After an hour's drive in the torrential rain, my driver says ‘
That is the forest ‘ parking the car aside. Unable to get out of the car I look around to see the
forest from the window. There is nothing to be seen encircled by mist and
rain. I wonder has he taken me to the
right place. Not finding any sign of anyone being there, I decide to wait until
the rain stops. After a while, mist
uncovers to see a clearly defined forest amid the meadows. Gauging how dense
the forest is I realise its not wise to stride alone.At the same time making my
mind not to return without entering the forest, I request the driver to drive back
to the village and find out a guide.
There comes the problem of language. Neither my driver nor I
could speak in local language, Khasi. So after futile efforts for
sometime I decide to wait in front of a house which has a board mentioning
information centre. After a long wait
with rain as a companion, a boy emerges out of the rain like a rain god and
luckily he claims himself as a guide and agrees to accompany me to the forest. As rain was in no
mood to stop, we walk in the rain and enter the forest.
The sacred forest is the protected forest managed by village
community.Khasi tribes believe this as the abode of their gods. It has history
of 1000 years and some trees are as old as 800-1000 years. There is a clear distinction
between neighboring grassland and the forest. It is a dense forest with rich biodiversity.
It has many herbs and medicinal plants which can cure many diseases. Most of the
trees were covered with algae and orchids. No one does anything bad inside the
forest and nor they speak bad words. Mcduff, explains that it is sacred to them
and no one is supposed to take anything out of the forest. Some villagers who violated
the custom had to suffer illness. Those who spoke bad things inside the sacred forest
lost their speech and wicked acts resulted in turning their head 180 degrees, Mcduff the guide narrates.
There is another legend to the forest sacred. Long back a guy from Assam, while walking through this area had a
vision that the entire forest would disappear into meadows. Treating it as a threat to their forest, the villagers
of the entire vicinity decided to protect it. Since then, no one had cut the
trees nor used the forest for their livelihood. Amazing indigenous way of forest
conservation by Khasi tribes!
The sacred forest has many herbs and trees which are
precious and can only be found here. There are precious varieties of Rudraksh
trees (Rudraksh is a seed used for rosary)
and some fungus which glows in the night. Mcduff gives a colorful
picture of the forest when different algae and plants would glow in the night
which takes me to the scene from the movie Life of pie where the boy spends a
night in the magical world of glowing forest.
I look at the
standing rock and a small group of stones. This is where they perform rituals
as a community and the standing rock is the place where villagers meditate. Keeping
the umbrella aside, I allow rain to caress me and I pay my respect to the forest deity.
Further, the path goes steep down and he suggests to return
as it is slippery and not advisable in that heavy rain. I return following
Mcduff on the path full of humus which is soft and oozy. While walking back
rain reduces letting me to take some pictures.
Rain bathed meadows outside the forest glows in the sunlight
and it is inviting. I jump in joy for my trademark picture.
Before I sign off, Let me confess something I faced being a solo traveller. I was not at all comfortable while waiting in
the rain for a guide near the forest. It was so
heavy rain and no one was around even if I had screamed, yelled and shouted except the driver. On
top of this, I wanted to add one more stranger
as a guide to the team and I was ready to
go inside the dense forest. But when the
guide started talking about the sacredness of the forest and the punishment for
the bad things, my confidence on him grew like a mountain. I was convinced that
sacred forest would be the most safest place in Meghalaya. I relaxed and
enjoyed the rain. How I wish if India had such sacred places everywhere that we
women could travel without a tinge of worry.
Travel notes
- Mawphlong sacred forest is 25 kms away from Shillong, Meghalaya. It takes 45 minutes to reach Mawphlong from Shillong
- It is open from morning till 5 pm
- Entry fee is Rs., 20 and vehicle entry fee is 30
- It is good to contact guide before reaching the place to save time. My guide Mcduff and his father both work as guides. You can contact Tambhor on +919863082456
- If you have enough time, I suggest to go inside the forest for 1-2 hours
- There is a heritage village outside the forest which has different models of tribal houses and also houses museum
- Local people speak good English. They can’t understand Hind
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| Forest covered in mist |
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| Starting point of the forest |
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| Entry to Mawphlang sacred forest .. It was raining |
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| Group of stones meant for rituals |
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| Spoon leaf |
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| In to the woods |
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| Heritage village outside the forest |
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