topics: |  khasi | india | culture

Excerpts

physiognomy and skull measurements

The skull may be said to be almost brachy-cephalic, the average cephalic
index of 77 Khasi subjects, measured by Col. Waddell and Major Hare, I.M.S.,
being as high as 77.3 and 77.9, respectively. According to these data the
Khasis are more brachy-cephalic than the Aryans, whose measurements appear in
Crooke's tables, more brachy-cephalic than the 100 Mundas whose measurements
appear in Risley's tables, more brachy-cephalic than the Dravidians, but less
brachy-cephalic than the Burmans, whose measurements also appear in Crooke's
tables. It would be interesting to compare some head measurements of Khasis
with Japanese, but unfortunately the necessary data are not available in the
case of the latter people.

The Khasis are usually short in stature, with bodies well nourished,
and the males are extremely muscular. The trunk is long in proportion
to the rest of the body, and broad at the waist; calves are very
highly developed. The women, when young are comely, of a buxom type,
and, like the men, with highly-developed calves, the latter always
being considered a beauty.

khasis as porters

Khasis carry very heavy burdens, it being the custom for the
coolie of the country to carry a maund, or 82 lbs. weight, or even
more occasionally, on his back, the load being fixed by means of a
cane band which is worn across the forehead; women carry almost as
heavy loads as the men. The coolies, both male and female, commonly
do the journey between Cherrapunji and Shillong, or between Shillong
and Jowai, in one day, carrying the heavy loads above mentioned. Each
of the above journeys is some thirty miles. They carry their great
loads of rice and salt from Therria to Cherrapunji, an ascent of about
4,000 feet in some three to four miles, in the day. The Khasis are
probably the best porters in the north of India, and have frequently
been requisitioned for transport purposes on military expeditions.

drinking and gambling

They are, hard drinkers, and consume large quantities of spirit distilled
from rice or millet. Rice beer is also manufactured; this is used
not only as a beverage, but also for ceremonial purposes.

The Khasis, like other people of Indo-Chinese origin, are much addicted to
gambling. ... The inhabitants of the far interior are, as a rule, simple and
straightforward people, and are quite as truthful and honest as peasants one
meets in other countries.

Khasis of the interior who have adopted Christianity are generally
cleaner in their persons than the non-Christians, and their women dress
better than the latter and have an air of self-respect about them.

Origin

The origin of the Khasis is a very vexed question. Although it is probable
that the Khasis have inhabited their present abode for at any rate a
considerable period, there seems to be a fairly general belief amongst them
that they originally came from elsewhere. The Rev. H. Roberts, in the
introduction to his Khasi Grammar, states that "tradition, such as it is,
connects them politically with the Burmese, to whose king they were up to a
comparatively recent date rendering homage, by sending him an annual tribute
in the shape of an axe, as an emblem merely of submission." Another tradition
points out the north as the direction from which they migrated, and Sylhet as
the terminus of their wanderings, from which they were ultimately driven back
into their present hill fastnesses by a great flood, after a more or less
peaceful occupation of that district. It was on the occasion of this great
flood, the legend runs, that the Khasi lost the art of writing, the Khasi
losing his book whilst he was swimming at the time of this flood, whereas the
Bengali managed to preserve his.


the Khasis and other tribes of the Mon-Anam family, originally occupied a
large portion of the Indian continent. Where the actual cradle of the
Mon-Anam race was, is as impossible to state, as it is to fix upon the exact
tract of country from which the Aryans sprang. ...
it is difficult to clear up the mystery of the survival, in an isolated
position, of people like the Ho-Mundas, whose language and certain customs
exhibit points of similarity with those of the Khasis, in close proximity to
the Dravidian tribes and at a great distance from the Khasis, there being no
people who exhibit similar characteristics inhabiting countries situated in
between; but we can, I think, reasonably suppose that the Khasis are an
offshoot of the Mon people of Further India in the light of the historical
fact I have quoted, i.e. that the movements of races into Assam have usually,
although not invariably, taken place from the east, and not from the west.

language

The isolation of the Khasi race, in the midst of a great encircling
population all of whom belong to the Tibeto-Burman stock, and the
remarkable features presented by their language and institutions,
soon attracted the attention of comparative philologists and
ethnologists. An account of their researches will be found in
Dr. Grierson's Linguistic Survey of India, vol. ii.

the languages of the Mon-Khmer
group in Burma and the Malay Peninsula are intimately connected with
Khasi. I say, intimately, advisedly, for not only are roots of words
seen to be similar, but the order of the words in the sentence is
found to be the same, indicating that both these people think in
the same order when wishing to express themselves by speech.

matriarchal society

their social organization presents one of the most perfect examples still
surviving of matriarchal institutions, carried out with a logic and
thoroughness which, to those accustomed to regard the status and authority of
the father as the foundation of society, are exceedingly remarkable. Not only
is the mother the head and source, and only bond of union, of the family: in
the most primitive part of the hills, the Synteng country, she is the only
owner of real property, and through her alone is inheritance transmitted. The
father has no kinship with his children, who belong to their mother's clan;
what he earns goes to his own matriarchal stock, and at his death his bones
are deposited in the cromlech of his mother's kin. In Jowai he neither lives
nor eats in his wife's house, but visits it only after dark (p. 76).

clothes

The Khasi males of the interior wear the sleeveless coat or jymphong, which
is a garment leaving the neck and arms bare, with a fringe at the bottom, and
with a row of tassels across the chest; it is fastened by frogs in
front. This coat, however, may be said to be going out of fashion in the
Khasi Hills, its place being taken by coats of European pattern

The Lynngam dress is very similar to that of the neighbouring Garos.  The
males wear the sleeveless coat, or phong marong, of cotton striped red and
blue, red and white, or blue and white, fastened in the same manner as the
Khasi coat and with tassels.

In Suhtnga the people import cotton thread from Mynso and weave the (ingki)
or sleeveless coat, peculiar to the district; these coats are dyed red and
blue.

The old-fashioned Khasi female's dress, which is that worn by people of the
cultivator class of the present day, is the following:--Next to the skin is
worn a garment called ka jympien, which is a piece of cloth wound round the
body and fastened at the loins with a kind of cloth belt, and which hangs
down from the waist to the knee or a little above it. Over this is worn a
long piece of cloth, sometimes of muga silk, called ka jainsem. This is not
worn like the Assamese mekhela or Bengali sari, for it hangs loosely from
the shoulders down to a little above the ankles, and is not caught in at the
waist--in fact, Khasi women have no waist. It is kept in position by knotting
it over both the shoulders. Over the jainsem another garment called _ka
jain kup_ is worn. This is thrown over the shoulders like a cloak, the two
ends being knotted in front, it hangs loosely down the back and sides to the
ankles. It is frequently of some gay colour, the fashion in Mawkhar and
Cherrapunji being some pretty shade of French gray or maroon. Over the head
and shoulders is worn a wrapper called ka tap-moh-khlieh. This, again, is
frequently of some bright colour, but is often white. There is a fold in the
jainsem which serves as a pocket for keeping odds and ends. Khasi women in
cold weather wear gaiters which are often long stockings without feet, or, in
the case of the poor, pieces of cloth wound round the legs like putties, or
cloth gaiters. I have seen women at Nongstoin wearing gaiters of leaves. It
was explained to me that these were worn to keep off the leeches.

taboos

Kaba shong sang, or marrying within the kur or clan, is the most
important taboo of all, and is regarded as the most serious offence a Khasi
can commit. It admits of no expiation, and the bones and ashes of the
offender cannot be placed in the family tomb.