Religious Conviction of Santhals

The Santhals have their own philosophy of religion. They believe in worshiping the mother nature. The nature provides them with food, forest, wood, shelter, water and resources for their livelihood.
They dont believe in idol , statue or temple for god and rather worship , folksings and dance to the nature.
Their religious placer 'jaher' is a Sal tree or group of Sal trees to which they their worships in a community.

"Bonga"

Santhal Gods are referred to as the "bonga" which is reverenced as the supernatural spirit/force/power which itself is a form of the nature.
Santhals are the nature worshiper,
assuming the nature as the form of their own life. In a way they worship and believe in all the natural resources around them which influence their livelihood they
respect it, worship it, sing folk songs for it and dance for it.

"Marangburu"

Marang buru is the most important spirit of Santhals.
The literal meaning of Marangburu is the Great Mountains. Marang means "the great" and buru means the "mountains".
The whole nature is Marangburu and it does'nt possess any fave, idol or statue. 

Da, hoy, dharti, sengel, dhiri ( the water, air, land, fire, rock) are the elements of the nature which belongs to the Marangburu.
Marangburu is worshiped in the
shape of nature. It is totally wrong to consider
him as ‘God’. In actual, this nature is
believed to be ‘Marangburu’ who gives them everything
rain, water, air, land, forest everything that is present in this nature  they use in their life and this is what where they show their gratitude, respect towards nature by worshiping, dancing and singing.
They worship ‘SUN’ who gives the light and energy and thus santhals call it ‘Sin Bonga’ . Sin means ‘Day’ or ‘Light’ and Bonga means
God in Santali .

The worshiping of the santhals is more Practical than a hokum or just a belief. Nature is the greatest strength of the earth as it created the human, creatures, and everything that is on earth. The nature and thus marang buru controls everything in on the earth . It can be considered as a supernatural power/spirit, thus the Sathals believe marangburu as a power or spirit which helps them and blesses their hardwork. It helps them through hard and though times like droughts or heavy rains and also blessess them with pleasant harvest and water.  It causes the disaster outrages, diseases, epidemics but on other hand blesses them with mercy and cure.

"Folksongs and Dances"

The folksong and dance of the Santals is not just a fanciful song sung
in rejoice, togetherness, and festive mood.
It is also an Elaboration and Explanation of natural phenomena and  its inexplicable
events, but a method of expressing inexplicable events
certain ways of thinking and
Feeling about the facts of life and how they are
interlinked with the almighty ‘Nature’.

In a gist nature is found everywhere in Santhal culture , let it be the rituals, dance, songs, worship, nature is involved and it deeply influence and expounds the convition of the Santhal community.