By H.H.Mohrmen
Perhaps the earliest form of painting which can be seen today is the one in the Lascaux Cave. The painting is believed to have been done between c.15,000-10,000 years ago is an image of a man with a bison in front of him (Harari, Yuval Noah 2011). The panting is in fact a drawing which is to that which a toddler does with lines indicating the legs and the hands and the body which look like a square box. The head is round but it has a beak which makes it look like the head of bird and an image of a bird was also drawn near the man’s image. The point is that even if this is a simple image drawn like a toddler’s doodle it is the only piece of art that we have of our ancestors who lived thousands of generations before us.
Human’s first legacy
People with their respective interests tried to describe what this image symbolized; what it represents or what message the maker of this ancient image wished to communicate to others. Was it was an image of a man lying on the ground after he was hit by the bison or a man standing in front of the bison? Or maybe the image of a man with a head of a bird, has something else to tell us. These questions will continue to haunt the human quest for knowledge but in this article, we are only looking at the painting as a legacy – and what a legacy it has truly been. One can’t help but wonder whether the painter of this particular art ever imagined that his/her painting would survive thousands of years after it was drawn. Or if the painter even has a sense of time – that there is the past the present and the future! More importantly, perhaps the painting was something that the painter just wanted to randomly do at that point of time without an inkling of what message he/she wanted to communicate or how long it would last.
Hands that become a legacy
This simple painting tells us something else about human life which is that at any point of time, humans have this desire to do something which they are passionate about and some of these pieces survive the assault of nature and the destruction of human hands but many did not. Another simple and interesting ancient image made by early humans was that of hands imprinted in a cave in Argentina. The image of many hands inside a cave called ‘Hands Cave’ is about 9000 years old (Harari, Yuval Noah 2011). Nobody knows what this image represents or what did those ancient people who had put the mark of their painted hands inside the cave meant. To the modern eye what they did look like are simple acts that toddlers have fun doing. Yet, these palms will continue to reach out to those who wish to understand what they were trying to tell.
In the modern world government uses hand prints as one of the most important biometrics to decide its citizens’ identity. The print that we have in our hands has become the mark of our existence and this image is no different to what the government is doing now. If there is one slogan that the owners of those hands would say, it would be “Here we are, we’ve been here” or rather “we’ve been here before you and here are the imprint of our hands.” Hands mark were the first legacy that earliest humans left behind. No wonder that in the Khasi Pnar tradition, the word used for legacy is ‘ki dak kti or ki mat- ’ti’ and this is exactly what this image is trying to tell us.
In my opinion these two simple pieces of ancient art convey a very important message that every person who has lived on this earth wishes to leave a legacy behind. The only difference is the medium or the process that one uses to create this art or these memories. Some extraordinary arts may become popular and known to many yet many like my mother’s piece of writing which she secretly kept was perhaps meant for her near and dear ones only. We did not know that she was writing anything at all and we had only discovered it when she had died. During this time of the year when people have just finished writing their new year resolutions, the idea behind all this is to make a mark in one’s life and to leave a legacy behind.
The legacy that our ancestors had left behind are the monolithic culture that we are proud of. And if these standing stones and flat stones found dotting the skyline everywhere would have been able to talk, they would say, “we are the hand mark of your ancestors.” In spite of the fact that monolithic culture was prevalent in the neolithic age, yet no study has been done to try understand this unique culture that continues till date. Why do people in some areas of the state still continue with this ancient culture? We are not even trying to collect and document the stories that these stones tell, because every monolith has a story to tell.
Neil Nongkynrih’s rich legacy
Sadly, last week the state lost a person who even if he had died at a fairly young age, has left behind a rich legacy. I did not have the opportunity to meet Neil Nongkynrih and did not know him well as many of the readers of this newspaper do, but I consider him great not because of his musical talents but because of something else.
I admire people who had the opportunity to study and (in the case of Neil work) and live in the western world and still decided to return to their native land. The charm of the western world, the opportunity it offers and the prosperity that it offers has tempted many to stay on permanently in the land of opportunities and prosperity. With the kind of training and talent that Neil had, it would not have been difficult for him to migrate to the UK. More importantly in the late eighties (when he was in the UK) migration to that country was not as difficult as it is now. The question that no one asks is, “Why did Neil decide to come back to the land of the rolling hills? What charm did Meghalaya cast on him that he was willing to leave the hills of Derbyshire and Scotland for the Khasi and Jañtia hills? To leave the Thames for Wah Umkhrah, the Lake District for Umïam, Trafalgar square for Khyndailad and the ancient marvel of UK for the sacred forests in the land of his birth?
Generally, people who had the opportunity to study and work in the western world can be broadly divided into two types. There are people who dream all of their lives to get an opportunity to study or even visit the western world, never to return to their native land. But there are people like Neil who went to study and trained themselves well in whatever their area of studies is and then return to share with folks back home what they have learned from abroad. The very fact that he decided to return home was a major decision that he has made and everybody knows that he was not wrong in making that decision.
It takes a man with a strong will and clear vision of what he is planning to do with his life to make this very important decision in his life. It is not easy to leave all the charms of the western world and come back to his land and his people. We must all thank Neil for his decision to return and the reason why he decided to come back is not difficult for us to see now. It is obvious that he has a clear vision about what he wanted to do with his life. What is important is that he has achieved his goal. It is his achievements that we are now celebrating and we will cherish the rich legacy that he left behind. Thank you for the life well lived and your legacy will live on.
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