intermediary powers 1
Divine Headship
A supreme creator who withdrew from active rule and receives little direct cult 1
Succession Between Divine Generations
One divine generation; no succession between generations is recorded 1
The Creator and the Ruling Gods
The creator withdrew after making the world and is seldom addressed in cult 1
Attestation
Era of Attestation
Held from the beginning in the tradition's own terms; documented in the outside record from the 19th century 1
Veneration Today
Actively venerated in a living tradition 1
Sources
Primary Source
Oral tradition held within Garo communities, with published ethnography 1
Organisation
Membership of the Pantheon
Every place, clan and lineage adds its own 1
How Mortals Enter the Pantheon
Ancestors and founders become objects of cult 1
Cult
Principal Cult Centre
No single centre. Observance is held at the household and the village, and the Wangala harvest festival is held for Misi Saljong 1
Cross-Tradition Connections

Associated With

India, Countries

This source names India directly: "the Garo of Meghalaya in northeastern India, among them Tatara Rabuga, the creator, and Misi Saljong, the sun god associated with fertility and the harvest."

Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)
Meghalaya, Regions
Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)
Sources
1. Encyclopedia of Religion
Mircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.), Macmillan Reference, 2005View the Source
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