THE YAKHA: CULTURE, ENVIRONMENT AND DEVELOPMENT IN ...

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4.5 The Spirit Pantheon
Perhaps the best way to make sense of the bewildering panoply of
spirits represented in Yakha indigenous religion is to divide them up
spatially. There were house spirits and those concerned with domestic
space, such as O'Bfmi, pa0 cy8r) and pokta cyB0. Some spirits could be
brought to the house by women marrying in to it who brought spirits of
their natal home with them, and these could be included in this
category. Then there were the local spirits, found in the fields and
cultivated areas or wandering about the village. These were sometimes
associated specifically with the Yakha, such as Tenbefna. Further
afield were the spirits of the forests and grazing areas such as Sogh~k,
'wild' spirits which could sometimes invade the domestic spaces or
interfere with people going outside the safety of the domestic realm
with untoward effects. Finelly there were spirits such as Aitab~re
which in the stories related about them roamed wider in their geography
and were seen as similarly more overarching in their influence.
Horrsehold Spirits
At the heart of things wes O'Bfmi or UahilirJme, (or, as mentioned
above, Btisudev by those wishing to demonstrate an equivalence with the
Hindu tradition). OfBfmi was a spirit residing under the central pillar
( tohlarJ> of every Yakha house. However, it was seen as a constant and
generally benign presence, needing oblations only when a new house was
being constructed or when a mdgarJba thought it necessary (because
someone in the household was sick).