Shillong, Dec 15: The Philosophy Department, Shillong College today, the 15th December, 2021, organised a talk on “Khasi Religion” as part of the celebration of 50th Anniversary of Statehood of Meghalaya.
Dr.(Mrs) E.Kharkongor, Principal Shillong College, in her address talked about the importance of understanding Khasi Religion as it will enable us to understand the facets of Khasi Religion which is the basis of our culture and belief system.
Dr. S. S. Khongkliam, Principal of SngapSyiem College, Mawkyrwat was the resource person. He highlighted on the concept of God (U Blei) in Khasi religion that the Khasi believes in One God.
He said that even though the Khasi attributed “U” or “Ka” (he/she) to God such asKa ‘lei synshar, and“U NongbuhNongthaw (Planner/Creator), U Nongseinongpynlong (the Giver or Dispenser of life), etc, yet the Khasi believes that God is beyond gender because he is the Almighty God.
And all the above names of God refer to one God only. He also said that the Khasis also localise or contextualise the name of God such as U ‘lei Shyllong, U ‘lei muluk (God of territory), U ‘lei Umtong(God of Water), U ‘lei Longspah (God of wealth). Inspite of the various names given to God (U Blei), yet these are only localised names, in reality He is a universal God.
These names refer to one God only. Dr. Khongkliam also pointed out another important fact about the Khasi that they believe that God is present everywhere, He is both immanent and transcendent to the world, and also that God is self-existent.
Just like the Jews,theKhasis never speak to formulate they the existence of God but they just take for granted that He exists from eternity to eternity. He also stressed that the Khasi believe that his religion is directed by God.
Another fact that Dr. Khongkliam emphasized was that the Khasi did not have Scripts or alphabets in the early days before 1841 when Thomas Jones came to Sohra and introduced the Khasi alphabet in Roman Scripts.
Before this, the Khasi passed on their records through the words of mouth. So, the history of the Khasi religion was passed on orally from one generation to generation.
