Nongtalang is a border Village on the Southern slope of the Country’s bordering with Bangladesh and by radius the village will be less than 2 K.M. from the international border. It is also one of the oldest villages in the War Jaintia region of Jaintia Hills District and the village is about 33 K.M. away from Jowai the District Headquarter. The War Jaintias (as the people who lived in this area are commonly known) apart from being a sub tribe of Khasi Jaintia people of Meghalaya, they also have their own distinct dialect (also called War) that neither the Pnar of Jaintia of the Khasi can understand. Scholars in the Khasi of Khasi language are of the opinion that the War Jaintia dialect of Amwi area is the mother or the origin of the Khasi language..
Nongtalang Village, which has a population of not less than 10000 according to the 2001 census, is predominantly Niamtynrai (traditional Khasi religion) population. Even the Headman of the village has a dual role to play that of a Lyngdoh (Religious head or High Priest of the Niamtynrai) and the Village Chieftain. Therefore it is mandatory that he should be from the Lyngdoh Rad Clan because he has a religious role to play and his tenure of Office depends as long as he enjoy the confident of the Dorbar Kor or the grand council of the Village.
Nobody can tell as to when the Rong Khla, which means tiger festival, started, but some are of the opinion that the Tiger festival has its origin in the inter tribal battle in which the victor carries home the trophies or the heads of the vanquished, which gradually gave way to the more sensible use of Tiger head instead.
Legends have it that the First Settlers of Nongtalang village was u Shitang Rymbai and his wife, a lady from the Talang clan. Being a Matrilineal Society, the Talang became the (Brahmins) Priest Clan of the village that performs all the religious aspect of the whole community in the village and the Priesthood in the village can only pass from the mother to a son and even the village was called Nongtalang which literarily means the village of the Talangs. Those who came to settle at Nongtalang along with the Rymbui clan of Shitang and the Talang were the Pohsnem (Lamin in Nongtalang), Myrchiang, Bareh and Pohti. These are the earliest settlers of the Village and were known as the “5 Thwui 6 kur”.
The tradition has it that whenever any of from the 6 Clan or any villagers in the village caught a tiger, certain rituals has to be performed to appease the “Kpong” the hunting deity, which in fact is the beginning of the Religious part of the Festival. So if it was member of the Pohsnem Clan who caught a tiger, after performing the required rituals at the clan level, “u Kni” the Maternal Uncle of the Pohsnem clan informed the Lyndoh who summoned the Dorbar to discuss and decide on the date of the Festival. The tradition is that one month before the festival begins, the village drummers as a part of preparation for the coming of the Festival beat their drums in the whole village for a month together.
After the Tiger is killed, it was kept in the outskirt of the village till the required rituals are completed.
The festival began with the ritual of entering the tiger on the first day when men folks of the village gathered at the Rymmusan ground, which is the center of the village. Under the leadership of the Doloi of the Elaka, the Lyngdoh and the Myntris of the Niamtynrai of the village performed a ritual paying homage to the creator. The entire village then marched towards the place where the Tiger was kept and brought the dead tiger to the village with the villagers dancing to the tune of the drums and the tangmuri. The Tiger was kept at Rymmusan and male members of the village dance till dawn to keep the tiger company. In fact the entry or the ushering of the dead Tiger to the villages is in itself the beginning of the Festival.
In the evening of the next day, it is the turn of the young ladies, damsels of the village appears in their best of fineries and “Kaelang” perform their dance accompanying by the traditional drums, flute till the next day. While the damsel of the village was dancing, the village folk would pin money on their jain sem as a token of appreciation gesture of …
The next day was a ‘D’ day and the climax of the Festival. Young men of the village dressed in their best of fineries and their Traditional Warrior Attire collected at their respective localities and then moved to Rymmusan Play ground with the music of drums and flute to meet the other groups. At Rymmusan the youths in the garb of a warrior; dance to the beat of the drums and the sound of the Tangmuri. The Warriors led by the Shaman who carried the Leopard, moved to the host clan to perform some religious ceremonies. After the rituals were completed, the Warriors with “Shuri” a Sword on one of their hand and Symphiah on the other performed “Mastieh” Warrior Dance fighting each other in a duel. The Warrior again led by the Shaman carry the Leopard to the residence of the Priest’s and the seat of the Niamtynrai. Similar ceremony was also conducted here with the Warriors giving a final touch of the ceremony by performing their Warrior Dance again. After the ceremony at the Priest House, the procession then moved to the “Phlong Amlariang” the eastern tip of the village here too a ritual was performed followed by the Warrior Dance performed by the Youths. The last part of the Religious Ceremony of the Festival was conducted at the “Phlong Shep shngai” Western tip of the village. On reaching the Phlong, the Warrior again presented their dance, which is the last of their presentation in the festival. Then the Elders of the Niamtynrai at Nongtalang gave devotion to appease the gods and seek their guidance and blessings, after that the maternal uncle of the host clan then cut the tiger’s head. The severed Leopard’s head was then put on a stick and was erected at the Phlong to rid off evil spirit. The severed body was then thrown away and the dried meat was distributed to any one who wish to part take it.
If the day belongs to the men, the night was the women show. Just after the Sun set over the plains of Bangladesh, Women particularly girls, assembled at Rymmusan at as soon as the Nongput Tangmuri” blew his Tangmuri the girls took to the ground and performed their “Kaelang” Dance. Girls in their ceremonial dresses and best of their ornaments moved in a slow pace to the melodic tune of the Tangmuri. As the girls’ dances, well wishers pin money on the gown of the girls that hang from shoulder to back. The money is a token of love and affection and also a sign of appreciating for their splendid performance. The night also witnesses the Tangmuri blowing competition in which professional tangmuri blower from the whole region took part.
It is interesting to note that though the festival has to do with killing a tiger and that may not be music to the ears of the Environmentalist and the Animals right protection group, in fact it is the otherwise. It is said that no body can kill tiger in the village at his whims and fancy, because if he do so, he will have to perform the rituals and ultimately the Festival, and the tradition is that only one festival can be celebrated in a year. So anybody who by chance encountered with a tiger will have to let it go and he can kill it only by chance he encountered against it at the right time. The festival is therefore not only worshipping the Tiger but it is in one-way of conserving the tiger population, because it prohibits drastic killing of Tigers.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Unitarianism In The Khasi Jaintia Hills an Indigenous Religion
Unlike other Christian denomination, Unitarianism in Khasi Jaintia hills and Karbi Anglong district of Assam was not started by the missionaries. It was started by our own son of the soil Hajom Kissor Singh Nongbri along with three of his followers. Like in any other place HKS too was a disenchanted Christian looking for an alternative religion. He realized that the holy trinity was unscriptural and looks for a church which worships one God similar to what the ancestors had taught and practiced. He was introduced to an American Unitarian in Calcutta and through him managed to get the famous William Ellery Channing sermon Unitarian Christianity. After reading the tracks and scripture HKS found his spiritual home and held a first Unitarian worship on the 18 of September 1887 in Jowai.
Unitarianism in the Khasi Jaintia and Karbi Anglong claimed to be an indigenous religion is not based merely on the fact that it was started by a native person, but Unitarian church is an indigenous religion because the faith draws immense inspiration from the basic thoughts and philosophy of the tribal people.
To understand the Khasi hills where the Unitarian during HK Singh’s life time, one must understand that from a religious point of view, there are two main divisions in the area, the Christians block and the Indigenous religion which comprises of the Khasi who still uphold the Khasi traditional religion as practice by our ancestors. I use to say the Unitarian is a middle path of the two traditions. It it’s a liberal religion based on the liberal Christian tradition but with strong roots on the basic Khasi values, philosophy, belief and understanding.
After reading Channing and many other Unitarian scripture that CHA Dahl sends to HKS, he was convinced that Unitarianism is what he was looking for. So, on September 18, 1887, Singh held the first service for Unitarians in Northeast India in the town of Jowai. His genius in incorporating the best of the teachings of the missionaries with the indigenous faith of his people, including a belief in One Creative Power that is formless and manifest in nature and everywhere, continues to be the unique character Unitarianism in North East India.
In 1888 the Unitarians adopted a statement of faith. It read: We believe in the unity of God; the fatherhood and motherhood of God; in the brotherhood of Man; in love, union, worship, and faith; and in Immortality.
This in fact it sums up the basic belief of the Unitarians in the North East India. The first hyms in the Khasi hymn book composed by Hajom Kissor Singh himslef is on this basic principle and we call it “Ki jor tynrai ka niam U Blei” The essence of the church of God. In the four stanza hymn, in the second stanza HKS described God as the Father and mother by which he mean as I was given to understand it, God in spirit or God beyond gender. God the creator and the lord of all things whom the Khasi has known from time immemorial. Though the Khasi has been using the word Lord, it does not necessarily connote the western concept of the meaning as in the Second person of God. For the Khasi since time immemorial whenever they invoke the name of God they tend to use the two names God and Lord simultaneously. The Unitarian does the same till these days.
In the third stanza he was talking about the brotherhood and sisterhood of human in spirit. Or in other words; in spirit, the entire human race is one big family.
The fourth stanza is interesting because here he was talking about the life of the spirit, that the spirit never dies, the spirit lives on. To understand this concept, one must also understand the Khasi tribe’s own understanding of life after dead and to understand that one must also know the genesis of the Khasi people. The Khasi Mythologies have it that originally there were a 16 huts in heaven, 7 came down to the earth to farm by day and return to heaven by night through a tree on hill called the navel of heaven. The devil was able to convince the 7 huts to cut the tree and cut their connection with God and the 9 huts above. To cut the long story short the 7 became the first settlers on earth and the 9 remain with God in heaven. When some one dies; the Khasi says that he will go eat bettlenut in the corridor of God’s house along with the 9 huts. To understand the important of bettlenut in the Khasi tradition one need to know another story, a story of how bettlenut became the first gesture of hospitality that any Khasi family will bestow on its guest. But from the many hymns that he had composed HKS define the place where the spirit will go after it parted ways with the body as the Kingdom of the spirit “Ka ri ki mynsiem.”
Though HKS statement of faith still hold good to this day in the Unitarian Union, the church also teaches me to be open and respect other belief. The Khasi traditional wisdom is a very rich, hence as a Unitarian I draw immense inspiration from our ancestral wisdom and it indeed enriches me spiritually.
The Khasi’s traditional wisdom and understanding of the nature is not only unique but it is also proves that the Khasi’s understanding of the nature is both profound and relevant. Before the world has even start talking about the equality of human being not to mention the interdependent web of existence, the Khasi’s already has it in their myths and legends that all creations are equal. The Khasi traditionally believed that in the day of the yore, the golden era of the Khasi or the virgin age, human and animals were not only talking to each other, but they even lived as one equal creation of God.
The Khasi belief that during the golden era the whole creation live as one big family, they talk to each other as they understand each other, they shop from a same market. One day in the market of chaos (Iew Lurilura), a Dog brought fermented beans to sell in the market. It has a foul smell and fellow animals condemned Dog of selling its excretion, they teased the Dog and kicked and trampled on the Dog’s fermented beans. Since then out of anger the Dog decide to stay with human and become human’s companion. But the market episode has given the dog a special ability. Because the whole animals has kick and tramapled on the dog’s fermented beans, the smells remain in their feet, so till now Dogs can smell animal scent where ever they are.
Most of our stories are woven around the mystery of life as encountered by our ancestors, so we have stories like the one earlier, which answer to our ancestor understanding, the question where does human come from? And where do they go after they die? And we a story provide an answer to a question why did the rooster crow in the morning? What are the marks on the moon?
The Mythology of the moon, the sun and the rooster is one example. The story have it that long long time ago; it came to pass one day, that the moon who is the younger brother of the sun, fell in love with his own beautiful sister, this is not only an incest but by Khasi culture and tradition; it is a taboo. The angered sun shower ashes on the moon and then out of embarrassment went to hide in the pitch dark cave known as ‘krem lamet, krem latang.’ The world was in complete darkness because the sun rises no more and there was complete chaos everywhere because the whole creation was literarily left in the dark. A grand council of the whole creation was summoned to find out ways and means to request the sun to comeback again. The council send the ryngkoh-kit-knor; the hornbill to woo the sun back, instead the sun hit him on his beak because he too was trying to seduce this beautiful damsel. Finally the grand council of all creation agreed to send the rooster a humble animal who humbly agreed to the proposal of the council. The rooster was able to convince the sun to come shine again on the earth but with one condition, that the rooster will have to crow three times every day for the sun to come back again. Since then the rooster has earned itself the right to be the mediator, the interlocutor for the people not only with the sun but even with the creator.
The inter-dependent web of existence in the Khasi context is not only among earthly creation namely animals; but it is even inter-planetary. The other folk story of the Khasi with a similar inter-planetary connection is the tragic love story of the sun and the peacock and how the tear drops of the sun crying for her loved one became the beautiful mark and patterns in the peacock’s feather. The story of how the thunder was attracted by the glittering sword of one animal a Lynx (Kui) in the warrior dance organized by both human and animals that he came down and asked kui to let him hold and sword and dance with it for few moment, but the Thunder while dancing and holding the dazzling sword upright like any warrior dancer, he flew to the sky and took along the Kui sword with him to the sky. So the lightning and the thunder that follows is the Thunder performing his warrior dance in the sky.
The two major Khasi Pnar Royal families also has a divine origin, the story of the Jaintia monarch begin with Lo Ryndi caught a fish from the river Waikhyrwi, by divine intervention he forgot to cook the fish and left it on the tier over his hearth where people traditionally dried their food so that it won’t get spoiled. As time goes the fish became a beautiful woman to whom he married and the children of the fish-turned-human became the first royal family of Jaintia Kingdom. The royal family of the Khyriem and Mylliem state of the Khasi hills is also believed to have a divine origin, the legends have it that u Lei Shillong or Shillong god has three children, ka Ngot, ka Iew and ka Pahsyntiew, the two elder sister become river and are known as Umngot and Umiew, while the youngest sister became a beautiful girl and lived all by herself in the Marai cave and she is known as ka Pahsyntiew. Pahsyntiew or court by using flowers became the great grand mother of the Royal family of Shillong. The Khasi believed that the rivers are not mere rivers but they too have a persona, the story of the Lukha river, the Lunar and the Lynju river that they were sisters like any human being is one example of this fundamental believe. The Passah of Jaintia hills till now would not cross the Kupli without giving the river some offering because the Kupli is the great great grandmother of the Passah clan and Yale Kupli’s husband who was represented by a beautiful waterfall that was lost forever in the Kupli hydro project is their great great grand father. In the Jaintia hills, the Myntdu and Myntang river not only have personality but in the case of Myntdu which flow around Jowai, the river was worship as the guardian angel and sacrifice was offered to the goddess every now and then and it is a taboo for anybody to defecate or pass urine in the river. The Khasi also believe that water is divine (umksiar um rupa) which is God’s gift and all the rivers are sacred.
Sacred groves, is another illustration of the Khasi Pnar’s respect and reverence for the nature, sacred forest as the name implies are considered sacred in the sense that the entire area is protected and the forest is kept untouched by any human hands. The sacred groves in many cases are believed to be the places where the god u Ryngkew u Basa dwells. Traditionally the Khasi Pnar would not cut any tree at random or at one’s own whims and fancy, before cutting a tree Khasi Pnar use to pray paying obeisance to God and asking forgiveness for cutting the tree for his own needs.
I’m proud of my roots and like I say Unitarianism in the Khasi hills is the middle path of the two traditions, hence it is like taking the good things from both the tradition to grow spiritually as an individual and as a denomination.
Unitarianism in the Khasi Jaintia and Karbi Anglong claimed to be an indigenous religion is not based merely on the fact that it was started by a native person, but Unitarian church is an indigenous religion because the faith draws immense inspiration from the basic thoughts and philosophy of the tribal people.
To understand the Khasi hills where the Unitarian during HK Singh’s life time, one must understand that from a religious point of view, there are two main divisions in the area, the Christians block and the Indigenous religion which comprises of the Khasi who still uphold the Khasi traditional religion as practice by our ancestors. I use to say the Unitarian is a middle path of the two traditions. It it’s a liberal religion based on the liberal Christian tradition but with strong roots on the basic Khasi values, philosophy, belief and understanding.
After reading Channing and many other Unitarian scripture that CHA Dahl sends to HKS, he was convinced that Unitarianism is what he was looking for. So, on September 18, 1887, Singh held the first service for Unitarians in Northeast India in the town of Jowai. His genius in incorporating the best of the teachings of the missionaries with the indigenous faith of his people, including a belief in One Creative Power that is formless and manifest in nature and everywhere, continues to be the unique character Unitarianism in North East India.
In 1888 the Unitarians adopted a statement of faith. It read: We believe in the unity of God; the fatherhood and motherhood of God; in the brotherhood of Man; in love, union, worship, and faith; and in Immortality.
This in fact it sums up the basic belief of the Unitarians in the North East India. The first hyms in the Khasi hymn book composed by Hajom Kissor Singh himslef is on this basic principle and we call it “Ki jor tynrai ka niam U Blei” The essence of the church of God. In the four stanza hymn, in the second stanza HKS described God as the Father and mother by which he mean as I was given to understand it, God in spirit or God beyond gender. God the creator and the lord of all things whom the Khasi has known from time immemorial. Though the Khasi has been using the word Lord, it does not necessarily connote the western concept of the meaning as in the Second person of God. For the Khasi since time immemorial whenever they invoke the name of God they tend to use the two names God and Lord simultaneously. The Unitarian does the same till these days.
In the third stanza he was talking about the brotherhood and sisterhood of human in spirit. Or in other words; in spirit, the entire human race is one big family.
The fourth stanza is interesting because here he was talking about the life of the spirit, that the spirit never dies, the spirit lives on. To understand this concept, one must also understand the Khasi tribe’s own understanding of life after dead and to understand that one must also know the genesis of the Khasi people. The Khasi Mythologies have it that originally there were a 16 huts in heaven, 7 came down to the earth to farm by day and return to heaven by night through a tree on hill called the navel of heaven. The devil was able to convince the 7 huts to cut the tree and cut their connection with God and the 9 huts above. To cut the long story short the 7 became the first settlers on earth and the 9 remain with God in heaven. When some one dies; the Khasi says that he will go eat bettlenut in the corridor of God’s house along with the 9 huts. To understand the important of bettlenut in the Khasi tradition one need to know another story, a story of how bettlenut became the first gesture of hospitality that any Khasi family will bestow on its guest. But from the many hymns that he had composed HKS define the place where the spirit will go after it parted ways with the body as the Kingdom of the spirit “Ka ri ki mynsiem.”
Though HKS statement of faith still hold good to this day in the Unitarian Union, the church also teaches me to be open and respect other belief. The Khasi traditional wisdom is a very rich, hence as a Unitarian I draw immense inspiration from our ancestral wisdom and it indeed enriches me spiritually.
The Khasi’s traditional wisdom and understanding of the nature is not only unique but it is also proves that the Khasi’s understanding of the nature is both profound and relevant. Before the world has even start talking about the equality of human being not to mention the interdependent web of existence, the Khasi’s already has it in their myths and legends that all creations are equal. The Khasi traditionally believed that in the day of the yore, the golden era of the Khasi or the virgin age, human and animals were not only talking to each other, but they even lived as one equal creation of God.
The Khasi belief that during the golden era the whole creation live as one big family, they talk to each other as they understand each other, they shop from a same market. One day in the market of chaos (Iew Lurilura), a Dog brought fermented beans to sell in the market. It has a foul smell and fellow animals condemned Dog of selling its excretion, they teased the Dog and kicked and trampled on the Dog’s fermented beans. Since then out of anger the Dog decide to stay with human and become human’s companion. But the market episode has given the dog a special ability. Because the whole animals has kick and tramapled on the dog’s fermented beans, the smells remain in their feet, so till now Dogs can smell animal scent where ever they are.
Most of our stories are woven around the mystery of life as encountered by our ancestors, so we have stories like the one earlier, which answer to our ancestor understanding, the question where does human come from? And where do they go after they die? And we a story provide an answer to a question why did the rooster crow in the morning? What are the marks on the moon?
The Mythology of the moon, the sun and the rooster is one example. The story have it that long long time ago; it came to pass one day, that the moon who is the younger brother of the sun, fell in love with his own beautiful sister, this is not only an incest but by Khasi culture and tradition; it is a taboo. The angered sun shower ashes on the moon and then out of embarrassment went to hide in the pitch dark cave known as ‘krem lamet, krem latang.’ The world was in complete darkness because the sun rises no more and there was complete chaos everywhere because the whole creation was literarily left in the dark. A grand council of the whole creation was summoned to find out ways and means to request the sun to comeback again. The council send the ryngkoh-kit-knor; the hornbill to woo the sun back, instead the sun hit him on his beak because he too was trying to seduce this beautiful damsel. Finally the grand council of all creation agreed to send the rooster a humble animal who humbly agreed to the proposal of the council. The rooster was able to convince the sun to come shine again on the earth but with one condition, that the rooster will have to crow three times every day for the sun to come back again. Since then the rooster has earned itself the right to be the mediator, the interlocutor for the people not only with the sun but even with the creator.
The inter-dependent web of existence in the Khasi context is not only among earthly creation namely animals; but it is even inter-planetary. The other folk story of the Khasi with a similar inter-planetary connection is the tragic love story of the sun and the peacock and how the tear drops of the sun crying for her loved one became the beautiful mark and patterns in the peacock’s feather. The story of how the thunder was attracted by the glittering sword of one animal a Lynx (Kui) in the warrior dance organized by both human and animals that he came down and asked kui to let him hold and sword and dance with it for few moment, but the Thunder while dancing and holding the dazzling sword upright like any warrior dancer, he flew to the sky and took along the Kui sword with him to the sky. So the lightning and the thunder that follows is the Thunder performing his warrior dance in the sky.
The two major Khasi Pnar Royal families also has a divine origin, the story of the Jaintia monarch begin with Lo Ryndi caught a fish from the river Waikhyrwi, by divine intervention he forgot to cook the fish and left it on the tier over his hearth where people traditionally dried their food so that it won’t get spoiled. As time goes the fish became a beautiful woman to whom he married and the children of the fish-turned-human became the first royal family of Jaintia Kingdom. The royal family of the Khyriem and Mylliem state of the Khasi hills is also believed to have a divine origin, the legends have it that u Lei Shillong or Shillong god has three children, ka Ngot, ka Iew and ka Pahsyntiew, the two elder sister become river and are known as Umngot and Umiew, while the youngest sister became a beautiful girl and lived all by herself in the Marai cave and she is known as ka Pahsyntiew. Pahsyntiew or court by using flowers became the great grand mother of the Royal family of Shillong. The Khasi believed that the rivers are not mere rivers but they too have a persona, the story of the Lukha river, the Lunar and the Lynju river that they were sisters like any human being is one example of this fundamental believe. The Passah of Jaintia hills till now would not cross the Kupli without giving the river some offering because the Kupli is the great great grandmother of the Passah clan and Yale Kupli’s husband who was represented by a beautiful waterfall that was lost forever in the Kupli hydro project is their great great grand father. In the Jaintia hills, the Myntdu and Myntang river not only have personality but in the case of Myntdu which flow around Jowai, the river was worship as the guardian angel and sacrifice was offered to the goddess every now and then and it is a taboo for anybody to defecate or pass urine in the river. The Khasi also believe that water is divine (umksiar um rupa) which is God’s gift and all the rivers are sacred.
Sacred groves, is another illustration of the Khasi Pnar’s respect and reverence for the nature, sacred forest as the name implies are considered sacred in the sense that the entire area is protected and the forest is kept untouched by any human hands. The sacred groves in many cases are believed to be the places where the god u Ryngkew u Basa dwells. Traditionally the Khasi Pnar would not cut any tree at random or at one’s own whims and fancy, before cutting a tree Khasi Pnar use to pray paying obeisance to God and asking forgiveness for cutting the tree for his own needs.
I’m proud of my roots and like I say Unitarianism in the Khasi hills is the middle path of the two traditions, hence it is like taking the good things from both the tradition to grow spiritually as an individual and as a denomination.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Hajom Kissor Singh
Kissor was the older of two sons of Bor Singh, a police sergeant in Jowai, a town in the mountainous, Northeastern most corner of India where the Jaintia Hills and the Khasi Hills meet. The Khasi people, a tribe that had come to India from Southeast Asia, had their own non-Hindu religion featuring belief in a creator God, and whose shamanistic practice was based upon the propitiation of good, evil, and ancestor spirits. “In the Khasi religion at present,” Singh wrote in 1891, “there are thousand of demons and many rites and customs. I believe our forefathers had few demons, and I have heard from old people that at first our forefathers worshipped and offered sacrifices to God and not to demons.”
Until about 25 years Kissor’s birth, the Khasi language had no script. Welsh Calvinistic Methodist missionaries created the first Khasi text when they produced a Khasi translation of the Bible. Thereafter, they opened the first schools and printed primers and a book of grammar.
At age 15 Singh converted to the Reform faith of the Welsh missionaries. By the time he reached the age when he might have matriculated from college, he had acquired the means of self-education. He was a good student, especially of religion. This led him to become a “questioning member” of the Methodist Church, doubting orthodox Christianity. He recorded his difficultied, concerns and original thinking in a diary which demonstrates a keen mind, precocious wisdom, and compassion.
Singh observed that the Welsh missionaries had done away with fear of demons, only to replace it with fear of hell. He deplored their hostility to Catholic missionaries wishing to settle in the Khasi Hills, as well as their unfriendliness to himself when he concluded from his studies that he would have to leave their church to seek “the true religion of Jesus, the love of God.”
Margaret Barr, a British Unitarian, served the Khasi Unitarian Comminity after Singh’S time. She wrote of his religious outlook, “He felt and declared that the message of election, damnation and salvation-by going to a certain church and profession of a certain creed- was incompatible with the teachings of Jesus as he read for himself in the Gospels… He tried to persuade his fellow Christians that the essence of Christianity was to be found in Christ’s way of life and scale of values and not in any scheme of salvation by blood or faith… whether Pauline or Calvinistic.”
Young Singh had reached classic Unitarian convictions and had begun appealing to others to see their merit, without knowing that anyone else in the world thought as he did. When he was 25, he learned from a Brahmo convert (a member of the liberal Hindu Brahmo Samaj-or Society of Brahman) of Charles Henry Appleton Dall, an American Unitarian minister in Calcutta. Dall, Singh was told, thought as he did. There soon ensued an excited exchange of letters between the two men. Dall sent a volume of the writings of William Ellery Channing. Singh suddenly understood that many others, called Unitarians, shared his faith. Thereafter he called his faith “Ka Niam Unitarian” (The Unitarian Religion.)
Singh began gathering friends in his home for religious discussion. Dall continued to write to him, encouraging his efforts, and also sent more Unitarianism in the Khasi Hills but now that my helper has died it will be very diificult to do this alone.”
According to Singh’s biographer, before receiving Dall’s help he already had vision and faith, but he had lived in an intellectual vacuum and was much in need of links to a larger world of religious thought and history. Helen Tomkins took charge of the Unitarian Mission of the American Unitarian Association (AUA) after Dall’s death. She sent Singh copies of the Unitarian Magazine. He soon wrote to the magazine’s editor, Jabez T. Sunderland, who sent more literature.
On September 18, 1887, an anniversary date Khasi Unitarians celebrate, Singh led the first real church service in his home in Jowai. One woman and two men joined him as the first members of a new church. Around tjis same time u Heh Phlong, a man who lived about 20 miles away in the village of Nongtalang, received Channing’s writings and also broke from Calvinism. A little later a Khasi pastor, David Edwards, in the village of Raliang, became Unitarian and left his pastorate. These three joined their efforts to promote, “a religion which they could preach with conviction.” Of the three Kissor Singh was best educated, as well as a natural leader of great ability.
A statement of faith was adopted by the Khasi Unitarians, and reported in 1888 by Singh in the Unitarian” “We believe (1) in the unity of God; (2) in the Fatherhood and Motherhood of God; (3) in the Brotherhood of Man; (4) in Love, Union, Worship and Faith; and (5) in Immortality.”
Sunderland was a source of major assistance to the Khasi Unitarians. He solicited funds from Helen Bates and others of Waterville, Maine and used the money to publish 500 copies of Singh’s A Book of Services and Hymns in the Khasi Language, 1892. Funds from London were used for publication of several tracts in Khasi in 1893. By 1889 the Jowai congregation had gained 30 members who acquired a church building. They soon opened an elementary school, teaching in the Khasi language.
Justice in the Khasi Pnar Tribal Context
The Khasis- Pnar is one of the many tribal groups of the North Eastern Part of India and majority of the tribe live in the state of Meghalaya which is adjacent to Assam. Like any tribe; the Khasi-Pnar has a unique culture, tradition and language. The Khasi way of life is still govern to some extend by a Tribal way of life.
The Khasi word for Justice is “Ka Hok.” Ka hok also means Truth and Righteousness. So when the Khasi use the word Ka Hok it means Justice, Truth and Righteousness. The Khasi Justice system is based on truth and nothing but the truth and it also means delivering Justice Righteously. Even before any battle or a duel, the Khasi people will always swear by Ka Hok. Ka Hok in the Khasi-Pnar context is a sacred word; it is something that one will keep in a high esteem. Ka Hok governs the day to day life of the Khasi people and they try to live by it. One of the cardinal rules of the Khasi Pnar is known as “Kamai ia ka hok”, which literarily means to earn righteousness, so a Khasi Pnar is expects to try live righteously throughout one’s life.
The Unitarian Union North East India or the Khasi Unitarian as it is commonly known, is a church which has it roots in the Khasi-Pnar thoughts and culture and also being a liberal a religion it spread it wings to absorb truth and meaning from the wider world.
(Rev. H.H. Mohrmen is a minister in the Unitarian Union North East India; he is currently the General Secretary of the Unitarian Union. He was trained at the Unitarian college Manchester and he is also currently studying through distance education mode MA in Christian Studies from Madras University. Mohrmen also has his own Blog at hhmohrmen.blogspot.com his email ID is hh_mohrmen@yahoo.com. )
The Khasi word for Justice is “Ka Hok.” Ka hok also means Truth and Righteousness. So when the Khasi use the word Ka Hok it means Justice, Truth and Righteousness. The Khasi Justice system is based on truth and nothing but the truth and it also means delivering Justice Righteously. Even before any battle or a duel, the Khasi people will always swear by Ka Hok. Ka Hok in the Khasi-Pnar context is a sacred word; it is something that one will keep in a high esteem. Ka Hok governs the day to day life of the Khasi people and they try to live by it. One of the cardinal rules of the Khasi Pnar is known as “Kamai ia ka hok”, which literarily means to earn righteousness, so a Khasi Pnar is expects to try live righteously throughout one’s life.
The Unitarian Union North East India or the Khasi Unitarian as it is commonly known, is a church which has it roots in the Khasi-Pnar thoughts and culture and also being a liberal a religion it spread it wings to absorb truth and meaning from the wider world.
(Rev. H.H. Mohrmen is a minister in the Unitarian Union North East India; he is currently the General Secretary of the Unitarian Union. He was trained at the Unitarian college Manchester and he is also currently studying through distance education mode MA in Christian Studies from Madras University. Mohrmen also has his own Blog at hhmohrmen.blogspot.com his email ID is hh_mohrmen@yahoo.com. )
Concept of God in the Khasi Unitarian Context
H.H. Mohrmen
Concept of God in the Khasi Pnar Society
Traditionally the Khasi Pnar, the naitve of the Khasi and Jaintia hills of Meghalaya are monotheistic in their belief, the most common term or name by which the Khasi Pnar use to call God is ‘U Blei Nongbuh Nongthaw,’ God the Creator. Even though the Khasi Pnar believe in One God, they also pay obeisance to other deities like the hundreds of Nature gods and protectors (30 Ryngkaw Basa) and family deities (Blei iing), in their pantheon of Gods.
In his article KHASI CONCEPT OF RELIGION (Late) Dr. R.S. Lyngdoh Professor and Head, Khasi Department, North-Eastern Hills University , which was published in Centenary Souvenir of the Seng Khasi (1899-1999) defines as follows:
“They believe that at the beginning, they were the children of God in heaven as members of the Khadhynriew Trep Khadhynriew Skum- the sixteen huts the sixteen roots…From time immemorial, through the ageless unrecorded history, the Khasi have developed a definite idea about God and Man; about the existence of heaven, earth and hell; about the existence of the body and the soul; about the subjective and objective values; about sin and external truth; about the existence of evil spirits; and about the relationship between man and man, man and all values and man God. They have their own belief in the beginning and the end of all things and their belief in the beginning of creation.”
“The Khasi believe in one God called “Blei” who can manifest Himself in all forms and values. Mr. David Roy, in his celebrated article entitled “Khasi Religion” gives the following description of God Almighty: - U Blei Nongthaw Nongbuh – God the Creator of our bodies and the creation (Nongthaw), and God who fills up and fills the universe with life. U Blei Trai Kynrad – The Lord God and Master, U Blei Shihajar Nguh – God to whom all obeisance is due, U Blei na jrong na tbian – God who fills the heavens and the earth (the universe), God who is immanent and transcendent, U Blei U Nongsei – God who causes to be and to grow, U Blei Uba iohi Uba tip – God who sees and who knows – to whom nothing is hidden or unknown.”
Dr. H. Kelian Synrem again in the same souvenir in her article RELIGION OF THE KHASIS said, “The Khasi believes that U Blei the Creator is the Universal God who created everything living and non-living, big and small to be multiplied and to prosper in this beautiful wide world. According to the Khasi belief, U Blei created different races of mankind and in each race he gave different cultures and religions, different traditions and customs to be followed and in their own way of life.”
U Blei Nongthaw Nongbuh is not the only name that the Khasi Pnar uses to call God, they also have another name for God and that is ‘U Trai kynrad.’ Whether ‘U Trai Kynrad’ is Khasi translation of English ‘Lord’ which again derived from Greek word “Kyrios” is a matter of debate. Certainly in the Christian context; the using of word ‘U Trai’ connotes the New Testament concept of Lord which many times refer to the second person in the holy trinity which means Jesus Christ. This is what Christian churches assumes and would like others to believe that the name Trai that Khasi gives to their God has a Christian origin and hence a Christian meaning.
U Trai is not a post Khasi-Christian period invention, in the Khasi parlance, the term has been in use since time immemorial. Apart from using the name God, the Khasi also use the word Kynrad or U Trai Kynrad in paying obeisance to God Almighty. Incidentally the word Trai in Khasi also has the same meaning with that of the English Lord, which means owner, foundation, foothold etc.
In the context of the Pnar or the indigenous people of Jaintia hills, they use two terms when refer to God. God the creator, ‘U Blai wabuh wathoo’ which is identical to Khasi Blei Nongbuh Nongthaw and God in English and “Tre Kirot” which is equivalent to Lord. The word “Tre” in the Pnar parlance literarily means Owner, Lord, foundation, foothold or roots. “Kirot” means Caring and Compassionate and the other meaning of Kirot is bountiful and perfect. Tre Kirot literarily means bountiful Lord the caring and compassionate one.
The War Jaintia, which is a sub tribe of the Khasi, people who live in the southern slopes of Jaintia Hills, speaks a Khasi language which is quite different from the other dialect use by the other Khasi sub tribe. Infact scholars believe that the Amwi dialect spoken by the people of War Jaintia is the foundation of the whole Khasi language. And in the War Jaintia dialect there is only one word for God and that is “Prai”. There is no one word equivalent to Lord in the war Jaintia, but just “Prai u ae thia” which literarily means “U Blei Nongthaw” in Khasi and its English translation is God the Creator. Whether ‘Prai’ means both God and Lord is another question, but base on the evidence use by the War Jaintia people, ‘Prai’ which incidentally similar to both ‘Trai and Blai” in the Pnar language, connotes the same meaning.
H.K. Singh’s concept of God as appeared in the Unitarian Hymnal.
It is obvious from the hymns that he composed; Hamjom Kissor Singh’s concept of God is that of a traditional Khasi Pnar concept, God the Creator and who is both God and Lord at the same time. Like the traditional concept, he does not differentiate one from the other.
In his Statement of belief, of H.K. Singh in the stanza 2 of the hymn number 1 in the Khasi Unitarian hymnbook describes his idea of God as ‘The living God is one only God/ He is our real father-mother/He is filled with love and compassion/ And forgive those who repent.’
By calling God of being both “Father and Mother” entity; HK Singh went a step ahead the traditional concept of a male creator God, his concept of God is God beyond gender. This is the uniqueness of Khasi Unitarian theology that although generally God is referred to as male even in the Khasi matrilineal society, yet God is beyond gender. Although Khasi Pnar tend to use the prefix ‘U’ before the word God which represents the male gender of God, Khasi Pnar have no image of God and their concept of God is more of a spirit which pervades. Singh’s concept of God beyond gender and more of a formless spirit in nature is Khasi’s own concept of God.
HK Singh further elaborate his idea of God in hymn no 61 when he said, Sing God’s praise; Lord of heaven and earth,/ His wisdom unfathomable,/ All creation on earth and in heaven,/ Is living proof of his greatness all over./Sing God’s praise, Lord of stars and moon,/ He is filled with glory, righteousness and lights;/ All things that we see,/ He made thus to teach us. Sing God’s praise, he is our mother and father;/Giver of spiritual light, He blesses us too./ He is loving, forgiving and wishes that,/We love our neighbors, do good and live courteously.
Sing God’s praise, Lord of lords, King of kings/Lord of life and death Lord of the spirit/ Lord of times is also Lord of seasons,/ Peace be unto us who worship him eternally. In the hymn number 5, HK Singh says: One God/ One truth/ One true religion. In the hymn no 22 of the Unitarian hymnal, he says, One God, one church/ One people, one mission/ Love God love friends/Live a blessed life.
In Hymn number 59 he further said, Praise the Lord vociferously, / Our Creator, / Care giver, Keeper and benefactor/ He is the greatest Lord. /With God support/ Heaven and earth last forever;/ by divine love and grace,/ He showed us way of life. /He bestowed wisdom on us,/ Lights, Spiritual consolation too;/ Understanding and overall progress,/ And plant love inside us. /That we may attain perfection/ Peace in him we’ll find;/ In love we’ll flourish forever/ We’ll all live in peace with God.
Hymn number 70 when translated says /Sing sweet praise for God,/ Spirit filled with joy,/ We only trust his benevolent / That flows and flood forever. /In his benevolent, / We live and were blessed;/ Only he can quench the thirst,/Of a dry and thirsty soul. /There is no other like God,/ In heaven and earth;/ Fill with love and forgiveness/ For us to give and fill. /Let us sing to the Lord,/ Kneeling we’ll pray;/ Our souls will be enlightened,/ With perfect peace.
In the stanza 1of hymn number 137 he says, /Oh God who is eternally wise / Creator and everlasting provider/ Heaven and earth cannot/ encompass all your riches.
Two Khasi stalwart Radhon Singh Berry and Job Solomon were contemporary of HK Singh. They were also known for their contribution to the literary field of the nascent Khasi language. RS Berry and J. Solomon had also immensely contributed to the growth of the Unitarian movement by composing hymns for the Church. Radhon Singh Berry , a Seng Khasi man who composed more than 30 hymns in the Unitarian hymnbook later became Unitarian and Job Solomon remain a Presbyterian deacon till his breath his last. Both these men of letters emphasized in the hymns they composed in the Unitarian hymnbook the truth that Khasi Unitarian’s God is God in the traditional Khasi Pnar context.
R.S. Berry in the hymn number 43 stanza 3, says: /This is not a foreign God; / God of our own he is,/ He created you the way you are;/ Now he come to awake you. Then Job Solomon in the hymn number 6 he again stress on the idea in the stanza 5 which says, This is our God;/ God of our ancestor too,/ God of the Pnars and the Khasi;/ He is also Lord of the Lords.
The concept of God in the Khasi Unitarian context is God in the traditional Khasi concept a Universal and formless God. Khasi Unitarian concept of God is not God in the Judeo-Christian context -the father in heaven, God in an anthromorphical form or God in human image. The Khasi God is God in spirit and all pervading God. Hence Unitarianism in the Khasi Jaintia hills is an indigenous religion precisely because unlike other faith organization; it was not brought to these hills by a missionary, but it sprung up from its own soil. It was on the September 18, 1887 that a Khasi Christian whose search for the ultimate truth found solace in the faith in one God. Hajom Kissor Singh Nongbri faith in one God found a home in Unitarianism. The basic belief of Unitarian Church in the Khasi Jaintia hills is based on the Khasi Pnars own beliefs. Hence, Unitarian in the Khasi Jaintia hills is a like a tree which grows and spread its branches and leaves and the same time draw strength from its roots.
Concept of God in the Khasi Pnar Society
Traditionally the Khasi Pnar, the naitve of the Khasi and Jaintia hills of Meghalaya are monotheistic in their belief, the most common term or name by which the Khasi Pnar use to call God is ‘U Blei Nongbuh Nongthaw,’ God the Creator. Even though the Khasi Pnar believe in One God, they also pay obeisance to other deities like the hundreds of Nature gods and protectors (30 Ryngkaw Basa) and family deities (Blei iing), in their pantheon of Gods.
In his article KHASI CONCEPT OF RELIGION (Late) Dr. R.S. Lyngdoh Professor and Head, Khasi Department, North-Eastern Hills University , which was published in Centenary Souvenir of the Seng Khasi (1899-1999) defines as follows:
“They believe that at the beginning, they were the children of God in heaven as members of the Khadhynriew Trep Khadhynriew Skum- the sixteen huts the sixteen roots…From time immemorial, through the ageless unrecorded history, the Khasi have developed a definite idea about God and Man; about the existence of heaven, earth and hell; about the existence of the body and the soul; about the subjective and objective values; about sin and external truth; about the existence of evil spirits; and about the relationship between man and man, man and all values and man God. They have their own belief in the beginning and the end of all things and their belief in the beginning of creation.”
“The Khasi believe in one God called “Blei” who can manifest Himself in all forms and values. Mr. David Roy, in his celebrated article entitled “Khasi Religion” gives the following description of God Almighty: - U Blei Nongthaw Nongbuh – God the Creator of our bodies and the creation (Nongthaw), and God who fills up and fills the universe with life. U Blei Trai Kynrad – The Lord God and Master, U Blei Shihajar Nguh – God to whom all obeisance is due, U Blei na jrong na tbian – God who fills the heavens and the earth (the universe), God who is immanent and transcendent, U Blei U Nongsei – God who causes to be and to grow, U Blei Uba iohi Uba tip – God who sees and who knows – to whom nothing is hidden or unknown.”
Dr. H. Kelian Synrem again in the same souvenir in her article RELIGION OF THE KHASIS said, “The Khasi believes that U Blei the Creator is the Universal God who created everything living and non-living, big and small to be multiplied and to prosper in this beautiful wide world. According to the Khasi belief, U Blei created different races of mankind and in each race he gave different cultures and religions, different traditions and customs to be followed and in their own way of life.”
U Blei Nongthaw Nongbuh is not the only name that the Khasi Pnar uses to call God, they also have another name for God and that is ‘U Trai kynrad.’ Whether ‘U Trai Kynrad’ is Khasi translation of English ‘Lord’ which again derived from Greek word “Kyrios” is a matter of debate. Certainly in the Christian context; the using of word ‘U Trai’ connotes the New Testament concept of Lord which many times refer to the second person in the holy trinity which means Jesus Christ. This is what Christian churches assumes and would like others to believe that the name Trai that Khasi gives to their God has a Christian origin and hence a Christian meaning.
U Trai is not a post Khasi-Christian period invention, in the Khasi parlance, the term has been in use since time immemorial. Apart from using the name God, the Khasi also use the word Kynrad or U Trai Kynrad in paying obeisance to God Almighty. Incidentally the word Trai in Khasi also has the same meaning with that of the English Lord, which means owner, foundation, foothold etc.
In the context of the Pnar or the indigenous people of Jaintia hills, they use two terms when refer to God. God the creator, ‘U Blai wabuh wathoo’ which is identical to Khasi Blei Nongbuh Nongthaw and God in English and “Tre Kirot” which is equivalent to Lord. The word “Tre” in the Pnar parlance literarily means Owner, Lord, foundation, foothold or roots. “Kirot” means Caring and Compassionate and the other meaning of Kirot is bountiful and perfect. Tre Kirot literarily means bountiful Lord the caring and compassionate one.
The War Jaintia, which is a sub tribe of the Khasi, people who live in the southern slopes of Jaintia Hills, speaks a Khasi language which is quite different from the other dialect use by the other Khasi sub tribe. Infact scholars believe that the Amwi dialect spoken by the people of War Jaintia is the foundation of the whole Khasi language. And in the War Jaintia dialect there is only one word for God and that is “Prai”. There is no one word equivalent to Lord in the war Jaintia, but just “Prai u ae thia” which literarily means “U Blei Nongthaw” in Khasi and its English translation is God the Creator. Whether ‘Prai’ means both God and Lord is another question, but base on the evidence use by the War Jaintia people, ‘Prai’ which incidentally similar to both ‘Trai and Blai” in the Pnar language, connotes the same meaning.
H.K. Singh’s concept of God as appeared in the Unitarian Hymnal.
It is obvious from the hymns that he composed; Hamjom Kissor Singh’s concept of God is that of a traditional Khasi Pnar concept, God the Creator and who is both God and Lord at the same time. Like the traditional concept, he does not differentiate one from the other.
In his Statement of belief, of H.K. Singh in the stanza 2 of the hymn number 1 in the Khasi Unitarian hymnbook describes his idea of God as ‘The living God is one only God/ He is our real father-mother/He is filled with love and compassion/ And forgive those who repent.’
By calling God of being both “Father and Mother” entity; HK Singh went a step ahead the traditional concept of a male creator God, his concept of God is God beyond gender. This is the uniqueness of Khasi Unitarian theology that although generally God is referred to as male even in the Khasi matrilineal society, yet God is beyond gender. Although Khasi Pnar tend to use the prefix ‘U’ before the word God which represents the male gender of God, Khasi Pnar have no image of God and their concept of God is more of a spirit which pervades. Singh’s concept of God beyond gender and more of a formless spirit in nature is Khasi’s own concept of God.
HK Singh further elaborate his idea of God in hymn no 61 when he said, Sing God’s praise; Lord of heaven and earth,/ His wisdom unfathomable,/ All creation on earth and in heaven,/ Is living proof of his greatness all over./Sing God’s praise, Lord of stars and moon,/ He is filled with glory, righteousness and lights;/ All things that we see,/ He made thus to teach us. Sing God’s praise, he is our mother and father;/Giver of spiritual light, He blesses us too./ He is loving, forgiving and wishes that,/We love our neighbors, do good and live courteously.
Sing God’s praise, Lord of lords, King of kings/Lord of life and death Lord of the spirit/ Lord of times is also Lord of seasons,/ Peace be unto us who worship him eternally. In the hymn number 5, HK Singh says: One God/ One truth/ One true religion. In the hymn no 22 of the Unitarian hymnal, he says, One God, one church/ One people, one mission/ Love God love friends/Live a blessed life.
In Hymn number 59 he further said, Praise the Lord vociferously, / Our Creator, / Care giver, Keeper and benefactor/ He is the greatest Lord. /With God support/ Heaven and earth last forever;/ by divine love and grace,/ He showed us way of life. /He bestowed wisdom on us,/ Lights, Spiritual consolation too;/ Understanding and overall progress,/ And plant love inside us. /That we may attain perfection/ Peace in him we’ll find;/ In love we’ll flourish forever/ We’ll all live in peace with God.
Hymn number 70 when translated says /Sing sweet praise for God,/ Spirit filled with joy,/ We only trust his benevolent / That flows and flood forever. /In his benevolent, / We live and were blessed;/ Only he can quench the thirst,/Of a dry and thirsty soul. /There is no other like God,/ In heaven and earth;/ Fill with love and forgiveness/ For us to give and fill. /Let us sing to the Lord,/ Kneeling we’ll pray;/ Our souls will be enlightened,/ With perfect peace.
In the stanza 1of hymn number 137 he says, /Oh God who is eternally wise / Creator and everlasting provider/ Heaven and earth cannot/ encompass all your riches.
Two Khasi stalwart Radhon Singh Berry and Job Solomon were contemporary of HK Singh. They were also known for their contribution to the literary field of the nascent Khasi language. RS Berry and J. Solomon had also immensely contributed to the growth of the Unitarian movement by composing hymns for the Church. Radhon Singh Berry , a Seng Khasi man who composed more than 30 hymns in the Unitarian hymnbook later became Unitarian and Job Solomon remain a Presbyterian deacon till his breath his last. Both these men of letters emphasized in the hymns they composed in the Unitarian hymnbook the truth that Khasi Unitarian’s God is God in the traditional Khasi Pnar context.
R.S. Berry in the hymn number 43 stanza 3, says: /This is not a foreign God; / God of our own he is,/ He created you the way you are;/ Now he come to awake you. Then Job Solomon in the hymn number 6 he again stress on the idea in the stanza 5 which says, This is our God;/ God of our ancestor too,/ God of the Pnars and the Khasi;/ He is also Lord of the Lords.
The concept of God in the Khasi Unitarian context is God in the traditional Khasi concept a Universal and formless God. Khasi Unitarian concept of God is not God in the Judeo-Christian context -the father in heaven, God in an anthromorphical form or God in human image. The Khasi God is God in spirit and all pervading God. Hence Unitarianism in the Khasi Jaintia hills is an indigenous religion precisely because unlike other faith organization; it was not brought to these hills by a missionary, but it sprung up from its own soil. It was on the September 18, 1887 that a Khasi Christian whose search for the ultimate truth found solace in the faith in one God. Hajom Kissor Singh Nongbri faith in one God found a home in Unitarianism. The basic belief of Unitarian Church in the Khasi Jaintia hills is based on the Khasi Pnars own beliefs. Hence, Unitarian in the Khasi Jaintia hills is a like a tree which grows and spread its branches and leaves and the same time draw strength from its roots.
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Unitarian in the Khasi Jaintia Hills
Where on Earth is the Khasi Jaintia Hills?
I came from the North East part of India and the state of Meghalaya where the Khasi lives is one of the 7 states in the region. To the south of Meghalaya is share its border with Bangladesh, so to locate Meghalaya it is kind of easy to locate Bangladesh first and then move northward.
Unitarianism in the Khasi hills an indigenous religion
Unlike other Christian denomination, Unitarianism in Khasi Jaintia hills and Karbi Anglong district of Assam was not started by the missionaries. It was started by our own son of the soil HKS along with three of his followers. Like in any other place HKS too was a disenchanted Christian looking for an alternative religion. He realized that the holy trinity was unscriptural and looks for a church which worships one God similar to what the ancestors had taught and practiced. He was introduced to an American Unitarian in Calcutta and through him managed to get the famous William Ellery Channing sermon Unitarian Christianity. After reading the tracks and scripture HKS found his spiritual home and held a first Unitarian worship on the 18 of September 1887 in Jowai.
Unitarianism in the Khasi Jaintia and Karbi Anglong claimed to be an indigenous religion is not based merely on the fact that it was started by a native person, but Unitarian church is an indigenous religion because the faith draws immense inspiration from the basic thoughts and philosophy of the tribal people.
Could you tell us a little about what it is like to be a Unitarian in Northeast India?
To understand the Khasi hills where the Unitarian lives, one must understand that from a religious point of view, there are two main divisions in the area, the Christians block and the non Christian block which comprises of the Khasi who still uphold the Khasi traditional animist religion. I use to say the Unitarian is a middle path of the two traditions. It it’s a liberal religion based on the liberal Christian tradition but with strong roots on the basic Khasi values, philosophy, belief and understanding.
After reading Channing and many other Unitarian scripture that CHA Dahl sends to HKS, he was convinced that Unitarianism is what he was looking for. So, on September 18, 1887, Singh held the first service for Unitarians in Northeast India in the town of Jowai. His genius in incorporating the best of the teachings of the missionaries with the indigenous faith of his people, including a belief in One Creative Power that is formless and manifest in nature and everywhere, continues to be the unique character Unitarianism in North East India.
In 1888 the Unitarians adopted a statement of faith. It read: We believe in the unity of God; the fatherhood and motherhood of God; in the brotherhood of Man; in love, union, worship, and faith; and in Immortality.
One may ask does this statement of faith still reflect Unitarianism as practiced in NE India. Could you tell us a little more about this faith?
This in fact it sums up the basic belief of the Unitarians in the North East India. The first hyms in the Khasi hymn book composed by Hajom Kissor Singh himslef is on this basic principle and we call it “Ki jor tynrai ka niam U Blei” The essence of the church of God. In the four stanza hymn, in the second stanza HKS described God as the Father and mother by which he mean as I was given to understand it, God in spirit or God beyond gender. God the creator and the lord of all things whom the Khasi has known from time immemorial. Though the Khasi has been using the word Lord, it does not necessarily connote the western concept of the meaning as in the Second person of God. For the Khasi since time immemorial whenever they invoke the name of God they tend to use the two names God and Lord simultaneously. The Unitarian does the same till these days.
In the third stanza he was talking about the brotherhood and sisterhood of human in spirit. Or in other words; in spirit, the entire human race is one big family.
The fourth stanza is interesting because here he was talking about the life of the spirit, that the spirit never dies, the spirit lives on. To understand this concept, one must also understand the Khasi tribe’s own understanding of life after dead and to understand that one must also know the genesis of the Khasi people. The Khasi Mythologies have it that originally there were a 16 huts in heaven, 7 came down to the earth to farm by day and return to heaven by night through a tree on hill called the navel of heaven. The devil was able to convice the 7 huts to cut the tree and cut their connection with God and the 9 huts above. To cut the long story short the 7 became the first settlers on earth and the 9 remain with God in heaven. When some one dies; the Khasi says that he will go eat bettlenut in the corridor of God’s house along with the 9 huts. To understand the important of bettlenut in the Khasi tradition one need to know another story, but I leave that to my friends who has been to the Khasi hills to do the needful. But from the many hymns that he had composed HKS define the place where the spirit will go after it parted ways with the body as the Kingdom of the spirit “Ka ri ki mynsiem.”
Though HKS statement of faith still hold good to this day in the Unitarian Union, the church also teaches me to be open and respect other belief. The Khasi traditional wisdom is a very rich, hence as a Unitarian I draw immense inspiration from our ancestral wisdom and it indeed enriches me spiritually.
The Khasi’s traditional wisdom and understanding of the nature is not only unique but it is also proves that the Khasi’s understanding of the nature is both profound and relevant. Before the world has even start talking about the equality of human being not to mention the interdependent web of existence, the Khasi’s already has it in their myths and legends that all creations are equal. The Khasi traditionally believed that in the day of the yore, the golden era of the Khasi or the virgin age, human and animals were not only talking to each other, but they even lived as one equal creation of God.
The Khasi belief that during the golden era the whole creation live as one big family, they talk to each other as they understand each other, they shop from a same market. One day in the market of chaos (Iew Lurilura), a Dog brought fermented beans to sell in the market. It has a foul smell and fellow animals condemned Dog of selling its excretion, they teased the Dog and kicked and trampled on the Dog’s fermented beans. Since then out of anger the Dog decide to stay with human and become human’s companion. But the market episode has given the dog a special ability. Because the whole animals has kick and tramapled on the dog’s fermented beans, the smells remain in their feet, so till now Dogs can smell animal scent where ever they are.
Most of our stories are woven around the mystery of life as encountered by our ancestors, so we have stories like the one I told earlier, which answer to our ancestor understanding, the question where does human come from? And where do they go after they die? And we a story provide an answer to a question why did the rooster crow in the morning? What are the marks on the moon?
The Mythology of the moon, the sun and the rooster is one example. The story have it that long long time ago; it came to pass one day, that the moon who is the younger brother of the sun, fell in love with his own beautiful sister, this is not only an incest but by Khasi culture and tradition; it is a taboo. The angered sun shower ashes on the moon and then out of embarrassment went to hid herself in the pitch dark cave known as ‘krem lamet, krem latang.’ The world was in complete darkness because the sun rises no more and there was complete chaos everywhere because the whole creation was literarily left in the dark. A grand council of the whole creation was summoned to find out ways and means to request the sun to comeback again. The council send the ryngkoh-kit-knor; the hornbill to woo the sun back, instead the sun hit him on his beak because he too was trying to seduce this beautiful damsel. Finally the grand council of all creation agreed to send the rooster a humble animal who humbly agreed to the proposal of the council. The rooster was able to convince the sun to come shine again on the earth but with one condition, that the rooster will have to crow three times every day for the sun to come back again. Since then the rooster has earned itself the right to be the mediator, the interlocutor for the people not only with the sun but even with the creator.
The inter-dependent web of existence in the Khasi context is not only among earthly creation namely animals; but it is even inter-planetary. The other folk story of the Khasi with a similar inter-planetary connection is the tragic love story of the sun and the peacock and how the tear drops of the sun crying for her loved one became the beautiful mark and patterns in the peacock’s feather. The story of how the thunder was attracted by the glittering sword of one animal a Lynx (Kui) in the warrior dance organized by both human and animals that he came down and asked kui to let him hold and sword and dance with it for few moment, but the Thunder while dancing and holding the dazzling sword upright like any warrior dancer, he flew to the sky and took along the Kui sword with him to the sky. So the lightning and the thunder that follows is the Thunder performing his warrior dance in the sky.
The two major Khasi Pnar Royal families also has a divine origin, the story of the Jaintia monarch begin with Lo Ryndi caught a fish from the river Waikhyrwi, by divine intervention he forgot to cook the fish and left it on the tier over his hearth where people traditionally dried their food so that it won’t get spoiled. As time goes the fish became a beautiful woman to whom he married and the children of the fish-turned-human became the first royal family of Jaintia Kingdom. The royal family of the Khyriem and Mylliem state of the Khasi hills is also believed to have a divine origin, the legends have it that u Lei Shillong or Shillong god has three children, ka Ngot, ka Iew and ka Pahsyntiew, the two elder sister become river and are known as Umngot and Umiew, while the youngest sister became a beautiful girl and lived all by herself in the Marai cave and she is known as ka Pahsyntiew. Pahsyntiew or court by using flowers became the great grand mother of the Royal family of Shillong. The Khasi believed that the rivers are not mere rivers but they too have a persona, the story of the Lukha river, the Lunar and the Lynju river that they were sisters like any human being is one example of this fundamental believe. The Passah of Jaintia hills till now would not cross the Kupli without giving the river some offering because the Kupli is the great great grandmother of the Passah clan and Yale Kupli’s husband who was represented by a beautiful waterfall that was lost forever in the Kupli hydro project is their great great grand father. In the Jaintia hills, the Myntdu and Myntang river not only have personality but in the case of Myntdu which flow around Jowai, the river was worship as the guardian angel and sacrifice was offered to the goddess every now and then and it is a taboo for anybody to defecate or pass urine in the river. The Khasi also believe that water is divine (umksiar um rupa) which is God’s gift and all the rivers are sacred.
Sacred groves, is another illustration of the Khasi Pnar’s respect and reverence for the nature, sacred forest as the name implies are considered sacred in the sense that the entire area is protected and the forest is kept untouched by any human hands. The sacred groves in many cases are believed to be the places where the god u Ryngkew u Basa dwells. Traditionally the Khasi Pnar would not cut any tree at random or at one’s own whims and fancy, before cutting a tree Khasi Pnar use to pray paying obeisance to God and asking forgiveness for cutting the tree for his own needs.
I’m proud of my roots and like I say Unitarianism in the Khasi hills is the middle path of the two traditions, hence it is like taking the good things from both the tradition to grow spiritually as an individual and as a denomination. There is another story from Khasi Folklore which is related to the situation that we are; it is the story of the Bat. Once a battle erupted between the winged creatures and the wingless or land creature and the battle went on for a long time without any clear winner. But the one creature that does not seems to belong to either side of the divide was the Bat. As time battle went on, the Bat think that the winged creature are going to win; so it went to the winged creature and said, ‘look I’m one of you, I have wings.’ And when it looks like land animals are going to win, it went to them and said ‘though I have wings I am not a bird you know.’ I think anywhere we are in the World, we are in what I call a bat situation.
What is your hope for Unitarianism in NE India in the next ten years?
As a Minister my observation is that, the old lay leadership system that the Unitarian Union follows since its inception is not going to help the church to grow. We need to professionalize our minister. Some of us has some training but still many are leading the church without any training whatsoever on church leadership. Therefore the need of the hour for the church is to professionalized ministry and we are moving on that direction. Few of us registered on a distance course called MA in Christian studies offer by the Madras University. For the leaders in the village who cannot read English, we have started conducting our own weekly leadership class every Saturday. We are building our own resources for that and we welcome any contribution in the form of books on Unitarian Universalist and other related subject. We hope to have atleast a center if not a seminary of our own.
I personally don’t see any problem on this. Our Seminaries in the US like the Starr King is already offering online theological course and even CLF have some. We only need to get access to these courses to equip ourselves.
I strongly believe that this the way forward for Unitarian Union as a religious organization.
Before I conclude please allow me to say that I am extremely gratefull to you all for supporting my trip to the US and I enjoy every bit of it. Thank you so much. May I also on behalf of the Unitarian Union, invite you all to visit your partner church in the Unitarian Union.
Khublei
I came from the North East part of India and the state of Meghalaya where the Khasi lives is one of the 7 states in the region. To the south of Meghalaya is share its border with Bangladesh, so to locate Meghalaya it is kind of easy to locate Bangladesh first and then move northward.
Unitarianism in the Khasi hills an indigenous religion
Unlike other Christian denomination, Unitarianism in Khasi Jaintia hills and Karbi Anglong district of Assam was not started by the missionaries. It was started by our own son of the soil HKS along with three of his followers. Like in any other place HKS too was a disenchanted Christian looking for an alternative religion. He realized that the holy trinity was unscriptural and looks for a church which worships one God similar to what the ancestors had taught and practiced. He was introduced to an American Unitarian in Calcutta and through him managed to get the famous William Ellery Channing sermon Unitarian Christianity. After reading the tracks and scripture HKS found his spiritual home and held a first Unitarian worship on the 18 of September 1887 in Jowai.
Unitarianism in the Khasi Jaintia and Karbi Anglong claimed to be an indigenous religion is not based merely on the fact that it was started by a native person, but Unitarian church is an indigenous religion because the faith draws immense inspiration from the basic thoughts and philosophy of the tribal people.
Could you tell us a little about what it is like to be a Unitarian in Northeast India?
To understand the Khasi hills where the Unitarian lives, one must understand that from a religious point of view, there are two main divisions in the area, the Christians block and the non Christian block which comprises of the Khasi who still uphold the Khasi traditional animist religion. I use to say the Unitarian is a middle path of the two traditions. It it’s a liberal religion based on the liberal Christian tradition but with strong roots on the basic Khasi values, philosophy, belief and understanding.
After reading Channing and many other Unitarian scripture that CHA Dahl sends to HKS, he was convinced that Unitarianism is what he was looking for. So, on September 18, 1887, Singh held the first service for Unitarians in Northeast India in the town of Jowai. His genius in incorporating the best of the teachings of the missionaries with the indigenous faith of his people, including a belief in One Creative Power that is formless and manifest in nature and everywhere, continues to be the unique character Unitarianism in North East India.
In 1888 the Unitarians adopted a statement of faith. It read: We believe in the unity of God; the fatherhood and motherhood of God; in the brotherhood of Man; in love, union, worship, and faith; and in Immortality.
One may ask does this statement of faith still reflect Unitarianism as practiced in NE India. Could you tell us a little more about this faith?
This in fact it sums up the basic belief of the Unitarians in the North East India. The first hyms in the Khasi hymn book composed by Hajom Kissor Singh himslef is on this basic principle and we call it “Ki jor tynrai ka niam U Blei” The essence of the church of God. In the four stanza hymn, in the second stanza HKS described God as the Father and mother by which he mean as I was given to understand it, God in spirit or God beyond gender. God the creator and the lord of all things whom the Khasi has known from time immemorial. Though the Khasi has been using the word Lord, it does not necessarily connote the western concept of the meaning as in the Second person of God. For the Khasi since time immemorial whenever they invoke the name of God they tend to use the two names God and Lord simultaneously. The Unitarian does the same till these days.
In the third stanza he was talking about the brotherhood and sisterhood of human in spirit. Or in other words; in spirit, the entire human race is one big family.
The fourth stanza is interesting because here he was talking about the life of the spirit, that the spirit never dies, the spirit lives on. To understand this concept, one must also understand the Khasi tribe’s own understanding of life after dead and to understand that one must also know the genesis of the Khasi people. The Khasi Mythologies have it that originally there were a 16 huts in heaven, 7 came down to the earth to farm by day and return to heaven by night through a tree on hill called the navel of heaven. The devil was able to convice the 7 huts to cut the tree and cut their connection with God and the 9 huts above. To cut the long story short the 7 became the first settlers on earth and the 9 remain with God in heaven. When some one dies; the Khasi says that he will go eat bettlenut in the corridor of God’s house along with the 9 huts. To understand the important of bettlenut in the Khasi tradition one need to know another story, but I leave that to my friends who has been to the Khasi hills to do the needful. But from the many hymns that he had composed HKS define the place where the spirit will go after it parted ways with the body as the Kingdom of the spirit “Ka ri ki mynsiem.”
Though HKS statement of faith still hold good to this day in the Unitarian Union, the church also teaches me to be open and respect other belief. The Khasi traditional wisdom is a very rich, hence as a Unitarian I draw immense inspiration from our ancestral wisdom and it indeed enriches me spiritually.
The Khasi’s traditional wisdom and understanding of the nature is not only unique but it is also proves that the Khasi’s understanding of the nature is both profound and relevant. Before the world has even start talking about the equality of human being not to mention the interdependent web of existence, the Khasi’s already has it in their myths and legends that all creations are equal. The Khasi traditionally believed that in the day of the yore, the golden era of the Khasi or the virgin age, human and animals were not only talking to each other, but they even lived as one equal creation of God.
The Khasi belief that during the golden era the whole creation live as one big family, they talk to each other as they understand each other, they shop from a same market. One day in the market of chaos (Iew Lurilura), a Dog brought fermented beans to sell in the market. It has a foul smell and fellow animals condemned Dog of selling its excretion, they teased the Dog and kicked and trampled on the Dog’s fermented beans. Since then out of anger the Dog decide to stay with human and become human’s companion. But the market episode has given the dog a special ability. Because the whole animals has kick and tramapled on the dog’s fermented beans, the smells remain in their feet, so till now Dogs can smell animal scent where ever they are.
Most of our stories are woven around the mystery of life as encountered by our ancestors, so we have stories like the one I told earlier, which answer to our ancestor understanding, the question where does human come from? And where do they go after they die? And we a story provide an answer to a question why did the rooster crow in the morning? What are the marks on the moon?
The Mythology of the moon, the sun and the rooster is one example. The story have it that long long time ago; it came to pass one day, that the moon who is the younger brother of the sun, fell in love with his own beautiful sister, this is not only an incest but by Khasi culture and tradition; it is a taboo. The angered sun shower ashes on the moon and then out of embarrassment went to hid herself in the pitch dark cave known as ‘krem lamet, krem latang.’ The world was in complete darkness because the sun rises no more and there was complete chaos everywhere because the whole creation was literarily left in the dark. A grand council of the whole creation was summoned to find out ways and means to request the sun to comeback again. The council send the ryngkoh-kit-knor; the hornbill to woo the sun back, instead the sun hit him on his beak because he too was trying to seduce this beautiful damsel. Finally the grand council of all creation agreed to send the rooster a humble animal who humbly agreed to the proposal of the council. The rooster was able to convince the sun to come shine again on the earth but with one condition, that the rooster will have to crow three times every day for the sun to come back again. Since then the rooster has earned itself the right to be the mediator, the interlocutor for the people not only with the sun but even with the creator.
The inter-dependent web of existence in the Khasi context is not only among earthly creation namely animals; but it is even inter-planetary. The other folk story of the Khasi with a similar inter-planetary connection is the tragic love story of the sun and the peacock and how the tear drops of the sun crying for her loved one became the beautiful mark and patterns in the peacock’s feather. The story of how the thunder was attracted by the glittering sword of one animal a Lynx (Kui) in the warrior dance organized by both human and animals that he came down and asked kui to let him hold and sword and dance with it for few moment, but the Thunder while dancing and holding the dazzling sword upright like any warrior dancer, he flew to the sky and took along the Kui sword with him to the sky. So the lightning and the thunder that follows is the Thunder performing his warrior dance in the sky.
The two major Khasi Pnar Royal families also has a divine origin, the story of the Jaintia monarch begin with Lo Ryndi caught a fish from the river Waikhyrwi, by divine intervention he forgot to cook the fish and left it on the tier over his hearth where people traditionally dried their food so that it won’t get spoiled. As time goes the fish became a beautiful woman to whom he married and the children of the fish-turned-human became the first royal family of Jaintia Kingdom. The royal family of the Khyriem and Mylliem state of the Khasi hills is also believed to have a divine origin, the legends have it that u Lei Shillong or Shillong god has three children, ka Ngot, ka Iew and ka Pahsyntiew, the two elder sister become river and are known as Umngot and Umiew, while the youngest sister became a beautiful girl and lived all by herself in the Marai cave and she is known as ka Pahsyntiew. Pahsyntiew or court by using flowers became the great grand mother of the Royal family of Shillong. The Khasi believed that the rivers are not mere rivers but they too have a persona, the story of the Lukha river, the Lunar and the Lynju river that they were sisters like any human being is one example of this fundamental believe. The Passah of Jaintia hills till now would not cross the Kupli without giving the river some offering because the Kupli is the great great grandmother of the Passah clan and Yale Kupli’s husband who was represented by a beautiful waterfall that was lost forever in the Kupli hydro project is their great great grand father. In the Jaintia hills, the Myntdu and Myntang river not only have personality but in the case of Myntdu which flow around Jowai, the river was worship as the guardian angel and sacrifice was offered to the goddess every now and then and it is a taboo for anybody to defecate or pass urine in the river. The Khasi also believe that water is divine (umksiar um rupa) which is God’s gift and all the rivers are sacred.
Sacred groves, is another illustration of the Khasi Pnar’s respect and reverence for the nature, sacred forest as the name implies are considered sacred in the sense that the entire area is protected and the forest is kept untouched by any human hands. The sacred groves in many cases are believed to be the places where the god u Ryngkew u Basa dwells. Traditionally the Khasi Pnar would not cut any tree at random or at one’s own whims and fancy, before cutting a tree Khasi Pnar use to pray paying obeisance to God and asking forgiveness for cutting the tree for his own needs.
I’m proud of my roots and like I say Unitarianism in the Khasi hills is the middle path of the two traditions, hence it is like taking the good things from both the tradition to grow spiritually as an individual and as a denomination. There is another story from Khasi Folklore which is related to the situation that we are; it is the story of the Bat. Once a battle erupted between the winged creatures and the wingless or land creature and the battle went on for a long time without any clear winner. But the one creature that does not seems to belong to either side of the divide was the Bat. As time battle went on, the Bat think that the winged creature are going to win; so it went to the winged creature and said, ‘look I’m one of you, I have wings.’ And when it looks like land animals are going to win, it went to them and said ‘though I have wings I am not a bird you know.’ I think anywhere we are in the World, we are in what I call a bat situation.
What is your hope for Unitarianism in NE India in the next ten years?
As a Minister my observation is that, the old lay leadership system that the Unitarian Union follows since its inception is not going to help the church to grow. We need to professionalize our minister. Some of us has some training but still many are leading the church without any training whatsoever on church leadership. Therefore the need of the hour for the church is to professionalized ministry and we are moving on that direction. Few of us registered on a distance course called MA in Christian studies offer by the Madras University. For the leaders in the village who cannot read English, we have started conducting our own weekly leadership class every Saturday. We are building our own resources for that and we welcome any contribution in the form of books on Unitarian Universalist and other related subject. We hope to have atleast a center if not a seminary of our own.
I personally don’t see any problem on this. Our Seminaries in the US like the Starr King is already offering online theological course and even CLF have some. We only need to get access to these courses to equip ourselves.
I strongly believe that this the way forward for Unitarian Union as a religious organization.
Before I conclude please allow me to say that I am extremely gratefull to you all for supporting my trip to the US and I enjoy every bit of it. Thank you so much. May I also on behalf of the Unitarian Union, invite you all to visit your partner church in the Unitarian Union.
Khublei
Saturday, June 6, 2009
Nature Spirituality vis-à-vis Khasi traditional wisdom and insight
Spirituality is a word which is used liberally now. My opinion is that the words connotes a different meaning for different people with various faith back ground at a different point in time, and that is precisely why no one has the right to claim that only their interpretation of the term is true and correct. Therefore in this write-up, Alan Jones; dean of San Francisco Cathedral definition’s “that spirituality is the art of making connections” and David Ariel Jewish Scholar’s definition that “spirituality is the heart knowledge” are relevant in the context of this thesis.
Very often it was instill in our mind that traditional Khasi wisdom are old and redundant, we are even make to undervalue our own culture and tradition as archaic; superstitious and hence has no place in the modern world.
The Khasi’s traditional wisdom and understanding of the nature is not only unique but it is also proves that the Khasi’s understanding of the nature is both profound and relevant. In contemporary society, the world over; people make hue and cry against human greed which let to the destruction of the environment, the Khasis like any of the first nation, lives and has been living in harmony with the nature. Before the world has even start talking about the equality of human being not to mention the interdependent web of existence, the Khasi’s already has it in their myths and legends that all creations are equal. The Khasi traditionally believed that in the day of the yore, the golden era of the Khasi or the virgin age, human and animals were not only talking to each other, but they even lived as one equal creation of God.
The Mythology of the moon, the sun and the rooster is one example. The story have it that long long time ago; it came to pass one day, that the moon who is the younger brother of the sun, fell in love with his own beautiful sister, this is not only an incest but by Khasi culture and tradition; it is a taboo. The angered sun shower ashes on the moon and then out of embarrassment went to hid herself in the pitch dark cave known as ‘krem lamet, krem latang.’ The world was in complete darkness because the sun rises no more and there was complete chaos everywhere because the whole creation was literarily left in the dark. A grand council of the whole creation was summoned to find out ways and means to request the sun to comeback again. The council send the ryngkoh-kit-knor; the hornbill to woo the sun back, instead the sun hit him on his beak because he too was trying to seduce this beautiful damsel. Finally the grand council of all creation agreed to send the rooster a humble animal who humbly agreed to the proposal of the council. The rooster was able to convince the sun to come shine again on the earth but with one condition, that the rooster will have to crow three times every day for the sun to come back again. Since then the rooster has earned itself the right to be the mediator, the interlocutor for the people not only with the sun but even with the creator. The inter-dependent web of existence in the Khasi context is not only among earthly creation namely animals; but it is even inter-planetary. The other folk story of the Khasi with a similar inter-planetary connection is the tragic love story of the sun and the peacock and how the tear drops of the sun crying for her loved one became the beautiful mark and patterns in the peacock’s feather. The story of how the thunder was attracted by the glittering sword of one animal called Kui in the warrior dance organized by both human and animals that he came down and asked kui to let him hold and sword and dance with it for few moment, but the Thunder while dancing and holding the dazzling sword upright like any warrior dancer, he flew to the sky and took along the Kui sword with him to the sky. So the lightning and the thunder that follows Thunder performing his warrior dance in the sky.
The world has only recently talk about common stewardship of the planet earth, the Khasi believe that animal kingdom of 30 types are people’s equal partner in the earthly lives. The genesis of the Khasi has it that; the beginning of the Khasis and the story of how their first ancestors descend down to the earth will be incomplete without the involvement of animals. The seven huts live happily in peace among themselves without jealousy, hatred and prejudices. Human succumbed to the ill-advised of the demon in the garb of a dragon who convinced them of the need to cut the tree which is also the only ladder that connects the people with their creator. After human start cutting the tree; it was the tiger that lick back the tree to its usual form and size hoping to save the tree and safe human from its imminent fall. But that was never to happen it was the wee bird which informed human that every day after they have cut the huge tree which connects heaven and earth in the hill of the heavenly navel, it was the tiger which lick back the tree to its usual form and size again.
Khasi Pnar’s immense reverence for the nature is also obvious from the fact that people seldom put their feet on the filed to sow seeds unless certain religious rituals in performed. The same is with consumption of the first fruit of harvest; people seldom eat any harvest without offering the same to the gods first. Many rituals and festivals were woven around the two important seasons in the people’s way of life.
The Khasi have hundreds of stories which portray of an equal and mutual partnership between human and animals. The folk story of the ‘Iew luri lura’ market of chaos, where the whole creation including human did their marketing in the same market is another legends which points toward the Khasi wisdom of the inter-dependent web of existence. According to this Khasi legend it was after fellow animals trampled with their feet on the fermented soya beans that the dog brought to sell in the market and condemned the dog of selling excretion that the dog came to live with human and gain the ability to smell animal scent; there by help his master during hunting.
The two major Khasi Pnar Royal families also has a divine origin, the story of the Jaintia monarch begin with Lo Ryndi caught a fish from the river Waikhyrwi, by divine intervention he forgot to cook the fish and left it on the tier over his hearth where people traditionally dried their food so that it won’t get spoiled. As time goes the fish became a beautiful woman to whom he married and the children of the fish-turned-human became the first royal family of Jaintia Kingdom . The royal family of the Khynriem and Mylliem state of the Khasi hills is also believed to have a divine origin, the legends have it that u Lei Shillong or Shillong god has three children, ka Ngot, ka Iew and ka Pahsyntiew, the two elder sister become river and are known as Umngot and Umiew, while the youngest sister became a beautiful girl and lived all by herself in the Marai cave and she is known as ka Pahsyntiew. Pahsyntiew or court by using flowers became the great grand mother of the Royal family of Shillong. The Khasi believed that the rivers are not mere rivers but they too have a persona, the story of the Lukha river, the Lunar and the Lynju river that they were sisters like any human being is one example of this fundamental believe. The Passah of Jaintia hills till now would not cross the Kupli without giving the river some offering because the Kupli is the great great grandmother of the Passah clan and Yale Kupli’s husband who was represented by a beautiful waterfall that was lost forever in the Kupli hydro project is their great great grand father. In the Jaintia hills, the Myntdu and Myntang river not only have personality but in the case of Myntdu which flow around Jowai, the river was worship as the guardian angel and sacrifice was offered to the goddess every now and then and it is a taboo for anybody to defecate or pass urine in the river. The Khasi also believe that water is divine (umksiar um rupa) which is God’s gift and all the rivers are sacred.
Sacred groves, is another illustration of the Khasi Pnar’s respect and reverence for the nature, sacred forest as the name implies are considered sacred in the sense that the entire area is protected and the forest is kept untouched by any human hands. The sacred groves in many cases are believed to be the places where the god u Ryngkew u Basa dwells. Traditionally the Khasi Pnar would not cut any tree at random or at one’s own whims and fancy, before cutting a tree Khasi Pnar use to pray paying obeisance to God and asking forgiveness for cutting the tree for his own needs.
Speaking about the tiger, the Khasis were not only fascinated by this majestic animal but also shared close relationship with the animal that most of the time when they address the tiger, they would lovingly called the tiger ‘um la’ brother in law. The Rymbai clan also has a story related with Tiger that once when their great great grandmother was to cross the river to return to her village, the river was overflow and she cannot cross the river, it was the tiger which came to her rescue by carrying her on his back across the river. The Khasi, particularly the Pnar of Jaintias also shares the legend of men who can change themselves to tiger.
The Khasi not only has names for all the plants, animals, fishes, birds and even blades of grass which exist in their land, they also have stories about most of these fellow creation that they share their home with. To a Khasi who still respect and adhere to one’s culture and traditions, the Khasi way of life in relation with the nature is one that is very unique, because the nature is his mother and everything in the nature and in the sky are related to him someway or the other because we share a common story and a common. The Khasi way of life vis-à-vis in relationship with the nature is pious to say the least, and one profoundly respects this connection and lives this way of life religiously. I was asked recently how Khasi is a Khasi? Or what is so Khasi about the modern Khasis? Or specifically are Khasis still tribal or are they just people and no more a tribe? The answer to this vital question is related to how one answers these questions, because they have to do with our roots. The strength of Khasi way life depends solely many connections prescribed in the tradition, the connection among relatives, connection with one’s creation and when one lost these connections like the connection with the nature, one is no more a Khasi and when all the Khasis lost their culture and traditions, then Khasi is no more a Khasi, - Khasi is lost forever.
Very often it was instill in our mind that traditional Khasi wisdom are old and redundant, we are even make to undervalue our own culture and tradition as archaic; superstitious and hence has no place in the modern world.
The Khasi’s traditional wisdom and understanding of the nature is not only unique but it is also proves that the Khasi’s understanding of the nature is both profound and relevant. In contemporary society, the world over; people make hue and cry against human greed which let to the destruction of the environment, the Khasis like any of the first nation, lives and has been living in harmony with the nature. Before the world has even start talking about the equality of human being not to mention the interdependent web of existence, the Khasi’s already has it in their myths and legends that all creations are equal. The Khasi traditionally believed that in the day of the yore, the golden era of the Khasi or the virgin age, human and animals were not only talking to each other, but they even lived as one equal creation of God.
The Mythology of the moon, the sun and the rooster is one example. The story have it that long long time ago; it came to pass one day, that the moon who is the younger brother of the sun, fell in love with his own beautiful sister, this is not only an incest but by Khasi culture and tradition; it is a taboo. The angered sun shower ashes on the moon and then out of embarrassment went to hid herself in the pitch dark cave known as ‘krem lamet, krem latang.’ The world was in complete darkness because the sun rises no more and there was complete chaos everywhere because the whole creation was literarily left in the dark. A grand council of the whole creation was summoned to find out ways and means to request the sun to comeback again. The council send the ryngkoh-kit-knor; the hornbill to woo the sun back, instead the sun hit him on his beak because he too was trying to seduce this beautiful damsel. Finally the grand council of all creation agreed to send the rooster a humble animal who humbly agreed to the proposal of the council. The rooster was able to convince the sun to come shine again on the earth but with one condition, that the rooster will have to crow three times every day for the sun to come back again. Since then the rooster has earned itself the right to be the mediator, the interlocutor for the people not only with the sun but even with the creator. The inter-dependent web of existence in the Khasi context is not only among earthly creation namely animals; but it is even inter-planetary. The other folk story of the Khasi with a similar inter-planetary connection is the tragic love story of the sun and the peacock and how the tear drops of the sun crying for her loved one became the beautiful mark and patterns in the peacock’s feather. The story of how the thunder was attracted by the glittering sword of one animal called Kui in the warrior dance organized by both human and animals that he came down and asked kui to let him hold and sword and dance with it for few moment, but the Thunder while dancing and holding the dazzling sword upright like any warrior dancer, he flew to the sky and took along the Kui sword with him to the sky. So the lightning and the thunder that follows Thunder performing his warrior dance in the sky.
The world has only recently talk about common stewardship of the planet earth, the Khasi believe that animal kingdom of 30 types are people’s equal partner in the earthly lives. The genesis of the Khasi has it that; the beginning of the Khasis and the story of how their first ancestors descend down to the earth will be incomplete without the involvement of animals. The seven huts live happily in peace among themselves without jealousy, hatred and prejudices. Human succumbed to the ill-advised of the demon in the garb of a dragon who convinced them of the need to cut the tree which is also the only ladder that connects the people with their creator. After human start cutting the tree; it was the tiger that lick back the tree to its usual form and size hoping to save the tree and safe human from its imminent fall. But that was never to happen it was the wee bird which informed human that every day after they have cut the huge tree which connects heaven and earth in the hill of the heavenly navel, it was the tiger which lick back the tree to its usual form and size again.
Khasi Pnar’s immense reverence for the nature is also obvious from the fact that people seldom put their feet on the filed to sow seeds unless certain religious rituals in performed. The same is with consumption of the first fruit of harvest; people seldom eat any harvest without offering the same to the gods first. Many rituals and festivals were woven around the two important seasons in the people’s way of life.
The Khasi have hundreds of stories which portray of an equal and mutual partnership between human and animals. The folk story of the ‘Iew luri lura’ market of chaos, where the whole creation including human did their marketing in the same market is another legends which points toward the Khasi wisdom of the inter-dependent web of existence. According to this Khasi legend it was after fellow animals trampled with their feet on the fermented soya beans that the dog brought to sell in the market and condemned the dog of selling excretion that the dog came to live with human and gain the ability to smell animal scent; there by help his master during hunting.
The two major Khasi Pnar Royal families also has a divine origin, the story of the Jaintia monarch begin with Lo Ryndi caught a fish from the river Waikhyrwi, by divine intervention he forgot to cook the fish and left it on the tier over his hearth where people traditionally dried their food so that it won’t get spoiled. As time goes the fish became a beautiful woman to whom he married and the children of the fish-turned-human became the first royal family of Jaintia Kingdom . The royal family of the Khynriem and Mylliem state of the Khasi hills is also believed to have a divine origin, the legends have it that u Lei Shillong or Shillong god has three children, ka Ngot, ka Iew and ka Pahsyntiew, the two elder sister become river and are known as Umngot and Umiew, while the youngest sister became a beautiful girl and lived all by herself in the Marai cave and she is known as ka Pahsyntiew. Pahsyntiew or court by using flowers became the great grand mother of the Royal family of Shillong. The Khasi believed that the rivers are not mere rivers but they too have a persona, the story of the Lukha river, the Lunar and the Lynju river that they were sisters like any human being is one example of this fundamental believe. The Passah of Jaintia hills till now would not cross the Kupli without giving the river some offering because the Kupli is the great great grandmother of the Passah clan and Yale Kupli’s husband who was represented by a beautiful waterfall that was lost forever in the Kupli hydro project is their great great grand father. In the Jaintia hills, the Myntdu and Myntang river not only have personality but in the case of Myntdu which flow around Jowai, the river was worship as the guardian angel and sacrifice was offered to the goddess every now and then and it is a taboo for anybody to defecate or pass urine in the river. The Khasi also believe that water is divine (umksiar um rupa) which is God’s gift and all the rivers are sacred.
Sacred groves, is another illustration of the Khasi Pnar’s respect and reverence for the nature, sacred forest as the name implies are considered sacred in the sense that the entire area is protected and the forest is kept untouched by any human hands. The sacred groves in many cases are believed to be the places where the god u Ryngkew u Basa dwells. Traditionally the Khasi Pnar would not cut any tree at random or at one’s own whims and fancy, before cutting a tree Khasi Pnar use to pray paying obeisance to God and asking forgiveness for cutting the tree for his own needs.
Speaking about the tiger, the Khasis were not only fascinated by this majestic animal but also shared close relationship with the animal that most of the time when they address the tiger, they would lovingly called the tiger ‘um la’ brother in law. The Rymbai clan also has a story related with Tiger that once when their great great grandmother was to cross the river to return to her village, the river was overflow and she cannot cross the river, it was the tiger which came to her rescue by carrying her on his back across the river. The Khasi, particularly the Pnar of Jaintias also shares the legend of men who can change themselves to tiger.
The Khasi not only has names for all the plants, animals, fishes, birds and even blades of grass which exist in their land, they also have stories about most of these fellow creation that they share their home with. To a Khasi who still respect and adhere to one’s culture and traditions, the Khasi way of life in relation with the nature is one that is very unique, because the nature is his mother and everything in the nature and in the sky are related to him someway or the other because we share a common story and a common. The Khasi way of life vis-à-vis in relationship with the nature is pious to say the least, and one profoundly respects this connection and lives this way of life religiously. I was asked recently how Khasi is a Khasi? Or what is so Khasi about the modern Khasis? Or specifically are Khasis still tribal or are they just people and no more a tribe? The answer to this vital question is related to how one answers these questions, because they have to do with our roots. The strength of Khasi way life depends solely many connections prescribed in the tradition, the connection among relatives, connection with one’s creation and when one lost these connections like the connection with the nature, one is no more a Khasi and when all the Khasis lost their culture and traditions, then Khasi is no more a Khasi, - Khasi is lost forever.
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