India has a variety of unique places with different cultures and traditions and this time there is something out of our imagination. Generally, children are assigned a name to call from their childhood. But a village in the hills of the northeastern state of Meghalaya, East Khasi Hills district, 60 kilometres from the capital city Shillong, known as Kongthong.
People of the ‘whistling village’ do not use names or any gestural approach to call each other. Instead, they use most unique way of communicating through ‘whistling’.
They villagers address each other with a distinctive tune which they call ‘Jingrwai Iawbei.’ This term refers to a tune sung in honour of the clan’s first mother or root ancestor.
The villagers have two names- one is a regular name used for documentation. The other name is a song name- which has two versions- a long song and a short song. The village has a population of around 700 and there are 700 different tunes.
“We have around 700 population in our village, so we have around 700 different tunes. These tunes have been used only for communication, not calling his or her original names. We have used the full song or tune to communicate with other villagers in the jungle or field. There is one song, but two different ways – a full song or tune and a short tune. The tune has composed by the mother when a new baby is born. A new song is born when a new baby is born. If one person dies then his song or tune will also die, that song or tune will never be used again. This system is going on traditionally from generation to generation. We are continuing these practices,” Jipson Sohkhlet said.
The ‘quirky village’ is accessible by a three-hour drive from Shillong, the state capital. Last year, the Ministry of Tourism selected Kongthong village UNWTO’s (The World Tourism Organisation) ‘Best Tourism Villages’ award along with two other villages in the country.
In 2019, Rajya Sabha MP from Bihar Rakesh Sinha adopted the village and suggested a UNESCO tag for the village.
