Phil Lagace’s travel blog from India
It’s Phil Lagace here from Dawson’s Religion Department. For the past six weeks, I’ve been travelling around South Asia with my partner (and photographer for this blog) Aurélie and providing updates along the way. My last entry shared some facets of my doctoral research as we took part in the Durgā Pūjā celebrations of Kolkata. Since then, we carried on to the Northeastern states of India, collectively known as the “seven sisters.” These seven states are connected to the main body of India by a relatively small corridor of land and contain within them some of the country’s most fascinating cultural and environmental gems. One of the “seven sisters” is Meghalaya, which may be translated to “the abode clouds.” True to its name, our time there was spent both navigating poor visibility and looking down and out upon a sea of endless white from the heights of Meghalaya’s Khasi hills.
Beyond these clouds, Meghalaya is largely inhabited by its indigenous Khasi peoples. Owing to exchanges with colonial presences, most of the Khasi population now identity as Christian. Nonetheless, many of their pre-existing beliefs and traditions have continued to the present, and we were fortunate enough to engage a number of them. One standout for us remains the wildly impressive Khasi living root bridges, pedestrian paths formed of tree trunks, roots, and vines that stretch over rivers below. The origin of this practice is debated, but one interesting connection is found in a Khasi narrative in which their peoples descended from Heaven via a living root ladder. Reaching the storied double-decker living root bridges of the Nongriat village was no easy task; over a number of hours, we trekked thousands upon thousands of stone steps to reach them. However, as our pictures will attest, it was worth every step!
The second Khasi practice worth relaying is their archery matches, known as Teer, that now popularly take place in Shillong, Meghalaya’s capital. On all days but Sunday, two rounds of Teer matches take place in which 50 Khasi archers congregate to shoot 30 arrows apiece at a barrel-like target. The archers come from 12 archery clubs, representing 12 Khasi tribes. Nowadays, people bet on the number of arrows that will hit the target in these Teer matches through countless licenced operators throughout the state. Interestingly, there is a sophisticated system of dream interpretations whereby locals derive their bets from imagery encountered while asleep. Aurelie and I took part and were one number off – maybe we need to mind our dreams more! That’s all for now. Thanks for reading, and keep your eyes peeled for the next entry!
(Photo Credits: Aurélie Frenette-Araujo)
