In Orissa, there are multitudes of tribal communities reside quite peacefully. Bhunjia tribes are quite significant, who mainly are found in several districts like Kalahandi etc. Since the topography of the region is quite rugged with hills, mountains and also dense forest areas, these Bhunjia tribes have settled down in scattered manner in their villages and hamlets that they have built in their own hands.

Just like any other tribes of the mountainous region of India, these Bhunjia tribes too have adapted the profession of shifting cultivators. Seeing the degradation of the landscapes due to rampant cultivation, in the present day, many of these Bhunjia tribes sustain their living by gathering and also selling various non- timber forest products in the local markets.

There are various anthropologists who have conducted researches in various districts of Bihar have come up with certain observations. Bhunjia tribes are more conservative, traditional and also introvert and shy.

The Bhunjia society and culture follow the norms and practices, just like any other tribal communities of Indian subcontinent do. For these Bhunjia tribes also marriage is an important institution. For regulating the marriage, these Bhunjia tribes have a number of exogamous units or clans. Generally, these Bhunjia tribal people duly follow the structure of nuclear family with a monogamous form of marriage. Special marriage rites and rituals are followed thereby ennobling their cultural scene. In fact the `kitchen shed` of these Bhunjia tribes is believed to be quite consecrated and the entry of married daughters into the kitchen is firmly prohibited.

The pious nature of these Bhunjia tribes has a plethora of gods and goddesses whom they revere a lot. The Bhunjia tribes worship them for the sake of well-being and prosperity of them. Cure and prevention from various diseases, seeking good harvesting etc are also the reasons for which these deities are worshipped.

Sunadei is their principal deity and the priest, better known as `Pujari`, carries on the religious rites. Festivals too are part and parcel of these Bhunjia tribes . Except Holi , these tribes celebrate almost all the other Indian festivals with enthusiasm. It is said to the Bhunjia tribes have excelled in the art of dreadful magic and spells. There is a legend popular amongst the Bhunjia tribes.

There is an iron drum located upside down on a huge rock on the hill, and that every year Bhunjia tribes used to surrender a Brahmin before their ancestral deities and peel off the skin from his chest to fixate on the drum. The drum was then beaten up and the sacrifice was finished. A Brahmin named Chingari, due to his magical spell, turned the drum upside down with the curse that whosoever touches the drum henceforth would pass away within a year.

These Bhunjia tribes follow the traditional system with the formation of village council as the key unit of village administration and control. All the aged people of the Bhunjia village constitutes of the basic unit, while in the top hierarchy, the inter-village council exits.

What is important to pay attention is the status of the women in the Bhunjia tribes. In fact, the Bhunjia tribes have a very stringent set of rules in order to govern a woman`s life however males are free more or less.

According to the famous folklorist Dr. Anjali Padhi, women are not permitted to consume food from outside and there is no such limitation for the male folks. Also, only the women folks of the Bhunjia tribes are not allowed to wear slippers they are not supposed to step on the sacred earth where the deity, Sunadei, lives. No such rule is applicable for the Bhunjia male.