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Bathouism (Assam, India)

image by Miles Li, 12 January 2023

The flag of Bathouism
Detail of emblem

See also:

Flag of Bathouism

Bathouism is a folk religion of the Boro people of Assam in Northeast India.

The basic flag of Bathouism has five horizontal stripes, from top to bottom: red, blue, white, yellow and green, representing fire, sky, air, earth and water respectively.
Miles Li, 12 January 2023

image by Miles Li, 12 January 2023

A variant of the flag has the white stripe twice the width of the others, defaced at the centre with the emblem of Bathouism: a sijou plant fenced with eighteen pairs of bamboo strips with five fastenings, surrounded by a yellow ring with eighteen green 'rays' of an elaborate design. The sijou plant represents the main deity Bathoubwrai, the eighteen pairs of strips represent the eighteen pairs of minor gods-goddesses. The five fastenings represent, from bottom to top, birth, pain, death, marriage and pleasure; the bottom three fastenings form full circles, while the top two fastenings form only half circles, representing the fact that birth, pain and death cannot be avoided, while marriage and pleasure can.
Miles Li, 12 January 2023

Detail of emblem

image by Miles Li, 12 January 2023

The emblem of Bathouism is widely used on the internet.
Miles Li, 12 January 2023