Maiden Princess prepare for Nongkrem Dance on Nov2

A High Priestess and her two royal daughters were today busy preparing for the grand finale of Meghalaya’s ancient Nongkrem dance festival that their family believes will preserve the traditional way of life of the Khasis.As the women kept indoors in the Iingsad or traditional palace of the Syiems of Hima Khyrim, male dancers in gorgeously brocaded costumes practiced vigorously in the courtyard for tomorrow’s grand finale at Smit, waving their swords and batons topped with yak hair tufts. The dance practice was watched by an equally colorful crowd of spectators waiting patiently to see the two daughters of the High Priestess emerge from the palace and lead a procession to nearby Lum Pomblang, where they would perform another set of rituals.While the crowd waited, the High Priestess, who is Hima Khyrim’s Queen or Syiem Sad, a hereditary position that has passed down an unbroken line of more than 500 years, and her two daughters -- the princesses -- were carrying out sacred rituals inside a room of the palace, too secret to be open to the prying eyes of others. Outside the room was the large durbar hall used by elders of the Hima or kingdom to discuss weighty issues of the community. The hall was dominated by a sacred tree trunk believed by the faithful to be the means to send their prayers to God. “Nobody can touch this trunk except the Queen and a priest,” the Kongor or Queen’s consort told Meghalaya Guardian, requesting that his real name and place of work be kept anonymous. Employed in a government office, the Kongor saw no problems in maintaining a foot in both the traditional and modern worlds, as did the Queen, who is principal of a school. Her two daughters are students.The elder daughter is a student of law at a local college, while the younger is doing commerce in school. The Kongor said all of his children made their own decisions on what to study and where to work, though his elder daughter would one day become Queen and his elder son King. He said there was no problem following a modern lifestyle. “But we should never forget our own traditions,” Kongor said, stressing that his family had a duty to safeguard traditional rituals like the Nongkrem festival.“Everyone looks to us to preserve the tradition…If we go to the modern world, we will lose our identity. We must preserve the identity of the Khasis,” he added. But he saw no difficulty in Khasis pursuing other faiths such as Christianity from taking part in Nongkrem rituals. “At Christmas time, Christians visit our palace,” he pointed out. The palace is unique in being built without metal nails, all of wooden planks locked together with wooden pegs. The two daughters will be joined by other unsullied maidens in a dance ritual that will provide the highlight of tomorrow’s concluding festival rituals. The Kongor said all the girls taking part in the dance rituals tomorrow would have to be maidens. “We don’t check this, but we leave it to their conscience (to be maidens),” he said, adding that a violation of this rule would result in unexplained severe consequences befalling the transgressor.