Don Bosco Degree College Golaghat

Tangsa tribe is one of the major tribal groups of Arunachal Pradesh, primarily found in the hilly areas of Changlang district. It was believed that they came to this region from Myanmar in search of agricultural land and later on, they settled here. Evidence of migration from Myanmar can be traced through their dress patterns and language, which are still prevalent today. Tangsa people generally follow the ‘Donyi-Polo’ religion. The Supreme Being is locally known as ‘Rangfraa’. In the present context, Theravada Buddhism as well as Christianity has had a major influence on the religious life of the Tangsa people. The paper will focus on the major festival ‘MolMoi’, and other festivals of the Tangsa tribe, which is used as an identity marker by the Tangsa tribe of North East India, and the changing socio-political scenario of the tribe will also be analyzed. It will also focus on the migration history of the Tangsa tribe from Myanmar to Arunachal Pradesh and will emphasize the socio-religious identity as an oral tradition of the tribe in an attempt to create a Pan-Tangsa identity. For data collection, primary and secondary sources of information will be used in an analytical way.

Keywords – Culture, Ethnic Identity, Oral tradition, Tangsa tribe.