By HH Mohrmen
Every now and then we see reports in the press about the ceremony of ‘Tang Jait’ which is held in a church or in the house of the new clan. The ceremony is conducted in the presence of the Rangbah Shnong and the family of the couple who are the originators of the new clan as prescribed in the Act. Para 3 of the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution of India empowers the District Council to make law(s) with regard to the customs and tradition of the tribal people where the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution is operating. The Council empowered by the Constitution enacted a law of Tang Jait to allow for initiation of a new clan in the Khasi Hills. Tang Jait is a tradition in the Khasi society and the Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council empowered by the rule passed a bill known as the Khasi Hills Autonomous District (Khasi Social Custom of Lineage) Act 1997 to codify this customary practice of the area.
The KHADC Act describes ‘Tang Jait’ as a ceremony for adopting a Jait (clan name) with a prefix of “Dkhar” or simply “Khar” for a person or persons born of a Khasi father and a non-Khasi mother who have been assimilated into Khasi Society. It may not be out of place to mention here that although the Pnar or the War of Jaintia hills are also part of the Pan Khun u Hynniewtrep tribe, yet there is no evidence of this custom and tradition in the Jaintia hills, so it is safe to say that Tang Jait is only practiced by the Khasis. Hence one cannot find a single clan which starts with the word “Dkhar” or “Khar” in Jaintia hills as it is the case in Khasi hills. It is also by tradition that the name of the new clan formed after the Tang Jait ceremony is always prefixed with the word ‘dkhar’ or ‘khar.’ In Jaintia hills although there is a Kur Dkhar (Dkhar clan) in the district but because Tang Jait was not part of the tradition of the Pnar and War of Jaintia Hills but one cannot find any clan which is prefixed with ‘Khar’ as in Khasi hills. And there is also a jait Dkhar in the Khasi hills but one cannot say whether or not the Dkhar of Jaintia hills are related to the Dkhar in the Khasi hills.
The tradition of Tang Jait also depicts the world view of the khun u Hynniewtrep. Till the advent of the British in these hills those who are not Khasi Pnar or not part of the pan Hynniewtrep tribe u War, u Bhoi, u Lyngngam are u ‘dkhar’. Most probably the reason is because our ancestors had no contact with the outside world other than the Bengalis of the present Bangladesh and the Assamese their immediate neighbours. Hence in the tribes’ world view even fellow tribals from different tribal groups other than the Bhois of Karbi are ‘dkhar.’ In short anybody who is an outsider in the Khasi Pnar society is a ‘dkhar’ to the Khasi.
Well, that is not what this article attempts to dwell on. The idea for this write-up came from the reports of the ceremonies and the honour that was given to the couple who initiated the new Khasi Clan. The wife or the non-Khasi mother is conferred the title of ‘Ka Iawbei’ (the clan mother) and the Khasi father is given the title of ‘U Thawlang’ of the new clan and it was said that these are the titles by which they should be known henceforth. I hope the couple which is the progenitor of the new clan realize that they also inherited these titles and designations which are very important have legends of their own. The couple must also realize that they are also the holders of tradition and they shoulder a huge responsibility. Some of these folk tales that I am going to narrate would prove that this is no ordinary title that has been conferred on the couple who initiated a new clan; but that the title is a very important one.
I maintain that one will not be able to understand Khasi-Pnar culture if one does not understand the Hynniewtrep clan system and the bond that binds the clan. The clans are connected by the legend of their great, grand ancestress known as Ka Iawbei or Ka Sein Jeit (in Jaintia Hills) and each major clan in the Society has its own story about its respective Iawbei. If one studies the stories of these many Sein Jeit one would also find that the male character in the stories has a very minor role to play, while the Iawbei or the female character of many of these legends has a major role to play in the story. The stories also attest to the fact that the female had occupied a respectable status in the society since time immemorial. This is evident from the fact that in the hynniewtrep family lineage is taken from the mother’s line.
I was very impressed with some of the stories that I had collected about the Iawbei of the different clans and my interest in the area prompted me to undertake the work to collect the legends and folk stories of the Iawbei or the Sein Jeit of the different clans particularly those in Jaintia hills. In my earlier writings I mentioned about Ka Iawchibidi the Seinjeit of the Laloo, the Pyrbot, the Lamin clans etc, I also mentioned about Ka Bor Kupli and u Papun Iale, ka Sein Jeit and u Thawlang of the Passah Clan, then I also mentioned about Ka Rymbai Bahkhla the story of the Iawbei of those in the Rymbai Clan who was saved by a tiger. We have also read about the stories of the Sein Jeit of the Jaintia royal family Ka Li Dakha and U Lot Ryndi and we have also read about the four Sein Jeit of the Soo Kpoh Khad-ar wyrnai clan Ka Bon, Ka Wet, Ka Tein and Ka Doh who were also the first settlers of what is now known as Jowai.
Rev. Carlywel Lyngdoh of Jowai published a booklet on the story of Ka Talang Ba Siah the Iawbei of the Kur Talang, the Nongtdu etc clan. The story goes that an old lady called Talang migrated to the Jaintia Hills from a village called Nabasohphoh in the Khasi Hills and married a man from the Dhar clan. They settled in a place called Am Prai in the village now known as Amtapoh. Out of the wedlock they were blessed with 9 female children. It so happened that one day when the sister and the entire family went out to the field to work, one of the old Talang’s daughter gave birth to a child. The grandfather instead of disposing the placenta in a traditional way by hanging it on the tree or burying it in the ground cooked it instead. When the family came back from their work, they were happy to know of the birth of a new baby. They partook if the food the grandfather had prepared not knowing that the meat was the placenta from the new birth. The mother and her children were shocked when they came to know about This. They were eating the placenta of the baby which is part of their own flesh and blood the mother is eating part of herself. This is a taboo of the worst kind. Since then they were called Talang basieh which means the Talang which eats the placenta. They cried as if the heavens had fallen on them; they did not want to be reminded of the miserable incident so they decided to part ways. One of the sisters crossed the Myntdu. Her offsprings were called Nongtdu because they crossed the Myntdu River. The descendants of the sister who moved southeast were called Nialang which literarily means crying together, the offspring of the sister who crossed the river Liting towards Khasi hills were called Liting. The children of the sister who moved towards Amwi were called Buam and another proceeded further from Jarain and settled in a place called Skhen Talang while the mother moved southward of Amtapoh to the village now known as Nongtalang. The children of the mother were given the honour of being the priestly family (Lyngdoh) of Nongtalang village. Two sisters moved northwards towards Shyrmang via a place called Pam Talang and they were also ordained as the Priest clan of the Raij Chyrmang.
There may be more such stories of the origin of the different clans in the Khasi and Jaintia, hills. Hence there is immediate need to collect these stories because they tell us not only about the Iawbei of the clan but also about the clan itself. So, in the Khasi Pnar society, clan is not merely a title that one adds after one’s name. Every clan has a genesis to how it originated and each clan has a story attached to it.