Eno: eco-spiritual water climes of Dibang valley, Arunachal Pradesh

Abstract

The spiritual geography of Dibang Valley in Arunachal Pradesh, India, home to the Idu Mishmi people, plays an important role in connecting their social, cultural, and psychological worlds. River valleys, along with lakes, mountains, and rivers, carry deep cultural and spiritual meanings for the Idu Mishmi. They value these various water bodies as eno, a series of eco-spiritual places that can be considered as clime-makers that both sustain and protect their lives. These spiritually-understood physical places are ritually evoked during one’s various life stages from birth to death. We regard eno as riverine and watery climes that connect the earth, humans, and spirits. They tell stories about the indigenous animistic landforms and water bodies with invaluable insights for modern conservation endeavors. With a focus on machiwu (healing rituals) performed by igu (shamans), we discuss the cosmology of the Idu Mishmi’s living environment, which reveals their indigenous affective consciousness of the earth as a planetary life system, and as a communion of all life forms. Given the fact that modern developments like hydropower and highway projects are radically altering the habitat and eroding their cultural heritage, we argue that the Idu Mishmi notion of eno can be a powerful contribution to the emerging new environmental ethics.