31Jan,2024
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The word ‘Me’ means offerings. ‘Dam’ means ancestors and ‘Phi’ means gods. So the word ‘Mae Dam Mae Phi’ means oblations offered to the Ancestors spirits.
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Me-Dam-Me-Phi is the most important veneration of the dead communal festival in the Ahom religion celebrated by the Ahom people on 31 January every year in memory of the departed.
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Originating from the Ahom Chronicles, Mae Dam Mae Phi, an ancestral offering, was introduced when the king's grandsons received guidance from the God of knowledge to perform this ritual, a practice maintained by the Tai Ahom community ever since.
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Ahom Kings, such as Suhungmung, Sukhampha, and Pratap Singha, regularly performed the Me Dam Me Phi festival in the 16th-17th centuries to mark victories, seek blessings, and avert dangers, symbolizing a connection between rulers, ancestors, and the well-being of their subjects.
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When Mae Dam Mae Phi is observed publicly worship is offered in the name of three gods and they are Me Dam Me Phi, Dam Changphi and Grihadam. God Dam Chao Phi is associated with the belief of some natural powers like creation and destruction, water, lightning and storm, sun, moon, earth, etc.
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A pillar known as Damkhuta is created which is worshipped with things like homemade wine, mah-prasad (beans and chickpeas), and rice with meat and fish.
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