By: Dominick Dauni Roising Rymbai
Mahatma Gandhi once said, “I do not want my house to be walled in on all sides and my windows to be stuffed. I want the cultures of all the lands to be blown about my house as freely as possible. But I refuse to be blown off my feet by any.”
John F. Kennedy won, narrowly, the 1960 American Presidential election. To counter the widespread anti-Catholic prejudice (he was called a Papist), he said: “I am the candidate of the Democratic Party who happens to be Catholic.” He also said: “I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute…where no Catholic prelate would tell the President how to act, and no Protestant minister would tell his parishioners for whom to vote.”
What an 8-days week of the Hynñiewtrep people’s calendar it was, the 1st to the 8th of November 2025. It started with the All Saints Day on the 1st, celebrated majorly by the Church of North India, who also runs the world-famous St. Stephen’s College, Delhi. Then the 2nd, celebrated by the Roman Catholic Church as All Souls Day and, as World Sunday School Day by the Presbyterian Church of India and other smaller Protestant churches. The mid-week’s days was the Shad Nongkrem festival of Hima Khyrim (Khyrim Syiemship). It culminated in the Annual Eucharistic Procession of the erstwhile composite Shillong Guwahati Archdiocese of the Catholic Church on the 8th, a Sunday. One unique day for the indigenous tribal people of our Meghalaya was the 7th of November; it was the main/last day of the Wangala (Hundred Drums) festival of our A’chik brethren to the west and also, of the Shad Nongkrem festival of the Hynñiewtrep people in the east.
Oh, the 7th of November, 2025; to be at Smit village, the headquarters of Hima Khyrim (one half of the erstwhile bigger and powerful Hima Shyllong, the other being Hima Mylliem, and closely related to the erstwhile Jaintia kingdom or Ri Khad-Ar Dolloi, Hima Khadsawphra or Hima Nongkhlaw, Hima Mawphlang, Hima Sohiong, Hima Nongstoin, Hima Maharam, Hima Sohra, etc). About 37 years from that particular 4-days 3-nights holiday then, and presently the sense of déjà vu and intensified feeling of kindred spirit & sense of fraternity; the colours, the sights and sounds, the soul-soothing music of the rhythm and beats of the Hynniewtrep people, the dances of the maidens and corresponding male protectors, and the rites and rituals of the goats’ sacrifices. This writer was quite sad to have missed the Shad Mastieh in front of the Ïing Sad (the ancestral house). No choice but to take succour in the (age-wise legal now and moderately) jingdih jah thait derived from U Syiem Khaw/Khoo, the traditional fermented rice beer; and also, in the 1965 hit of the British Rolling Stones’ (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction and, the Hindi classic Zindagi Kaise Hai Paheli, (What a Puzzle/Riddle Life is) from the 1971 film Anand, whose main characters are a Punjabi-Khatri Bania patient, two doctors of Bengali and Maharashtrian-Deshastha Brahmin descent, a Muslim stage-actor, a Christian matron-nurse and, probably two Kshatriya female love interests.
Going back to the special Shillong screening of the third film on Khasi Identity trilogy, The Blood and The Border (on the rituals of Hima Khyrim, encounters with missionaries and today’s rising religious intolerance and polarisation) written and produced by the talented filmmaker Bah Wanphrang Diengdoh. As an artist, Bah Wanphrang will have his good reasons. Guaranteed by Article-19(1)(a) of the Constitution of India (the Fundamental Right to Freedom of Speech and Expression, with reasonable restrictions) and on second thoughts, I see it differently. Personally, I believe, putting the ancient rites, rituals and traditions of Hima Khyrim in the same film with modern one-century-old “socio-cultural-religious” organisations and an “apology” from a woman General Secretary of the “social issues sensitive” Presbyterian Church of Wales (formerly Welsh Calvinistic Methodist Church established in 1811), is morally and ethically wrong. Hima Khyrim is Hima Khyrim; there is nothing else like it, especially now. It has unwaveringly remained apolitical and neutral in our modern parliamentary democracy. Hima Khyrim is one of the few traditional politicoadministrative institutions of our Ka Bri U Hynniewtrep (the indigenous lands of the Hynniewtrep people) that still upholds the same ancient rites and rituals, the sacred connections to our ancestors who first settled in these ancient hills we call home. A documentary film, with social commentaries, on Hima Khyrim should have been on Hima Khyrim alone.
Like Bah Wanphrang, this writer can also be charged with bringing in Hima Khyrim with other modern paraphernalia. Drawing from those “Reference to Context” English-I (Literature) exam questions of MBOSE in the Matric exams of the 1970s to the 1990s, it is important to build context for comparative analysis.
A news article, “Materials to be on display during Monolith Fest” from The Shillong Times, dated March 28, 2016 mentioned a research excavation project carried out by archaeologist Dr. Marco Mitri, Folkloristics Professor Desmond Kharmawphlang and Chemistry Professor Bekington Myrboh of NEHU at a site on Lum Sohpetbneng. Neolithic Age tools and objects, dating back to 1220 BCE, were found after preliminary excavation. That means the Hynniewtrep indigenous people are an ancient tribe, that could go back 4000-5000 years ago.
So, there is a probability of close to one that the ancient Hima Shyllong, presently the twin Hima(s) of Khyrim and Mylliem, have existed for at least one millennium (1000 years) Before Christ and 2000 years prior to the arrival of the white man with his weapons of mass destruction and the perfected Psy-Ops of the Roman Empire’s politico-military strategy divide et impera or divide and rule. Keeping whatever politics of it all aside, chronology samajh aa raha hain?
It has always been a difficult balancing act to live with modern cultural practices and still uphold ancient values and traditions; those Hollywood’s American Born Confused Desi (ABCD) films of the late 1990s and 2000s can be food for thought. Till date, No audio amplification systems are used for the music in the Shad Nongkrem festival. However, the present Syiem, Pa’iem Dr. Balajied Sing Syiem himself, represents the intersection of modern
life with tradition. He is a medical doctor by training and practice, as well as one half of the custodians of ancient values and traditions – he, the male half with Ka Mei Syiem Sad as the female half.
Worldwide, the Gen Z, supported by the Millenials and the Baby Boomers generations, talks of DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion). The world is watching the democracy of Pax Americana closely. On one hand, there is the white supremacist, hate-filled, fear-fuelled and sometimes violent polarised America; on the other hand, the successful (over 50% of the vote) and peaceful mayoral campaign of the Indian-American Muslim candidate, the 34-year old Zohran Mamdani of New York City, United States of America.
Hima Khyrim has the ancient cultural practice of U Syiem Kmie. The Syiem is a fatherly figure to all inhabitants (ki khun ki hajar) of the Hima, indigenous hill tribals as well as the plains’ people of present-day Assam and Bangladesh. As part of the goat-offering ritual or the Bujai Blang in the festival, the Syiem accepts all, irrespective of creed. Based on educational status and generational (and also nouveau riche) wealth, the modern-day class-divide is real. But the tribe is still egalitarian; the present Pa’iem is known to give free medical services and unconditional support (financially or otherwise) to all inhabitants of the Hima.
To reiterate, culture is public, religion is private! The indigenous rites & rituals and “religious/spiritual” beliefs have always been clan-based! And it is very important to keep the petty politics of it all – be it family, clan, religion or ideology – far, far away from the ancient sacred institution of Hima Khyrim!
PS: Born and raised in the Jaintia Hills, the writer is a proud member of the indigenous tribal Hynniewtrep Niaw-Wasa conglomerate of Meghalaya state; to the world, he’s a proud citizen of the Republic of India. He also happens to be a practising Christian. He is quite proud of the fact that the Lyngdoh Sohblei of Hima Khyrim is a fellow clansman (chi kur i se) of the Rumnong clan, closely related to the Nongrum (previously Nongrymbai) clan.
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