The vast territory of India is an abode of multitudes of tribes, each contributing to the socio- religious and cultural tradition of the whole of country. There is also no dearth of tribal communities that throng the state of Bihar as a whole. In fact all the tribes of Bihar are quite a lot in number. According to the anthropologists who have surveyed the whole of the tribes of Bihar have inferred certain salient features common among them.

Needless to say these tribes of Bihar are not different from the non- tribal members of the region, each one of them are quite exclusive in retaining their own identity and stature. Cultural exuberance of these tribes of Bihar state are emphatically depicted in its various elements, including its house decoration, art works, dance, festival, musical melodies etc. Most of the tribes of Bihar reside in mud houses with thatched roofs. There are baked tiles for roofs.

Often these houses have provision for kitchen gardens that store various items like vegetables, and a space for their cattle that they have domesticated. Some of the tribes have sloppy dwellings, some of them live in the leaf houses. There are Santal tribes, which are also best planned, along with the different apartments for the old folks. Festivals are also part and parcel of the cultural embellishment of these tribes of Bihar. Apart from celebrating several festivals that are popular through out the India, there are few local festivals feted by theses tribes.

The most important festival for the tribes of Bihar is Sarhul, which commemorates the blossoming of Sal trees. Each and every tribal communities of Bihar fete this festival in the early days of spring time. Sal trees are worshipped in the sacred orchard. Different tribes have different ways of feting this festival. However, each one of these tribes of Bihar worships the `spirit` of the Sal tree to try to find its blessings for a good harvesting.

Just like any other tribes, most of these tribes of Bihar practice cultivation including shifting cultivation. The most significant crop of these tribes of Bihar is paddy. On a daily basis, the meal of these tribes comprises of boiled cereals, millets. Amongst the delicacies include a curry of boiled vegetables or meat or any of the edible roots, and tubers nicely seasoned with salt and chillies. What is quite interesting to note is that milk and all the milk products are entirely missing from the menu of these tribes of Bihar.

Marriage is also an important institution amongst all the tribes of Bihar state. Special rituals are feted. As soon as a child is born, he is in the beginning given a sip of milk of the goat before he is allowed to suck the mother`s milk. Taboo is that goat`s milk is never savored afterwards, as they thought that it is going to make the child quite argumentative.

Religious nature of these tribes of Bihar is best reflected in the fact that there are diverse gods and goddesses, varying both in number and strength. For example, the Ho tribes have the tradition of appeasing only two village deities. These are namely, Desauli and Jahira Buru. According to the eminent anthropologists, some of these tribes of Bihar worship as many as 10 to 12 deities through out the year. Invocation of spirits too is a popular phenomenon. However, most of the tribes revere the Singh Bonga as the Supreme Being.

In fact all the houses of the tribes of Bihar have sacred space wholly earmarked in the house for the spirits. Since the fear of infuriating dead ancestors haunts the tribal people. Breaking of epidemics and diseases can also occur due to some encroachment of several of the taboo. Some even believe that `hostile spirits`, `the ghosts of the dead`, are also responsible. Appeasing ancestral spirits is very important to the tribal people who also execute sacrifices , mainly of animals also , for propitiating the ancestors.

The list of total number of tribes of Bihar is as follows: