Buddhist-Animist Convergence in Pre-Colonial Arunachal Pradesh, 800-1826 CE
International Journal of History and Archaeology Research Studies March 16, 2026 S Sajeer
Between the eighth and early nineteenth centuries, Tibetan Buddhist monastic traditions encountered indigenous animist cosmologies in the hill societies of present-day Arunachal Pradesh. Monpa and Sherdukpen communities in the west selectively adopted Gelugpa and Nyingmapa Buddhist elements while retaining animal sacrifice, spirit propitiation, and shamanic healing. Eastern communities such as the Adis, Apatanis, Galos, and Nishis maintained their Donyi-Polo and related animist traditions largely unchanged. This differential reception was shaped by the political economy of Tibetan monastic expansion centered on Tawang Monastery (founded c. 1680–81), trans-Himalayan trade routes, and ecological constraints. Syncretism was an active, creative negotiation, not passive reception. The Treaty of Yandaboo (1826) severed trans-Himalayan connections, and British colonial ethnography later imposed categorical distinctions that obscured integrated local practice.