The new crown and crystal of the monastery at Betbari Shyam Gaon in Titabar. Telegraph picture

Jorhat, Nov. 11: Tucked away in a remote corner along the Naga Hills, the Tai Khamyang community at Betbari, Balijan and Na Shyam Gaon, recently reaffirmed their ties with Myanmar, from where they trace their descent.

In a ritual held at Betbari Shyam Gaon in Titabar subdivision recently, they replaced the old namghar-style spire of the vihar (monastery) with a thi (crown) and crystal on the pinnacle, similar to those found adorning most of the Buddhist pagodas of Myanmar.

Rebakanta Shyam, a former teacher and resident of the village, said this was to retain their identity.

“Our main Buddha vihar exists at Balijan Shyam Gaon. We built this one in 1951 but the structure was like that of Assam’s namghars. We changed that recently with a thi, which was bought from Lohit district of Arunachal Pradesh. These are brought from Myanmar and are available there. We would like to maintain our links with that country and retain our identity as Theravada Buddhists,” he said. Prof. Lalit Shyam, who hails from the village but resides in Titabar now, said all the Buddhist pagodas that followed Theravada have these structures, and are found in the Buddha Vihars of Arunachal Pradesh and in some parts of Assam.

“We crossed the Patkai hills from the Chan province in Myanmar along with the other Tai group of tribes — Tai Aiton, Tai Turungs, Tai Phakes and Tai Khamti — who migrated from the Thailand-Tibeto-Burma region to this land, along with the Tai Ahoms, but unlike the last, we have retained Buddhism as our religion as practised in those countries. The migration started from the United Province of China way back in the 13th century,” he said.

Shyam added that earlier vihars under the Theravada school strictly adhered to the Myanmar design, as there were two monks from that country who resided at Kaziranga and were able to give instructions and also another monk at Ledo who is still alive. “Some vihars built later took on the design of local temples and namghars, like the one at Betbari,” he said.

Lalit Shyam, who had recently been to Seoul, South Korea, to participate in the World Alliance of Religions Peace Summit, has received a royal invitation from the venerable Rama Dophu Namdyal, descendant president of the DKCSC Trust, Thimphu, to visit Bhutan for eight days.

Shyam is chief adviser to and former president of the All Assam Buddhist Association, Regional Centre of the World Fellowship of Buddhists, affiliated to Unesco.

There is a tale that during one of the Mann invasions nearly 300 years ago, the three villages were spared by the Burmese invaders when they came to know of their close ties from the inhabitants. The Burmese general Mingimaha Bandula even gifted a statue of Buddha, a golden Kammawara — believed to be a religious text that is yet to be deciphered — and a cane box, all of which are preserved in the Balijan Buddha Vihar.