Totos: A Harmonious Tribal Community Thriving on Binaries

The Totos, inhabitants of the fertile hill forests between Bhutan and Bengal, came to the government's notice quite late. Their existence and way of life were deemed primitive, and urban dwellers often tried to disrupt the harmonious existence they had built with nature.

The members of the Totos community reside in a forest hamlet called Totopara | Source: Wikipedia

The land carries numerous legacies left by humans. Fertile land, like forests, even more so. Forests tend to nurture life. Life grows even on a dead and abandoned tree log, within the eye sockets of an animal carcass. Life in forests is unpredictable and vulnerable; its inhabitants are considered courageous. Humans, since time immemorial, have shared a gentle camaraderie with forests and all their living creatures. Tribal people are believed to be gifted, especially during this age of automation and modernity when life outside of an urban civilisation is considered a challenge by city dwellers. Tribes who traditionally reside in forests are making a survival statement.

But life in the forest is seen as a challenge by an outsider. Hostility and wonder are not the emotions carried by the tribals, as they have far greater chores of hunting, farming, gathering, and preserving the land that gave them life.

Though there are great tribal traditions around the country, the Totos, a tribal community of mixed origins residing on steep hill forests between Bhutan and West Bengal, present a far more interesting and unorthodox lifestyle. So much so that the Totos can easily be called the most modern of all traditional tribal communities. It's easy to follow the community guidelines of the Totos, as they are quite liberal in their mindset, but quite difficult to adapt to their tribal ways, which are comparatively less organised and disciplined.

The only rule that the Totos follow is to respect one another and the mother who nurtured them all, the forest. It is said that for one to flourish in life, mutual respect must be provided by fellow beings. The Totos respect the forests; the forests are as sacred to them as any god. The Totos have only two principal gods - Ishpa and Chiema.

Ishpa is the goddess who should not be angered. She is the spirit of the forest who is worshipped outside the forests. It is said that if Ishpa is angered, she will let loose a murderous disease or curse on the tribe. In case of a lingering disease season, the Totos religiously offer animal sacrifices to appease the forest goddess. Chiema, on the other hand, is more of a domestic goddess. She is evoked when one is in personal distress or suffering from an ailment. The Totos consider her as the assistant to Ishpa who is more ferocious and demurring.

The Totos are considered quite simple people with monoid features. The symmetry of their looks resembles the similar and familiar symmetry with nature. In the forests, everything is part of an invisible cycle, and Totos follow the same principle in most of their cultural practices.

Though they live in forests that happen to be rich in resources, the Totos always grow their vegetables and fruits in their kitchen gardens on the back of their cosy thatched huts. The Totos' huts are usually built on a high platform, keeping the wreck of possible floods away. The bamboo and straw huts of the Totos are mostly built by hand and have natural pores for ventilation. The Totos are indeed quite artistic in the realm of impressive hut construction.

Despite their inclusive existence within the sacred boundaries of the forests, the Totos have faced the threat of extinction for many years. It was only in 2015 that the dialect of the Totos, a mix of Nepali and Bengali, was registered by the government of West Bengal. The Totos are facing endangerment from their species, the humans. As forests are being swept away in large numbers, the fate of stringent tribal communities like the Totos has been put in the spotlight. What will become of the people who have always lived with mutual respect for nature? That’s one aggravated question and argument to take away from this account.