West Singhbhum Ho Tribe Forest Culture Jharkhand

West Singhbhum district (Chaibasa) is the homeland of the Ho tribe, a major tribal group of 1.4 million people whose forest-based culture centres on the Mage festival (February), communal drinking of rice beer (ilbong), and the Ho language's rich oral literature of myths and songs about the creation of the world by the Ho couple Lutkum and Lutum. Ho men traditionally hunt with bow and arrow and maintain sacred groves (jaher) where the Singbonga deity is worshipped and community disputes are resolved under the Ho's traditional manki-munda governance hierarchy. West Singhbhum's Saranda forest, one of Asia's largest sal forests, is the ecological foundation of Ho livelihood culture; iron ore mining in Saranda creates ongoing conflict with Ho community rights.