Tigers, Tiger Spirits and Were-tigers in Tribal Orissa

Abstract

In the last years, several tiger sightings have been reported in rural areas of Orissa, in both villages and market towns. According to local rangers, such an anomalous behaviour is due to an unprecedented growth of the tiger's population, and the consequent need for more territory. Conversely, local indigenous populations (adivasi) look at the strange conduct of these animals as a manifestation of the presence of the spirits of the jungle. Alternatively, this is believed to be a peculiar phenomenon of therianthropy, that is, a metamorphosis in which a human animal takes the form of big cat (Oriya: palta bagha). In this article I will discuss were-tigers and rituals to counter such transformations among the Kondhs. On the one hand, I will explore how colonial literature reported incidents of therianthropy in Orissa and how such phenomena were dealt with. On the other, I will present and discuss my own ethnographies of were-tigers, a field of research I engaged with in the last 12 years in Orissa. The analysis of the presence of the tiger and the ways it interacts with the religion and culture of the Kondhs reveal previously unexplored areas of inquiry. The tiger is the symbol and essence of nature but it also represents its power. As such, it is dynamic, chaotic and creative. By assuming a divine form, the tiger becomes the Goddess, and thus serves as a point of contact for further explorations of Eastern Saktism, tribal culture and variegated patterns of popular Hindu folklore.

Coexistence in the Anthropocene: Tigers and Humans of the Dibang Valley

“…It is not clear if these tigers are to be considered metaphorically as a kind of animal-spirit-warriors or if these claims allude to the concrete ability to remotely control the behavior of big cats. However, this dynamic is locally widespread: we have had the opportunity to observe it in the past (Beggiora, 2013), and the phenomenon falls into the case study of terianthropy, or the so-called were-tigers. We are faced with a truly paradoxical case, however, since this particular landscape is not at all overcrowded, and in the midst of an extensive and wonderful sacred nature, a war is being fought with no holds barred, implying the involvement of the different species and entities living in the territory.…”