By H H Mohrmen
Last year in a column this writer had referred to the impact of the lockdown due to the pandemic on many aspects of the culture and traditions of the people but not least among the Pnar people. The lockdown due to the corona virus also has had its impact especially on the different aspects of the culture and tradition of people especially that of the tribals of Meghalaya.
Market days have a special significance because they mark specific duties. Now even market days are forgotten and reduced to ordinary days. In the process the significance of the eight-day week calendar of the Pnar, particularly of those in Jowai has diminished. Since the last year’s lockdown, Musiang or the market which used to be linked to pay-day and a day for making purchases has lost its meaning. Musiang used to be the busiest day of the week in Jowai. Now it has become like any ordinary day.
Musiang used to be the day when people from rural areas would throng to the market in Jowai to sell their wares and with the money earned, they bought the groceries to last them the whole week. Lives of the people revolved around the area surrounding the market. But this tradition is no longer popular in Jowai. However, the only silver lining is that the different traditional markets in the rural areas are still operating.
The general principle of tribal life centres around the good or the wellbeing of all or the entire community. What is termed as ‘bhalang ka imlang sahlang or ka bhalang uba bun balang’ (the common good) is also being drastically impacted by the lockdown due to the pandemic. The foundation of Hynñew Trep life where the community’s welfare is more important than the individual or family’s interest is being severely affected by the pandemic too.
Although the lockdown did not stop people from engaging in their agricultural activities, it has impacted on the tradition which is connected with farming practices. During lockdown ‘chu nong or ïah kurui lok’ which is a tradition of community farming where communities support each other in sowing rice is now barred especially in the villages where there are reports of COVID-19 positive cases. The headmen have barred the practice to enforce isolation of the COVID positive person and also to ensure social distancing.
It has always been a tradition that couples in the society (irrespective of their religious affiliation) were compelled to just cohabitate because an ordinary wedding means having to spend a lot of money. This also has to do with the culture of the people because a wedding is another opportunity to demonstrate that one still remembers and respects one’s family ‘ki kur ki jait’ ( relatives from the maternal clan) and family on the father’s side or ‘ki kha ki man’. Apart from the families on both sides, there are friends and neighbours ‘para marjan mar pa’ who are on the list of invitees. Hence the Khasi Pnar wedding is ordinarily a big wedding because the list of invitees is always long.
The Niamtre wedding is detailed and elaborate but the main ceremony called ‘ka lam ïutang’ or the covenant between the maternal uncles of the bride and the groom is also being affected, because during lockdown it is not possible to perform most of the ceremonies. Wedding during the pandemic or ‘ka bia lockdown’ as they call it, is what they call in Pnar ‘ka bia ïap-sarom’ or ‘ka bia thlah-khmat’ which translates into an uncomfortable wedding because one has to ignore one’s family, friends and neighbours even in such an important occasion. It is a kind of wedding that will make one ashamed or uncomfortable to meet one’s family or friends after the wedding. The lockdown has slashed the usual big fat wedding in the Hynñew Trep society, but one has to wait and see if this is going to be the new wedding trend in the community.
Bereavement used to be a time of solidarity for the Khasi Pnar people. It is the time when families, friends and the entire community visit the family not only to condole the death, but more importantly to be with the family and provide succour to them. Family, friends and the community come together to support the family in their time of need. The visit during or after the bereavement is also connected to the cardinal principle of respecting one’s relations, ‘tip kur tip kha’ and it is mandatory to visit the bereaved family especially if that family is related from the maternal or paternal clan line (kur or kha). Unfortunately the pandemic has shattered this very pristine part of the culture of the people. Now such visits are curtailed and it is impossible for family and friends to support the bereaved (even those whose deaths are not related to COVID) during this pandemic.
But the most tragic thing is to die of COVID. What a lonely death it must be. To die without performing all the rites and passages that are due for a dead person is one heartbreaking circumstance, but to die without family and friends around oneself is more tragic. The pain of losing one’s loved one is intensified by the pain of not being able to properly cremate or bury the dead person and the absence of support from near and dear ones.
In the Christian tradition a COVID victim has to be buried without a proper funeral service and the most heart-rending part is that not even the family members are able to bid their loved ones good bye. Amongst the Khasi Pnar Christians, it is a tradition for all who accompany the family to the cemetery to at least take a fist full of soil collected near the grave and throw the same three times into the grave where the coffin is placed. Perhaps this was borrowed from the tradition of ‘tun pathi.’ Sadly in a COVID death the family members are denied even this last gesture to the departed member of the family. The dead due to COVID have to be buried without proper funeral service and without the ritual connected to the final rites due to the deceased person.
The last rites and rituals of a person among the Niamtre followers are both detailed and delicate. It starts from the person declared dead and how the last bath of the person is performed and how the body is laid in state till the charred bones are kept in the clan’s ossuary. But in a COVID death all the rituals are suspended. In the Niamtre religion to die without a male member of the family being able to place a piece of burning firewood on the pyre ‘e diñ’ or family and friends offering betel-nut paan leaves and coins ‘tun pathi’ on the funeral pyre and later on the remains of the burned pyre before the charred bones are collected ‘jied chyeñ’ is like the final rites for the person is incomplete.
Another important ritual in the cremation of the person is the sacrifice of a rooster ‘choh syiar’ which is link to the Hynñew Trep mythology of the Sun, the Moon and the Rooster which is also known as the story of ‘ka krem lamet ka krem latang’ . The story tells about how a Rooster, which is considered to be the most insignificant and the humblest of all animals, delivered humans from darkness to light again. The rooster since then earned the right to be the mediator who can intercede on behalf of humans with the creator and hence the sacrifice is performed as part of the last rites of a person. But in the COVID-19 death this may not be possible because it takes time.
In many cases offering ‘ka siang ka pha’ or ‘ka siang ka phor’ to the departed souls, is another tradition in which the last rites of the person are dispensed with especially if the person died of COVID. The pandemic has no doubt had a major impact on the life and culture of the people as it has disturbed not only the day to day life but even that which connects the person with the spirit, the divine or the creator.