Pantheons
Tani
Other Pantheons
Citation Formats
General Reference
APA Style
BibTeX
Donyi, the sun, and Polo, the moon, together forming Donyi-Polo, the central object of devotion among the Tani peoples of Arunachal Pradesh in northeast India, among them the Adi, Nyishi, Apatani and Galo. Donyi-Polo functions both as an indigenous religious practice, centred on the veneration of the sun and moon as all seeing witnesses to human conduct, and as an organised modern movement that has built temples and standardised observance since the mid twentieth century, partly in response to the spread of Christianity in the region.
Facts
Structure
Structure of the PantheonA supreme creator above a working order of intermediary powers 1 Divine HeadshipA ruling pair holds sovereignty together 1 Succession Between Divine GenerationsOne divine generation; no succession between generations is recorded 1 Organisation
Membership of the PantheonEvery place, clan and lineage adds its own 1 Attestation
Era of AttestationHeld from the beginning in the tradition's own terms; documented in the outside record from the 19th century and codified in writing by the Donyi-Polo movement from the 1970s 1 Veneration TodayActively venerated in a living tradition 1 Cult
Principal Cult CentreNo single centre. Observance is held at the village, and since the 1970s at the prayer halls the Donyi-Polo movement has built 1 Sources
Primary SourceOral recitation by nyibu priests, with the hymnals and liturgies compiled by the Donyi-Polo movement from the 1970s and published ethnography 1 Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
Its own cited description places the Tani peoples in Arunachal Pradesh in northeast India.
Sources
Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.
Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.
View At A Past Year
The atlas records no dated fact of its own for this entry, so there is no other year to choose.