Abo-Teni

Abo Teni (alternative spelling: Abo-Teni), a primal animist shaman sought to have possessed supernatural powers, was the founder of the Donyi-Polo religion.

According to a Donyi-Polo mantra, Abo Teni was a yak shepherd in Tibet who attained enlightenment following sixty days of fasting along the bank of the Brahmaputra River. By communicating with passing falcons in his dream-like state, he obtained the wisdom of animals and spirits. After this remarkable experience, Abo Teni started to preach to fellow Tibetans and urged them to worship the sun and the moon instead of their usual gods.

As Abo Teni's new cult grew across southern Tibet, the orthodox local tribal authorities eventually considered Abo Teni to be a threat to the existing regime and asked for foreign help to eradicate Abo Teni's followers. A malevolent Hellenized Sassanid general named Tiberius Lowang led troops into Tibet, persecuted Abo Teni's cult, and forced Abo Teni to flee south to the hills of Dalaran (in modern day Arunachal Pradesh).

While in Dalaran, Abo Teni laboured tirelessly to bring the warring native tribes together via unifying the existing animist religions. The leaders of prominent local tribal clans were awestruck by Abo Teni's wisdom and told their kinsmen to convert to the new religion. The tribes that accepted the newly-integrated religion include the Adi, the Apa Tani, and the Nishi. In fact, the Nishis claimed Abo Teni as their ancestor while the Adis claimed to be the lost descendants of Abo Teni. These people now worship the celestial objects such as the sun and the moon as well as their original jungle spirits.

Donyi-Polo legends had been passed down orally for centuries until shamans developed their own mantras primarily due to later influences by Hinduism.