EAST GARO HILLS

 HISTORY

The almost complete absence of written records prior to the coming of the British leaves the past history of the Garo very far from certain. For the past, we have to depend entirely on their legend and oral traditions, their folklore and folksongs, and other circumstantial evidenceare, however, most uncertain and reliable sources of information.

The Garos’ own traditions relate that they came originally from Tibet to what is now Cooch Behar, whence they moved on to Dhubri whose king received them warmly. However, later on, being afraid of them, he did not allow them to settle permanently. From there they moved to their neighourhood of Jogighopa where they remained for about 400 years but they were again forced to leave the place, driven towards the south by the ruler of that country, crossed the Brahmaputra on rafts and advanced towards Gauhati, where they settled at Ka’magre or present Kamakhya Hills and along the Brahmaputra valley. As the place was infested with tigers, the Garo relinquished the place and then spread into Habraghat Pargana in Goalpara. Tradition also tell us while in the neighbourhood of Habraghat Pargana, the Garo appear to have become rich and prosperous and the first Garo Kingdom was established, of which the first reigning price was Abrasen who has his palace and capital at Sambol A’ding, an isolated hill near the Dakaitdol Village not far from Goalpara town

GEOGRAPHY

as is evident from the name, the district of East Garo Hils is a hilly terrain. The hills are highly dissected and one major formation is the Arbella Range, which is cuts through the south-central part of the district. The range consists of peaks with an average height of 700 metres above sea level. Another important physiographic feature is the Simsang Valley which runs through the southern part of the district. The River Simsang is the longest river in Garo Hills, which originates in West Garo Hills and flows through East Garo Hills and thence to South Garo Hills. The topography of the rest of the district is of undulating low hills, with altitude ranging from 150 to 600 netres above sea level. Besides the Simsang (Someshwari), the district is also drained by the rivers Manda (Dudhnoi) & Damring (Krishnoi), which have their sources within the district. Other than the Simsang which drains southeastwards, the others all runs north or northwest towards the Brahmaputra.aphy

POLITICS

Lok Sabha :The district falls under the Tura Parliamentary Constituency which Purno Agitok Sangma has been representing at the Lok Sabha (the House of the People), the Lower House of the Indian Parliament since 1975. Purno Agitok Sangma has been a former Union Minister and has the distinction of being the only unanimously elected Speaker of the Lok Sabha (during the 11th Lok Sabha).

Assembly Constituency :There are 3 (three) Assembly Constituencies of the Meghalaya State Legislative Assembly within the East Garo Hills District of Meghalaya. The Assembly Constituencies are as follows:

SONGSAK (ST)

RONGJENG (ST)

WILLIAMNAGAR (ST)

Administrative divisions East Garo Hills division is divided into five blocks.

CLIMATE

The district enjoys confortable temperature throughout the year; not very hot in summer and not very cold in winter. Over-all the climatic condition of the district is healthy and tropical. The whole district is under the influence of the monsoons characterised by hot and humid rainy seasons during the summer, and cool and dry seasons during the winter. Temperature ranges from minimum of 5°C to maximum of 36°C. The district gets rainfall from the South-West monsoon. With high average annual rainfall, Meghalaya as a whole including the East Garo Hills district, is the wettest place on earth.

ECONOMY

The economy of the East Garo Hills district is basically agrarian and rural based. Agriculture is the mainstay of about 90 percent of the population of East Garo Hills and most earn their livings directly or indirectly from agriculture. Traditionally, agriculture in the district is mostly of food crops and it is only in the recent years that cash crops agriculture is gaining popularity. There is a great potential for Agro-based industries in the district. Rice is the most important food crop that is grown in the district, both in the plains and i the hills. Other food crops that are widely grown in the district is tapioca or manoic, yam, maize and millet. The district produces substantial quantities of fruits like oranges, pineapples, bananas and jackfruit and spices like chillies, ginger, tumeric and bay leaves. In recent years there has been an increase in the coverage of plantation crops like rubber, coffee, tea, cashew nuts. The latest horticultural introduction is vanilla vines. There is also scope for floriculture to flourish, due to favourable climate enabling low cost cultivation. The district is ideal for growing orchids and tropical blooms like anthurium and bird of paradise (Strelitzia Reginae). However, the market potential for flowers is still at it's nascent, developmental stage.

Although the economy of the state is largely agrarian, agriculture and agro-based industries has not been fully exploited in the district. There is tremendous potential for investment and development in food processing and ample scope for setting up a viable large scale fruit processing units in the district. Besides agriculture, a small part of the economy is occupied in small-scale industries such as sericulture & weaving, animal husbandry and dairy farming, carpentry & bamboo-working, brick-making, etc. Mining is another important industry. The district has fairly large reserves of coal, limestone and clay.

 CULTURE

The People

The Garos constitute the majority in the East Garo Hills district as is evident from the name of the district. The district also is home for a sizeable population of Rabhas, Hajongs, Koches, Dalus, Banais and Boros. The Garos are the second largest tribe after the Khasis in Meghalaya. The Garos refer to themselves as A'chik or Mande and their language belongs to the Bodo branch of the Bodo-Naga-Kachin family of Sino Tibetan phylum. The Garos are distributed over the three Garo Hills districts of Meghalaya, the Mymensingh district of Bangladesh and  the Kamrup, Goalpara and Karbi-Anglong districts of Assam. They are also scatterred in a few numbers in Tripura and Nagaland. Since the Garos are scattered far and wide, and since these scattered units were in isolation from each other over time, they have developed their own separate identities and dialects. Still, features like their traditional political setup, social institutions, marriage systems, inheritance of properties, religion and beliefs are common between these groups. Moreover, these groups are endogamous generally. The various dialect groups that comprises the Garos are the  Ambeng, Atong, Akawe (or Awe), Duals, Matchi, Matabengs, Chibok, Chisak Megam or Lyngngam, Ruga, Gara-Ganching.The most significant difference is that between the groups who live closer to the plains and the hill dwellers who constitute the remaining groups. The Garos of the hills practice slash-and-burn agriculture or jhum-cultivation while the Garo of the plains practice wet-rice agriculture and live in a cultural and ecological environment entirely different from that of the Garo of the hills

The Garos live in semi-permanent villages varying in size from 10 to 60 houses. Village populations rarely exceed 300. There are five named, exogamous, matrilineal phratries called  chatchi. Only two of these, Sangma and Marak, are found throughout. The other three viz. Momin, Shira & Arengh are not widely distributed. The phratries are divided into many named, matrilineal sibs, each of which is restricted to a specific locality. The sibs are divided into unnamed lineages referred to as mahari. Each village is built around one or two of these lineages, and most of the lineage women, with their husbands, live in the village, as do some of the men with their wives. One household is usually considered to be the most senior, and the other houses are thought to have branched out from it. This household holds all the village land, and the husband of the heiress is considered to be the headman of the village or the  Nokma. Historically, the Garos did not own land - whatever land they hold in possession, they do so without any ownership documents and the land belonged to the tribe as a collective property, cultivated under a cooperative system. Theoretically, land is owned by the Nokma, and new sections are distributed among the households each year. Among the hill Garos, all subsistence is based on jhum cultivation. Dry rice is the primary crop, and millet is also important. In addition, bananas, papaya, maize, manioc, taro, squash, large-pod beans, sorrel, gourds, and many other vegetables are grown to supplement the diet. Important cash crops are cotton, chili peppers, and ginger. Wet rice has been grown more recently in some of the low areas, and this has changed the land tenure system to one of individual ownership, a situation which has had profound implications for the social structure.

ARCHITECTURE

Garo architecture can be classified into following categories:

Nokmong: The house where every A'chik household can stay together. This house is built in such a way that inside the house, there are provisions for sleeping, hearth, sanitary arrangements, kitchen, water storage, place for fermenting wine, place for use as cattle-shed or for stall-feeding the cow and the space between earthen floor and raised platform for use as pigsty and in the back of the house, the raised platform serves as hencoop for keeping fowl and for storing firewood, thus every need being fully provisioned for in one house. Nokpante, the house of bachelors, MeghalayaNokpante: In the Garo habitation, the house where unmarried male youth or bachelors live is called Nokpante. The word Nokpante means the house of bachelors. Nokpantes are generally constructed in the front courtyard of the "Nokma", the chief. The art of cultivation, various arts and cultures, and different games are also taught in the Nokpante to the young boys by the senior boys and elders.  Jamsreng: In certain areas, in the rice field or orchards, small huts are constructed. They are called Jamsreng or "Jamap". Either the season's fruits or grains are collected and stored in the Jamsreng or it can be used for sleeping.. Jamatal: The small house, a type of miniature house, built in the Jhum fields is called Jamatal or 'field house'. In certain places, where there is danger from wild animals, a small house with ladder is constructed on the treetop. This is called "Borang" or 'house on the treetop'

 FOOD

 - The Garo is a true ‘carni-herbivorous’. He will eat almost any animal for meat usually raising goats, pigs, fowl and ducks in the village and buying cattle from the plains people. They are the only division of the Bodos who eat beef and other wild animals, except the tiger.   Snakes, lizards and even small ants with wings are eaten and a favourite food item is dried fish, ‘na.kam’ – some of which they prepare themselves and some procured from the plains. ‘Gran’, a dried version of beef or any meat is preferable.  The staple cereal is rice with millet, maize and job’s tears are eaten boiled. On a journey, rice is cooked in hollow bamboo vessels, split open after cooking, and each person’s share of rice   put into plantain leaves and folded over.  Garos eat quite a few vegetables and many edible roots and creepers from the forest. Bamboo shoots are considered a delicacy and eaten boiled, as a vegetable or used for special dishes. Bamboo shoots are sometimes collected and put into a big cone made of split bamboo. The inside is lined with plantain leaves and cone erected with the top down. The potash-rich sap in the shoots slowly seeps out and is collected and used to boil vegetables.  Garos grow chillies and eat them in a great deal. They use salt but no fat for cooking. Normally the Garos eat three meals a day but on festive occasions, they really let their appetites free. Guests sit in rows, servers with baskets move around dispensing tempting pieces. They are followed by the liquor-bearers who carry ‘bek’ or ‘pongsim’ a kind of gourd holding liquor to wash down the food.  Garo women have the food first then give it to their children, a custom known as the ‘chochoa’.  

Gaors drink only brewed liquor, never distilled. The base ingredients could be rice, millet, maize or job’s tears. Liquor obtained from job’s tears is the most potent of all. ‘Wanti’ is a compound of a number of herbs and fruits such as chillies, sugarcane and fruit of the Kimka (Solanum indicum). They are crushed, mixed with rice flour and made into round flat cakes, which can be stored for a few months. Liquor-making is a duty of the women of a Garo household. 

INDUSTRY

The Garos have a tradition of self-sufficiency in many of the articles of everyday use, which have in time become part of their material culture. Among these may be mentioned their textile, their pottery, their basketry and the products of a large number of other crafts.Their environment has been a generous provided. The forests provide an almost limitless quantity of timber, bamboo and cane, which are so necessary for their dwellings or for household articles. Their fields yield cotton for their yarn. A brief account of the industries that flourish in the district is given below:

Weaving:Weaving is one of the most important vocations in the economic life of the Garos. The Garo Hills have for long produced short-stapled cotton and the weavers of Garo Hills are known for their exquisite skill in weaving various types of fabrics. The principal products still are the Dakmanda and Daksaria. These are famous for their texture and their variegated colourful designs.Besides these, the artisians also produce other articles like gamchas, bed covers etc. Training centers for artisan weavers are located at Tura, Resubelpara, Baghmara, Williamnagar and Shyamnagar (Phulbari) in all the three districts of Garo Hills.

Sericulture:Sericulture can be a very important source of subsidiary income for those families which are engaged in shifting cultivation, provided they can be persuaded to take up settled agriculture. Mulberry and other plants suitable for rearing Eri and Muga Silkworms grow well in the Garo Hills though most of the plantations are in the interior hills and forests. The Eri silk-growing centers are located at Samanda and the Muga silk-growing centers at A’dokgre. Like the cotton industry, this industry also faces problems as dearth of trained technical personnel, inadequate landholdings and dearth of rearing accommodation for individual silk-worm rearers and absence of research facilities.

Handicrafts

Garos are well known in north-east India for their handicrafts and textiles, specially for handloom industries. However, they produce only for local consumption and not in large scale. Most of the Garo handicrafts are Am (Mat), Kera or Kok (Conical basket), Ruan (winnowing fan), Gitchera (winnowing net), Chokki (chair), and domestic items such as Bamboo-spoon, rice stick, bamboo mug etc. The household furniture are made out of cane, bamboo and

AGRICULTURE

Agriculture is the mainstay of about 90 percent of the population and rice is the most important of the food crops grown in the districts, both in the pains areas where it is grown in wet paddy fields and in the hill areas where it is chiefly grown on jhum fields. Even here, the deteriorating condition of jhum lands and, on the other hand, the awareness of the comparative advantage of wet rice cultivation particularly After the introduction of high-yield varieties has induced a number of farmers in the hill areas to turn away from jhumming. The major crops raised in the Garo hills are paddy, maize, jute, mesta, cotton, ginger and mustard. Wheat is grown but because of the low demand, much of the yield goes to markets outside the districts.Subsidiary crops are millet, pulses, potatoes, sesamum, chillis, turmeric, arhar, tobacco, tapioca, sweet potato and soya bean.Vegetables grown included pumpkin, gourd, cucumber, brinjal, onion, peas, carrot, melon, radish, squash, turnip, garlic, beans, cabbage, cauliflower, knol-khol, tomato, etc. Fruits included papaya, pineapple, orange, pomelo, jack-fruit, litchi, mango, pears, sapota, cashewnuts, bananas, etc. coconut and areca nut are also grown widely.The increased demand for jute, mesta, mustard, ginger, cotton, rubber and other cash crops has also encouraged farmers to increase the area of cultivation for these crops. Improved road communication and marketing facilities as well as improved methods of cultivation and crop protection have also contributed to the increase in the production of food and cash crops, though these advantages have been offset in certain cases by scarcity of good cultivatable land and fluctuations in the market prices of some items.The department of Agriculture has come forward with several schemes designed to increased food production, chiefly those involving distribution oh high yield varieties and improved varieties of seed, better soil and water management and plant protection measure

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TRANSPOT

Railhead: Guwahati is the nearest railhead and is well-connected to the rest of the country.

Airport: Lokapriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport of Guwahati is the nearest

airport from where the district can be reached by bus or car.

Road Transport: Daily buses connect Williamnagar with Shillong, Guwahati & Tura.

Meghalaya Transport Corporation (MTC) runs a regular bus service between Williamnagar

& Shillong. There are numerous buses and taxi services from Tura to Williamnagar. A

daily night bus service from Guwahati to Williamnagar is also available. There are also

several bus services to other places in the district like Mendipathar / Resubelpara &

Nongalbibra from Williamnagar & Guwahati.xc c

PLACES OF TOURIST INTEREST

1. Rongbang Falls

Distance from Tura : 25 miles

Access : a little beyond Rombagre village

1. It is a tributary of the Simsang River and is at its best during the monsoon months and

has evergreen hills of bamboo on either side.

2. Domre Falls

Distance from Williamnagar: 23 km

Access : just off the Williamnagar-Songsak road, near Dadengpara

It is small and is only of moderate size during monsoon nestled deep in the thick

3. Mokma Dare

Distance from Williamnagar : 35 km

Access : 20 km from Rongjeng Bus service. Bus service is available

till Rongjeng (located at Mejolgre village)

This waterfalls falls from a great height and makes a deafening sound.

4. Dainadubi

Distance from Williamnagar : 93 km

Accommodation : PWD Bungalow

Access : a few kilometers from the Trunk Road leading to Goalpara

town some 60 kms to the west

This village is situated on the banks of the Manda River. A weekly market is held

on every Thursday at Damra which is 1 km away.

5. Mendipathar

Distance from Williamnagar : 65 km

Accommodation : Inspection Bungalow (PWD),Forest Inspection Bungalow

and Soil Inspection Bungalow

Access : 6 kilometers away from the Community Development

Block headquarters at Resubelpara

The village is situated in northern Garo Hills on the banks of the Damring or

Krishnai River.

A thriving market is held here every Saturday.

6. Nongalbibra

Distance from Williamnagar : 25 km

Accommodation : District Council Guest House

Access : Bus and Sumo service from Williamnagar

This important place is situated near the confluence of the Nongal and the Simsang

Rivers in East Garo Hills District.

There are rich deposits of coal in and around this place. The place is electrified.

Both mining and electrical undertakings are being undertaken by the Government and

progress has, as a result, been fast. A Hospital and a Post Office are located here

7. Naphak or Napak

Accommodation : Inspection Bungalow

Access : 6 km away from Songsak

8. Ta'sek Lake: It was formed during the Great Earthquake of 1897 by River Damring. It

is believed to be the habitat of a huge water serpent called Sangkini. It has a potential for

pisciculture.

9. Rajasimla

Distance from Williamnagar : 141 km

Accommodation : PWD Inspection Bungalow at Karkutha and Forest Guest

House

Access : Bus Service from Williamnagar via Dudhnoi (Assam)

It is one of the earliest villages to be visited by the American Missionaries in the

early years of the last century. The name Rajasimla was given to commemorate the treaty

between the Rajah of Bijni and the villagers who recognized this particular spot as the

boundary between the territory of the Rajah and the independent Garo villages.

It is the centre for socio-cultural activities of surrounding villages and plays like

Kalsin-Sonatchi, Serejing Wal’jan and others are staged regularly.

10. Resubelpara

Distance from Williamnagar : 74km

Accommodation : Circuit House, PWD Inspection Bungalow, Soil Inspection

Bungalow and Forest Inspection Bungalow

Access : Bus and Sumo service (PWD road) from Williamnagar

Hot spring Radi Nokad Shiva Lingam formation, Joilding Lake and Rangdotkram

11. Williamnagar

Distance from Tura : 78 km

Accommodation : government Circuit House and the District Council

Inspection Bungalow

Access : Bus services are available daily between Williamnagar and

other places within the Garo Hills and outside. There is a

service connecting Williamnagar to Shillong with an

alternative route via Nongstoin in West Khasi Hills in the

event of floods.

A salt lake nearby attracts many kinds of wild animals and the surrounding thick

jungles provide an ideal haunt for wild animals like elephants and tigers.

12. Rongrengiri

Distance from Williamnagar : 7 km

Accommodation : District Council I. B

Access : 10 kilometres off Williamnagar on the Tura-

Asanangre-williamnagar state highway

It constitutes of the Rongrengiri Reserve Forest, about 36 sqkm. A Memorial to

warrior Pa Togan, who led a war against British, has been erected at Chisobibra within

Rongrengiri Reserve Forest and a function to commemorate him is held annually at the site

of the Memorial, on the anniversary of his martyrdom. The River Simsang is an excellent

spot for anglers. Imperial-Pigeons grazing for calcinates at Chisobibra are also found here

13. Darugiri Reserve Forest

Distance from Williamnagar  : 49 km Accommodation   : Forest Rest House Access : Alongside the Dudhnoi- Damra-Darugiri-Baghmara road 

One come across a vast expanse of Reserve Forest, covering an area of approximately ten-and-a-half square  kilometres. This is the Darugiri Reserve Forest set up towards the close of the nineteenth century. The Forest located between Songsak and Rongjeng consists of mature Sal plantations, which stand elegant and tall, spreading an eternal canopy of emerald green over vast areas with very little undergrowth except their smooth, tall trunks which look like pillars set to uphold and bear the weighty canopy of Sal plants.   One the periphery of the Forest is the century old Darugiri Forest Rest House, still maintained in its original state of simple rural opulence, yet enough to meet the requirements of officials and visitors.