Funeral Nights by Kynpham Sing Nongkynrih

Author:Kynpham Sing Nongkynrih [Nongkynrih, Kynpham Sing]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-07-29T21:00:00+00:00

‘Wow, that’s sheer poetry, man!’ Hamkom exclaimed. ‘But did they really do that? Did they really speak to trees like that?’

Bah Su answered for me. ‘They used to do that, yes. Even now, in some places, ha, when they have to fetch trees from prohibited forests, they do it.’

It is owing to this unique green consciousness, I continued, that the old Khasis used to maintain forests where the felling of trees was either prohibited or regulated. Foremost among them were the law kyntang, the sacred groves and sacred forests. In this type of woodland, not only is the cutting of trees forbidden, but also, nothing can be taken out of it: not a fruit, not a flower, not even a single leaf. Certainly, crapping in them is strictly forbidden.

‘But, Ap, if crapping is strictly forbidden, then what about your story?’ Magdalene said. ‘I’m a bit confused, man!’

‘I’ll explain later, Mag, don’t worry.’

The most famous law kyntang in Ri Khasi is the Law Lyngdoh sacred grove at Mawphlang, about twenty-four kilometres south-west of Shillong. The grove is so named because it belongs to the Lyngdoh Mawphlang clan (the priestly as well as the ruling clan of the traditional state of Mawphlang), which had sanctified and dedicated it to God and the guardian spirit, U Ryngkew U Basa.

According to legend, the sacred grove had been founded by an enterprising woman by the name of Khmah Nongsai. The legend goes back to the very beginning of Mawphlang’s history, to how elders of the Ïangblah clan were one day compelled to perform obsecration ceremonies appealing to God for a sign as to who should be their future ruler.

‘Compelled? By whom?’ Hamkom asked.

‘You see, the clan had originally migrated from Ri Pnar and was in control of the state, but for some unknown reasons, there seemed to be widespread discontent with it at the time—’

‘Do you hear that, Hamkom?’ Evening cried triumphantly. ‘Even the Ïangblah clan, the Blahs who founded Hima Mawphlang, migrated from Ri Pnar! Don’t ever say Khasis and Jaiñtias again, you understand!’

‘Shut up, Ning!’ Bah Kynsai quickly intervened. ‘Go on, Ap.’

I told them that the augurs and diviners who conducted the egg-breaking rituals and extispicy, which is the use of animal entrails for divination, declared that a woman named Khmah Nongsai had been revealed to them as the most fitting person to be the ruler of Mawphlang. Nobody knew who she was. Even the diviners had only learnt that she lived in a place called Laitsohma, in the state of Sohra, with her husband, Lyhir Sohtun.

Ka Khmah Nongsai and her two uncles, in fact, had been wandering from place to place for reasons not very clear. One story says she was orphaned after an outbreak of cholera and had to leave home with her uncles to search for new places to farm. Another says she and her uncles had to run away because of a conspiracy to wipe out her family since they were considered a threat to the state’s ruling clan.

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