World of Whistles #Lockdown

In this blog I am sharing my experience of one of the unique places which I visited on my road trip to Meghalaya.

“Kongthong” which is also called as whistling village, 58km from Shillong City. This is very unique place in world. Would you like to know the reason? The people living in this village have two names, one normal name (official name) as us and another called a tune name/ whistle name. Sounds amazing doesn’t it?

What is this whistle name?

When the child is born the mother gives the child a unique tune/ whistle. The mother’s in Kongthong are very creative, they assign unique whistle tune to each child.

The tribe does not use the same tune/ whistle to other people even after their death. The unique tune/ whistle dies with them. Most of the tunes are inspired by nature, like the sound of birds, the tune of water flowing, etc.

Why do they use tunes/ whistles for communication?

Kongthong is surrounded by mountains on the four sides.

While there were no mobiles, no computer, no email communication, the people in Kongthong use these tunes to communicate within themselves as these high-frequency tunes/ whistles travel longer than a normal voice, for up to 3000 meters whereas normal voice can only travel up to 500 meters. They do not use their official name to communicate among themselves. The People of Kongthong also say that these tunes are used during the hunting so that animals do not come to know about human presence.

Just imagine how exciting it would have been to call you by whistle than your official name. 

The other interesting fact shared by one of the tribe members of Kongthong was that once in a year on a full moon day they conduct a festival, the young unmarried man whistles his tune, the best are chosen by beautiful unmarried women as their groom.

Pretty interesting isn’t it? I have already started practicing a whistle of myself!😉

How to get there:

This village is 58 km from Shillong City.  You can hire a taxi, rent a bike or car to reach this place. 

When I was staying in Shillong City I generally enquired about the Kongthong Village and the route to reach this place. Believe it or not, most of the people in Meghalaya don’t know about this place!

So, if you are planning a trip to Meghalaya, Kongthong is a must-visit. You can also experience nature, greenery, waterfalls and mountains.

Is this the only whistling in the world?

No, this is not the only village in the world. Some parts of Turkey, America and Africa follow this culture as well.

A village in Turkey by name Kuskey Village also follows the same culture for communication. They use these whistles/ tunes to communicate across the mountain terrain. Once a year they even organize a festival celebrating their unique culture. Even some of the schools in that region teach this in schools.

Canary Island on the northwest coast of Africa also follows the same culture. They even communicate with each other through whistling, different words have different pitches.  Even in this part the schools have added this unique language in their syllabus.

Should Meghalaya also start a similar kind of school to preserve this unique culture? Please share your comments and opinions after reading this blog. 

I hope this blog will be of help if you are planning a trip to Meghalaya.

#Lockdown