By Bhogtoram Mawroh
A couple of weeks ago, a friend, Valentine Sohtun, shared a 2015 article with me titled ‘An Ethnographic Exploration of the Lyngam Ethnic Community in Bangladesh’ written by Nur Mohammad Majumder, Lye Tuck Po, and Sanjay Krishno Biswas. This article was about the Lyngngam, a subgroup of the Khasi who are today found in West Khasi Hills and Kalmakanda Upazila in the north-eastern district of Netrokona, Bangladesh. It talks about the cultural practices of the Lyngngam and the affinity they have with the Garo and the Khasi. In fact, the first time I visited the Lyngngam area in Mawshynrut block (West Khasi Hills), I couldn’t understand the language and thought the people were Garos. Only later, when they tried teaching me a little Lyngngam I realised its affinity with Khasi.
For a long time, the Lyngngam people have been understood to be a hybrid of the Khasi and the Garo – linguistically they speak an Austro-Asiatic language as part of the Khasian languages, but in terms of culture and physical attributes they resemble the Garo. In terms of self-identification, Lyngngam have always identified themselves as Khasis rather than Garos who call them Megam. This is where the work of Banrida Theresa Langstieh becomes very important. In her 2003 thesis ‘Ethnic origin and population structure of the Lyngngam of Meghalaya, India,’ she showed that although some clans are unique to the Lyngngam, nearly 50% of the 29 clans have a Khasi origin. Genetic analysis also revealed that they are more closely related to the Khasis than the Garos, with the genetic contribution being much higher from the neighbouring Khasi groups of Maram and Nongtrai in terms of mtDNA (female lineage). On the male side, though, the contribution from the Garo is much higher. Garos are part of the larger Kok-Borok family, which includes Tripuri, Bodo-Dimasa and unlikely groups like Konyak, who are not Kuki-Chin-Mizo like the Nagas, Meitei and Kukis, but are actually part of the larger Garo family. None of these groups are matrilineal. So, since Lyngngam is a group that emerged out of the union between Khasi females and Garo males, it could very well hint at the process of the Garos adopting matrilineal customs from the Khasis.
Another very important conjecture that was made by Banrida Theresa Langstieh was that the Lyngngam may have entered their present abode from the south, bordering present day Bangladesh. It is quite interesting to note that another Khasi group found in the southern part of present day Meghalaya are the War, particularly the War-Amwi who linguistically are the oldest among all the Khasi speakers. The 2017 paper ‘A Lexico-statistical Study of the Khasian Languages: Khasi, Pnar, Lyngngam, and War’ by Nagaraja and colleagues revealed the close connection between Khasi and Palaung (language spoken by an indigenous Austro-Asiatic group in Northern Myanmar). War-Amwi is the closest Khasi language to Palaung, and the separation happened around 4000 years ago. This very well matches with the dates established by Marco Mitri, a historian teaching in NEHU from the archaeological excavations of Myrkhan and Lum Sohpetbneng. The War-Amwi then established the Hima Sutnga, which around 1400 years ago became Hima Jaintiapur after the annexation of the kingdom of Jaintiapur in Sylhet (Shella Haat in Khasi). This then gave rise to the Pnar language. But before that, Lyngngam had already separated from War-Amwi around 2000 years ago, making it the second oldest language among the Khasi. In other words, Lyngngam are the second oldest group among the Khasi.
The Khasi must have entered from the Dima Hasao Hills (previously North Cachar Hills) and then started spreading around the eastern part of Meghalaya (Jaintia Hills and Ri Bhoi) with one group continuing west but along the southern fringes of the present-day border with Bangladesh and reached what is today West Khasi Hills. Initially, they could have continued with their journey till they reached the Chottanagpur plateau, where they mixed with the ancient Dravidians, giving rise to the Munda. The recent 2024 paper, ‘The Origin and Dispersal of Austro-Asiatic Languages from the Perspectives of Linguistics, Archeology and Genetics’ by Jian Yu and colleagues confirm this. In time, the Kok-Borok people, i.e., the Garo also arrived from the east and occupied the sparse western side (today Garo hills) and started mixing with the Lyngngam. Some became Khasi while others remained Garo but adopted the Khasi matrilineal customs, another example of how important the matrilineal system was for the Khasis.
A special custom concerning death attests that the Lyngngam are among the oldest Khasi groups. The 2015 paper mentioned earlier described how, after a death, they would keep the body near the fireplace or on a three-bamboo-pole platform for almost a year. Once the body dehydrates, the family brings it down and cremates it. Then they arrange a feast for the community attending the last rites. PRT Gurdon also described this custom in his 1914 monograph ‘The Khasis’. In Kynpham Singh Nonkynrih’s novel ‘Funeral Nights’ Bah Kynsai (a friend of Bah Ap or Ap Jutang, the narrator) mentions a group called the Torajans who had the culture of putting the dead body in a coffin and hanging it from a cliff or tree with ropes. Another friend, Raji Manai, then informed me that there is a group among the Khasi who also have a similar custom – the Lyngngam. The rest of the novel is about the journey to the Lyngngam village where such a custom was being practiced for the last time and the stories told around the fireplace while they were camped in the forest. In their 2020 paper, ‘A Matrilineal Genetic Perspective of Hanging Coffin Custom in Southern China and Northern Thailand,’ Xiaoming Zhang and colleagues describe how people have practiced this hanging coffin custom for over 3,000 years in southern China, Southeast Asia, and near Oceania, originating in southern China. Southern China is also the homeland of the Austro-Asiatic people and this culture has been associated with them among other groups, like the Daic people (e.g., Thai, Laotian and other smaller groups like the Ahom of Assam).
Austro-Asiatic or the Khasi people were one of the oldest Neolithic groups that lived in Southern China. They were probably the first people to have discovered rice cultivation and they also practise the coffin hanging custom. At some point, they began moving south and arrived in mainland Southeast Asia, bringing agriculture and rice with them. That the celestial staircase story of Lum Sohpetbneng describes seven celestial families coming down to earth to farm and staying there attests to agriculture’s importance among the Khasi. Some again continued further south, reaching as far as Malaysia (the Orang Asli who are the oldest inhabitants of Peninsular Malaysia.) while others went west and arrived at the northeast, first settled in the former North Cachar Hills. From there, they spread to what is now Meghalaya, speaking an early version of what is today War-Amwi, which is much closer to Palaung, an Austro-Asiatic group that remained in present-day Myanmar. One group (later to become the Lyngngam) continued east via the southern route, maintaining their hanging coffin custom, a practice that the War-Amwi abandoned, thus not passing it on to the Pnar and other Khasi sub-groups. However, there was one custom that was passed down to the other groups.
According to the paper by Nur Mohammad Majumder, Lye Tuck Po, and Sanjay Krishno Biswas, the Lyngngam would sacrifice a cow to their ‘primeval ancestress’ for the welfare of the clan or community. PRT Gurdon also recorded the sacrifice of a cow in the event of the death of a woman as being practiced by the Khasi. The Bonda indigenous community in Orissa (an Austro-Asiatic group) also has the practice of sacrificing a cow when someone dies. So, beef was a very important delicacy among the Khasi, meant especially to be served when someone dies, particularly a woman. An idea is forming of what the ancient culture of the Khasi might have been. They were matrilineal, pioneering farmers, grew and probably discovered rice, practiced the custom of hanging coffins, had walking marriages, and sacrificed a cow when someone died, particularly a woman. The group that has held on to these customs the longest are the Lyngngam.
Among the Lyngngam, one interesting custom, seemingly not of Khasi origin, also exists. They believe a person has an inner power which is called the tiger and sometimes can turn into a tiger. And when the person dies, the tiger comes to claim the body. The Bhoi, many of whom are actually Karbi, know this were-tiger myth, and the Khasis likely adopted it from them. This means the Khasis were in contact with the Karbis for at least 2000 years ago.
There’s always an attempt to understand more about the ancient traditions and customs of the Khasis. I’m unsure how many attempts to understand the Lyngngam, whose customs appear to be among the oldest of the Khasi, are underway. If not, that should change. Lyngngam are one of our most ancient groups (after the War-Amwi) and the ones who held on the longest to the traditional customs. Learning more about them could reveal who the ancient Khasis were and what their essence was.
(The views expressed in the article are those of the author and do not reflect in any way his affiliation to any organisation or institution)