Introduction :- 

The tribes of Jharkhand consist of 32 tribes (8 primitive) inhabiting the Jharkhand state in India. Birhor people are a tribal/Adivasi forest people, traditionally nomadic, living primarily in the Indian state of Jharkhand. They speak the Birhor language, which belongs to the Munda group of languages of the Austroasiatic language family.

Birhor means jungle people - bir means jungle, hor mean men.The Birhors are of short stature, long head, wavy hair and broad nose. They claim they have descended from the Sun and believe that the Kharwars, who also trace their descent from the Sun, are their brothers. Ethnologically, they are akin to the Santals, Mundas, and Hos.

Birhors are found mainly in the area covered by the old Hazaribagh, Ranchi and Singhbhum districts before these were broken down into numerous smaller units, in Jharkhand. Some of them are also found in Orissa, Chhattisgarh and West Bengal.

They are one of the smaller of the thirty scheduled tribes inhabiting Jharkhand.Birhors number around 10,000.

Culture:- 

• Language :- They speak the Birhor language, which belongs to the Munda group of languages of the Austroasiatic language family. Their language has similarities with Santali, Mundari and Ho languages. Birhors have a positive language attitude. They freely use the languages prevalent in the areas they move around and use Sadri Santali, Ho, Mundari. Literacy rate in the first language was as low as 0.02 percent in 1971, but around 10 per cent were literate in Hindi.
• Religion:- he traditional magico-religious beliefs of Birhors are akin to those of the Hos. Mundari deities such as Sing Bonga (Sun God) and Hapram (ancestral spirits) rank high in esteem. Though the Hapram are believed to live in the supernatural world along with the Bonga, the Birhors make a distinction between these two categories of supernatural spirits. Hapram are placed just below the Bonga.
• The Birhors think that the entire universe has been created and presided over by Sing Bonga and his wife Chandu Bonga. They are worshipped in the months of Pous and Magh.
• Family and marriage :- The family is the smallest unit of Birhor society. Traditional inheritance follows the male line. The husband-wife relationship is very cordial. They dress in a manner similar to their settled neighbours, using mostly traditional Indian dress with some western influence. Women are fond of ornaments. They are divided into a number of totemic clans named after plants, birds, animals, rivers, etc,
• Birhor follow rules of tribal and clan endogamy. A Birhor boy is supposed to get married with a Birhor girl, but the clan of the boy and the girl should not be same. Tandas or bands have families of different clans but they follow the rule of tanda exogamy. At the time of marriage, the blood relationship is explored. The marriage between a boy and a girl is possible only when they are not related up to three generations from the father’s and the mother’s side.
• Birhors follow the practice of bride price. When the child attains the marriageable age, it is responsibility of the father to get his son or daughter married. As per traditional custom the father of the boy approaches the father of the girl. When the latter agrees, the father of the boy settles the bride price with father of the girl and the marriage is fixed. 
• Settlement :-  The temporary Birhor settlements are known as tandas or bands. These consist of at least half a dozen huts of conical shape, erected with leaves and branches. The household possessions traditionally consisted of earthen utensils, some digging implements, implements for hunting and trapping, rope making implements, baskets and so on. In recent times aluminium and steel have found their way into Birhor huts.