The people of Khasi tribal community primarily dwell in the north eastern state of Meghalaya. Amongst several tribes who have built their settlements here, the Khasis, who are also known as `Ki Khasi,’ stand apart. The major concentration of the Khasi tribal community has been located in the north and eastern regions of Meghalaya. Constituting 50 percent of the total population of Meghalaya, the Khasi tribal community resides along the foothills of Jaintia and Khasi mountainous ranges, the Syntengs, or Pnars.
The origin of the Khasi tribes is steeped in myths and legends. According to a popular legend of Khasi-Pnars there was a time when sixteen families of this community dwelt in heaven. People used to descend daily by the jingkieng ksiar (which literally means the ‘golden ladder’ but is actually meant to refer to a celestial pathway connecting heaven and earth) to come down to the earth and cultivate. This continued until one day it was irretrievably destroyed. The seven families or Seven Huts who were on earth, thus, remained here forever and from them the race multiplied.
The history of the Khasi tribe can be traced back to the mid-sixteenth century. There were twenty-five separate Khasi chiefdoms along with the separate kingdom of Jaintia. Before the arrival of the British, from the thirteenth to the eighteenth centuries, the Jaintia dominated a large number of kingdoms. At the beginning of the sixteenth century Jaintia rule was extended to Sylhet and this marked the beginning of Brahman influence on the Jaintia. By 1860, the British had annexed the entire Jaintia Hills region and imposed taxes on it as a part of British India. The Khasi states had limited cultural relations before the arrival of the British, characterized in large part by internal warfare between villages and states. The incorporation of the markets at Sylhet into the British colonial economy in 1765 marked the beginning of Khasi subjugation. In 1837 the construction of a road through Nongkhaw State linking Kolkata to the Brahmaputra Valley led to the eventual cessation of Khasi-British hostilities, and by 1862 treaties between the British and all of the Khasi states (allowing Khasi autonomy and freedom from British taxation) were signed. This showed a significant amount of cultural change like an increase in wealth, decline of traditional culture, rise in educational standards, and frequent intermarriage. The Khasis now have their own state, Meghalaya, in which they predominate.
It is interesting to note a typical Khasi house. It is a shell-shaped building with three rooms: the shynghup is a porch for storage; the nengpei is the center room for cooking and sitting; and the rumpei is the inner room for sleeping. The homes of wealthy Khasi, on the other hand, follow the modern trends and have iron roofs, chimneys, glass windows, and doors. Some have European-style homes and furniture. A marketplace is located outside a Khasi village (close to memorial stones, by a river or under a group of trees, depending on the region). Within Khasi villages one may find a number of public buildings, Christian churches, and schools.
Khasi villages are built a little below the tops of hills in small depressions to protect against storms and high winds. Their houses are built in close proximity to one another. In addition to individual houses, family tombs and memorial stones called mawbynna are located within their territory. There is no internal division of the village based on wealth; rich and poor live side by side. Sacred groves are located near the village between the brow of the hill and the leeward side, where the village’s tutelary deity is worshiped. Pigs wander freely through a village, and some villages (e.g., those of the high plateau) also feature potato gardens protected by dry dikes and hedges. Narrow streets connect houses and stone steps lead up to individual houses. The upper portion of a Khasi village may be as much as 100 meters higher in elevation than the lower portion.
Racially, the Khasis are very similar to the Indo-Chinese tribes but are by no means pure Mongoloid. At some early period they must have intermarried with another race predominantly the Austric race. Intermarriage with people of Aryan descent is a recent phenomenon. Generally, they are descendants of Mon-Khmer speakers who migrated from Yunnan to Meghalaya, and thus they are of East Asian origin. The skin colour of most Khasi varies from light brown to light yellow. They have high nasal bridges and aquiline noses. With a short build, a Khasi tribal member easily can be resembled to a typical people of East Asians to Central Asians or even Persians. Several opinions too are known. For instance the Khasi tribal community is assumed to belong to erstwhile and remote branch of Mon-Khmer people. The Khasi tribes also have inherited the features that are common to `Nicobarese and Yunnanese`. This Khasi tribal community are similar in look to their `northern Mon-Khmer relatives`, including the Palaung and Wa.
Cultural ebullience of the Khasi tribal community has been widely depicted in various aspects like language, religion, clothes, etc. This tribe uses the Khai language to converse. Following the tradition of most of the tribal communities of the Indian sub continent, the people belonging to the Khasi tribal community are religion and spiritual.
As far as religion is considered the Khasis are monotheistic. They do, however, invoke God by various names according to the need of the moment, as God has all the attributes of goodness and all the power to do well. So they call him "`lei long spah ".
Besides adapting to the indigenous practices of the Khasi religion, these people are Presbyterians, Anglican and Roman Catholics.
The Khasi tribes follow a matriarchal form of society. However, the father plays a significant role in the whole of the tribal society. The institution of marriage is considered important and given its due respect in the Khasi tribal society. What is interesting is to note that the laws that have been formulated by the Khasi tribal community too are lenient and liberal. For instance, a Khasi tribal female cannot be enforced into the bonding of marriage, and even she possesses the children and also legal properties. If a Khasi tribal female wants, she can even makes an end to her marriage at her whims with no protest from her husband. The Khasi have a remarkable devotion toward matrilineal way of life, mostly similar to the Minangkabaus.
As far as the occupations of the Khasi tribal community are concerned, they are in general dependent on Jhoom cultivation. This Khasi tribal community produces ample of vegetables and also fruits and crops. The Khasis also engage in other subsistence activities such as fishing (by poisoning or with rod and line), bird snaring (quail, partridge, lapwings, coots, and wild geese), hunting (deer, wild dogs, wolves, bears, leopards, and tigers), and the raising of goats (for sacrifice), cattle (cows and oxen for manure, field cultivation, and dairy products), pigs, dogs, and hens (for sacrifice), chickens and ducks (largely for eggs), and bees (for larvae, wax, and honey).
Cottage industries and industrial arts include cane and bamboo work, blacksmithing, tailoring, handloom weaving and spinning, cocoon rearing, lac production, stonecutting, brick making, jewelry making, pottery making, iron smelting, and beekeeping. Manufactured goods include: woven cloth, coarse cotton, randia cloth, quilts (made of beaten and woven tree bark), hoes, plowshares, billhooks, axes, silver work, miscellaneous implements of husbandry, netted bags (of pineapple fiber), pottery (made without the use of the potter`s wheel), mats, baskets, rope and string, gunpowder, brass cooking utensils, bows, arrows, swords, spears, and shields. Examples of decorative art include metal gongs (with animal engravings), implements of warfare (arrows, spears, bows, and shields), and memorial slabs (with engravings).
Dance and music form an integral part of Khasi Life - every festival and ceremony from birth to death is enriched with music and dance. The `phawar` is one of the basic forms of Khasi music. It is more of a "chant" than a song, and is often composed on the spot, impromptu, to suit the occasion. Other forms of song include ballads & verses on the past, the exploits of legendary heroes, laments for martyrs. Khasi musical instruments like the Ksing Shynrang and the Ksing Kynthei are also interesting because they support the song and the dance. Flutes and Drums of various types are used. The ubiquitous drum not only provides the beat for the festival but is also used to `invite` people to the event. Other musical instruments used by the Khasi are the "Tangmuri"(a kind of flageolet); "Shaw Shaw " (Cymbals); Percussion instruments of various types, including the "Nakra" (Big Drum) and "Ksing Padiah"(small drum); the "Besli" (flute for "solo" recitals) and a variety of other wind instruments like "Sharati", "Shyngwiang" (used for different occasions, sad or joyous); the "Duitara" (a stringed instrument played by striking the strings with a wooden pick).
The attires of the Khasi tribal community are vibrant to look at. The conventional attire of a male of the Khasi tribal community is popularly known as Jymphong. It is actually long sleeveless coat with no collar in it and also tightened by lashes in the front. However under the influence of the fashion of the contemporary period, the Khasi tribal community also wore some of the western clothes as well. There are also special dresses to suit several social functions. The conventional dress of the Khasi female is somewhat intricate with quite a few pieces of clothes, which gives her body a shape of that of a cylinder. On social occasions, these Khasi females wear a crown made up of silver or gold on the head. A thorn or crest is affixed to the backside of the crown, which corresponds to the feathers worn out by the males of the same Khasi tribal community.
With their unique cultural heritage, the Khasi tribe remains an integral part of Indian demography even today.
