Aims and objectives
The ultimate aim of this project was to deliver a selection of digitised endangered archival materials to the British Library as part of a pilot investigation. This goal was supported through a number of subsidiary and interconnected aims:
- Identification and further analysis of endangered archives in the Khasi Hills, Meghalaya, based on initial scoping;
- Training of local technicians in Shillong and support team in techniques of survey, digital copying (enabled by equipment purchase), metadata listing, and relevant archival and conservation practices;
- Community consultation in Shillong and neighbouring towns to encourage local interest, further explore the local knowledge base, and to build confidence and trust with custodians of materials as potential project participants;
- Digitisation of cultural materials identified, including metadata listing;
- Dissemination and promotion of the project ambitions and outcomes, enhancing the cultural relevance of endangered archival materials, and encouraging the ongoing social importance of further preservation endeavours.
Outcomes
Digitisation has been carried out as part of the pilot project, as below:
Oral recordings
Three audio cassettes in the Kharmawphlang collection including recordings from the 1990s of traditional storytelling and musical traditions. The condition of one cassette was poor.
Jied Sing Buphang: A) Phawar (Ja Siet) (B) 1. Phawar (Weiking): The tape is a recording of phawar, which is a genre of oral traditional Khasi poetry. Having a highly stylized versification form, it uses a corpus of "tradition" upon which the poet draws in order to compose and sing. The artist, Iied Sing Buhphang was a charcoal burner who worked in the deep chasms of the War areas of the Khasi hills. Iied Sing Buhphang died under mysterious circumstances, and his body was found many days after he had died by a couple of men who had lost their way in the maze of precipices and who had strayed to the jungle patch where the poet-singer worked.
Muin music: Eni Lyngdoh was a muin player par excellence. She was responsible for teaching playing the muin to many young women and girls in the village of Pahambir, thus sustaining a musical tradition which has almost died out in the surrounding villages.
Babil Ja Ceremony: Bablija refers to a rare religious ceremony performed in the Bhoi areas of the Khasi hills. It requires a very elaborate preparation which involves the construction of an altar made of bamboo and the consumption of opium.
Clan origins and ceremonies: Interviews conducted with W. Shylla, the headman of Mynso village about the origin of the Situng clan which regards the tiger as its protector. There are detailed descriptions about the clan ceremonies dedicated to the tiger spirit, its abstract totemism and its association with the ritual systems, the role of certain individuals, legendary and living. The interviewee also narrated legends revolving around Mynso village, its sacred forests and the river Myntang which is considered a deity. Another very important feature of the narration is the explanation of the weaving tradition existing in the village which specializes in the tawar, a length of cloth used to fasten infants to the back of mothers, nurses and care-givers. The tawar is always presented to a young mother by her mother-in-law. This gifting is considered to be auspicious and continues till date even if the use of the tawar in urban areas is only symbolic and has dwindled.
Otto Hopfenmuller Library material
A range of vernacular periodicals were published in the decades immediately following establishment of the Ri Khasi Press in the Khasi Hills in the 1890s. Issues of fragmentary Christian and secular publications from the period are partial, and many in deteriorated condition, but they represent significant cultural knowledge from the period of transition from oral to written culture.
1900s-1920s
787pp
Ka Iing Khristan
U Khasi
U Nongialam Katholik
U Nongialam Khristan
U Nongpyrta
The Catholic Herald of India
The Light of the East
Leggende Khasi
Assam Gazette
Nartiang Dorbar material
Map, documents, photographs:
- Hard Binding folded District Map of Khasi and Jaintia Hills taken from sheets No. 124S.E, 124S.W, 125N.E, S.E, S.W AND 125N.W of the Indian Atlas from Topographical Survey of 1864-79;
- Petition of Priest of Nartiang Durgabari with the Dolloi of Nartiang and Official documents between 1962-1963;
- Photographs of Last Sutnga Raja and Nartiang Durga Mandir and Priest with Family.
1890s-1960s
27pp
Elaka Sohbar, Sohbar Sirdarship material
These materials are particularly pertinent to pre-Independence relationships between the British Raj and Indian states, at an imperial as well as local level:
- Collection of Official Letters;
- Assortment of documents between 1942-1948 (Old Records of Bhatrai and Sylhet);
- Translation of Agreement of Sirdars Executed with David Scott in 1829;
- Ki Thma Bah: Collection of Correspondences and Official Letters relating to Khasis serving the British India forces during the first two world wars in modern era 1919-1944
1880s-1940s
147pp
Alvareen Dkhar material
This important collection of clippings, compositions and correspondence primarily between Soso Tham (1873-1940) and his son Primrose Gatphoh represents a precious horde of the 'poet laureate' of the north-east and is in the collection of Soso Tham's descendants. Many originals were in extremely fragile condition.
1910s-1970s
246pp
Assam Club
Minutes, reports and constitution of the Assam Club, Shillong, in English and Assamese.
1960s
157pp
Ka Syngkhong Jingtip
Hardbound collection of Khasi views on life
nd
153pp
Chants Charms Spells
Collection of notes pertaining to charms and spells from the Bhoi area.
70pp
