Tai Ahom is one of the Tai ethnic communities residing in the Brahmaputra Valley of Assam. Like other Tai communities, its traditional religious beliefs include belief systems in khwan and various spirits (phii) and supernatural entities, ancestor worship, and other aspects of life and culture. This belief system talks about the existence of khwan either in a human/living being or in an object. Khwan does not appear to have a corresponding term in English, which can often be understood with abstract notions. Some Western scholars adapt it as "life essence," "vitality," "life soul," etc. Khwan is a part of the human body, and its absence is instantly noticeable by a marked listlessness and lethargic state. Inferentially, khwan is opposed to laziness. The human body has many khwans, including facial expressions, physical stamina and vitality, and more. When a person becomes unwell, it is assumed that his khwan has abandoned the person and left him/her. So, the Ahom priest performs a ritual called Rik khwan to summon the khwan. In this ritual, khwan can be called from any object of the cosmos like water, sky, moon, a long tree, firefly, mountain, animals, etc. The ritual of Rik khwan Muong khwan is performed for the well-being of common people.
This paper will be an attempt to focus on how the Tai Ahom indigenous religious worldview explains khwan as an essence of life or an aspect of vitality. It will highlight the close connection between humans and non-human objects of the cosmos, such as the sky, stars, trees, animals, rivers, mountains, etc., in the Tai Ahom traditional belief system. This paper will also make an effort to examine khwan belief in the framework of eco-cosmology as a discourse on the coexistence of biodiversity and spirituality in the present context.
