Hills, Islands and Borderlands Where Older Religions Endure in Asia

Begin in the Brahmaputra valley, where Kamakhya, the Vaishnava satra monasteries of Sankardeva and the Bodo worship of Bathou Borai at a living sijou plant altar all share one state.

Move south onto the Khasi, Jaintia and Garo hills, where Niam Khasi and Songsarek keep sacred groves as the dwellings of local deities even though Christianity now holds the majority.

In the Imphal valley the Meitei honor Sanamahi in the household and Leimarel Sidabi as earth goddess, and the Sanamahi revival now stands publicly beside the Vaishnavism the old kingdom adopted in the eighteenth century.

Cross into southwest China, where the Dai of Xishuangbanna follow Theravada Buddhism, the Bai honor local tutelary gods called Benzhu, and the Yi rely on bimo ritual specialists who recite their sacred script.

In karst Guizhou the Miao and Buyi combine ancestor veneration with nature and village guardian spirits, and the western Yi communities keep the same bimo tradition seen in Yunnan.

Sichuan joins the older Chinese religions to the highland traditions: Mount Qingcheng as a birthplace of organized Daoism, the Leshan Giant Buddha, Tibetan monasteries in the west and Yi bimo practice in the south.

Turning to island Southeast Asia, the Dayak peoples of Borneo hold an upperworld of sky beings and an underworld of water beings, with ritual specialists, longhouse ceremonies and secondary funeral rites.

In the highlands of Sulawesi the Toraja practice Aluk To Dolo, the way of the ancestors, whose funeral ceremony completes the passage of the dead and survives even among Toraja Christians.

On Luzon the Igorot peoples of the Cordillera honor the sky deity Kabunian and the anito spirits through mumbaki ritual specialists, while the lowlands became heavily Roman Catholic under Spanish rule.

End on the Ryukyu Islands, where priestesses called kaminchu and noro held ritual authority at utaki sacred groves, and Sefa Utaki remains the tradition most sacred site.