Some of the newer mel-odic names are inspired by Bollywood songs.Harmony with natureKongthong has long been cut off from the rest of the world, several hours of tough trek from the nearest town.Women "don’t have decision-making powers. So we are in touch with nature, we are in touch with all the gracious living things that God has created," says Khongsit."We are living in far-flung villages, we are surrounded by the dense forest, by the hills. "We consider the mother the goddess of the family.Modern worldBut according to anthropologist Tiplut Nongbri, a professor at Jamia Millia Islamia university in Delhi, it is something of a "di-sguised patriarchy". Indian villagers on their way to work in fields outside Kongthong village in East Khasi hills district of Meghalaya.
The birds, so many animals, they have ways of calling each other.The tradition’s days may be numbered, though, as the modern world creeps into Kongthong in the shape of televisions and mobile phones. And you-ngsters are increasingly going off singing out their friends’ melodic names, preferring instead to phone them. end-of Tags: east khasi hills, meghalaya, indian villagers."Creatures have their own identity. Trad-itionally, they can’t take part in politics, the rules are very clearly demarcated between male and fema-le," she said. (Photo: AP) Curious whistles and chirrups echo through the jungle around Kongthong, a remote village in Meghalaya, but this is no birdsong. A mother looks after a family, after the inheritance we get from our ancestors," Khongsit said."The composition of the melody comes from the bottom of my heart," mother-of-three Pyndaplin Shabong told us." The custom is known as "jingrwai lawbei", meaning "song of the clan’s first woman", a reference to the Khasi people’s mythical original mother.To walk along the main road in this village of wooden huts with corrugated tin roofs, perched on a ridge miles from anywhere, is to walk through a symphony of hoots and toots. They have conventional "real" names too, but they are rarely used."It expresses my joy and love for my baby," the 31-year-old said, her youngest daughter, two and a half years old, on her knee. It’s people calling out to each other in music — an extraordinary tradition that may even be unique.To call out to each other
China Plastic favor boxes Suppliers while in the forest, the villagers would use a long version lasting around 30 seconds of each other’s musical "name", inspired by the sounds of nature all around. Here in the lush, rolling hills of the northeastern state of Meghala-ya, mothers from Kongth-ong and a few other local villages compose a special melody for each child.Everyone in the village, inhabited by the Khasi people, will then address the person with this individual little tune — and for a lifetime. And unu-sually for India, this is a matrilineal society."But if my son has done something wrong, if I’m angry with him, he broke my heart, at that moment I will call him by his actual name," rather than singing lovingly, said Rothell Khongsit, a community leader.The origin of "jingrwai lawbei" isn’t known, but locals think it is as old as the village, which has existed for as long as five centuries.Days are spent foraging in the jungle for broom grass — the main source of revenue — leaving the village all but deserted, except for a few kids. Electricity arriv-ed only in 2000, and the dirt road in 2013. Statecraft and all that is (a) male function.On one side a mother calls out to her son to come home for supper, elsewhere children play and at the other end friends mess about — all in an unusual, musical language of their own. Prope-rty and land are passed down from mother to daughter, while a husband moves in with his wife and takes her name."The origin of "jingrwai lawbei" isn’t known, but locals think it is as old as the village, which has existed for as long as five centuries."Taking care of the children, that’s the women’s responsibility
