EAST KHASI HILLS, Meghalaya

Main Attraction: Sacred Grove Mawphlang

The renowned sacred forest of Meghalaya located in Mawphlang, a halfhour’s drive from Shillong, the state capital is also designated with the name ‘Nature’s own museum’.

The historical and religious significance of this forest has led to the preservation and abundance of a wealth of flora and fauna, which is a virtual treasure trove for the botanist or the naturalist. The Sacred grove has been maintained for centuries now, in an undisturbed state. The basis for this is the belief of the local people that it is imperative to let every tree, flower or fruit grow and remain untouched to appease the sylvan deities. From a distance, it is visible as an expanse of flat, green pastureland, and at the end of it, in sharp contrast, a thick dense forest that looks almost impenetrable at first glance.

The trails that lead into the forest are hemmed in on all sides by scattered growth of oaks, rhododendrons, and other trees whose branches are weighed down by thick growth of ferns, orchids and other epiphytic species. A walk through the forest is a spellbinding encounter not just with nature, but rather one is left with the consciousness of being in close communion with the divine, for whom the sacred grove is abode. A grave silence prevails, which is broken only by the sound of the occasional bird, or by one’s feet sinking into the soft cushion of humus and foliage that blankets the entire forest floor. The sound of a brook gurgling adds to the unison of the symphony of the forest. Mushrooms of every colour and kind and a huge variety of flowers seem to abound in every possible corner and it is easy to see why this forest has been christened ‘Nature’s Own museum’. As one walks away from the forest on a rainy afternoon, a thick fog blankets the forest, seeming to signify the mystic grandeur of the Sacred Grove.

Brief History

Origin of the name

When the Jaintia Kingdom was annexed by the British in 1835, the hill tracts (co-extensive with the present Jaintia Hills district) was placed under one administration with the Khasi Hills and a district known as the United Khasi and Jaintia Hills came into being. After the Jaintia uprising of 1860-62, Jaintia Hills was made a subdivision known as Jowai subdivision with its headquarters at Jowai and a European Sub-divisional Officer (Civil) was posted there. The arrangement continued even after the state of Meghalaya was born on 21-01-1972. 

However exactly one month after Meghalaya’s birth, Jowai sub-division of the United Khasi and Jaintia Hills district was upgraded into a district from 22-02-1972 vide Notification No. HPL. 26/71/43 dated 21/02/1972. The Shillong subdivision of the United Khasi and Jaintia Hills was known with effect from 22/02/1972 as Khasi Hills district and continued to be known by that name until 28/10/1976 when from that date vide Notification No. HPL.49/76/171 dated 12/10/1976, the Nongstoin subdivision was upgraded into a district and came to be known as the West Khasi Hills district and the Shillong sub-division, as the East Khasi Hills district. Though the Nongpoh sub-division of the East Khasi Hills district was upgraded into a district with effect from 04/06/1992 vide Notification No. HPL.139/89/109 dated 04/06/1992, the district retained its third name of East Khasi Hills district. 

Here we are however concerned only about the origin of the name “Khasi”, the original name by which the district had been known for more than a century. The district derives its name from the Khasi tribe, the inhabitants of the highlands of the Shillong sub-division of the undivided United Khasi and Jaintia Hills district. The word ‘highlands’ is used here to differentiate those inhabitants of the northern part of the district now covered by the Ri-Bhoi district and those of the southern part who are known by the name Bhoi and War respectively. It may however be mentioned that the Bhois, the Wars, the Synteng/ Pnars, Khynriams and Lyngngams are also Khasis. The origin of the name “Khasi” is indeed shrouded in mystery as no one has so far been able to explain the meaning of the term. Some believe that it has been derived from the Indo- Aryan word “Khas” meaning a waste or scrub land. Therefore Khasi or Khasia would mean an inhabitants of waste or scrub land. 

However, there are other inhabitants of waste or scrub land both in the hills and the plains and they have never been named Khasi or Khasia. The question as to why only the inhabitants of the Khasi Hills are called Khasi or Khasia is still to be answered. Pemberton states that the people called themselves “Khyee”. Dalton is of the opinion that “Khasia” was the name by which the entire Khasi Tribe-the Pnars or Syntengs, the Khynriams, the Bhois, the Wars, the Lyngngams-was known to the people of plains.

History

Owing to absence of written records, nothing is known about the past history of the Khasi people and the history of the composite Khasi Hills district– the Jaintia Hills, the East Khasi Hills, the West Khasi Hills and the Ri-Bhoi – which today is locally known as the “Bri U Hynniew Trep” – Land of the Seven Huts. How the Khasis had come to those beautiful hills and from where they had come still remains a mystery. Scholars and researchers have attempted to find out the origin of the Khasi races and how they had come to settle in those hills. But their findings have been only conjectures without satisfactory answers. The Khasis have their own legend about how they came to settle in these beautiful hills. They believe they had descended from heaven by a ladder set on the peak of “U Lum Sohpetbneng” located by the side of the present “Umiam Dam”. They say they consisted “Khadriew Trep” “Sixteen Huts” or sixteen households all of which lived in heaven, but they used to come down to earth through that ladder. However suddenly that ladder snapped and nine huts or households remained in heaven and seven on earth. It is from the Sohpetbneng that the Khasis spread to other parts of the composite Khasi Hills district. Till today the Khasis believe that their present abode was a heavenly gift handed over to them by God. 

Before the advent of the British, the area comprising the Khasi Hills, was divided into 30 “Himas or Chieftainships”. The Khasi term for the entire territory is “Ka Ri Laiphewsyiem, Ka Ri Khatar Doloi”- the land of 30 (thirty) Kings or Chieftains and 12 (twelve) Dolois. Those are:

1. Sutnga 

2. Khyrim 

3. Mylliem 

4. Maharam 

5. Nongkhlaw 

6. Nongstoin 

7. Sohra 

8. Nongspung 

9. Langrin 

10.Muliang 

11. Sohbar 

12. Mawphlang 

13. Sohiong 

14. Lyngiong 

15. Mawlong 

16. Wahlong

17. Mawsynram

18. Myriaw

19. Rambrai

20. Mawiang

21. Bhowal

22. Malaisohmat

23. Nobosohphoh

24. Jirang

25. Nongpoh

26. Mawdon

27.DwaraNongtyrnem

28. Nonglwai

29. Pamsangut

30. Shella

Of the Khasi Chieftains within the Composite Khasi Hills district excluding Jaintia Hills, the Hima of Shyllong comprising Mylliem and Khyrim finds mention in the Chronicles of the Koches and is referred to as “Khairam”. A King of Khyrim is mentioned in those Chronicles as having made a submission to Sukladhvaj, nicknamed Chilarai, during the reign of the Koch King, Nar Narayan, about the middle of the 16th Century. About 1708 A.D., the Khyrim Chiefs apparently went to the aid of the Jaintias against the Ahoms who had taken the Jaintia King captive.

Though the British got possession of Sylhet in 1765 and Assam through the Treaty of Yandaboo signed on 24/02/1826, the Khasi Hills was still left untouched. In November, 1826, David Scot, the Agent of the Governor General of the East India Company, reached Nongkhlaw. He went to the house of Tirot Singh, Syiem of Nongkhlaw at Mairang requesting him to allow him (Scot) to construct a road through the latter’s Kingdom (Hima) connecting Assam and Sylhet. In turn, he (David Scot) would help Tirot Singh to regain possession of a portion of duars which he had held before the advent of the British. Tirot Singh immediately convened a meeting of his council (Durbar Hima). After two days of deliberation, it was agreed to allow David Scot to construct a road via Hima Nongkhlaw.

When in 1828, Balaram Singh, the Rajah of Ranee, the principal rival of Tirot Sing in the plain disputed the latter’s claim to duars, the British instead of helping Tirot Singh as per the provisions of the Treaty, prevented him from marching to duars to regain that area. It was only now that he realized how deceitful and treacherous were the British. On 4/4/1829, when Tirot Singh failed to lay his hand on David Scot, he vented his wrath on two British Officers. Military Operations were immediately started against Tirot Singh and other Khasi Chiefs who were believed to have supported him with the sole purpose of driving out the strangers from the hills. But the British army being armed with guns, and the Khasis only with shields, swords, bows and arrows, the former was in a superior position. The Khasis were therefore forced to resort to guerilla warfare which dragged on for about four years. Maharam was the last to surrender in 1839. With its divide and rule policy of the British, the Khasi Hills was divided and placed under the following administrations:-

1. State Areas

These areas were administered as per the peace treaty and placed under

a political Agent.

2. Non-State Areas (British Areas)

These areas were placed under a Deputy Commissioner.

After Independence, the Federation of the Khasi States (Hima Khasi), 25 in number, agreed to join India by signing the Instrument of Accession.