Garos at the Wangala festival

The Wangala festival of the Garos is not only an invocation of the god of harvest but also an important social event

Come November, the Garos are enthused with a new lease of life and prepare themselves to celebrate their biggest festival ? Wangala. The festival is associated with jhumming and its approach depicts the end of its cycle. The jhum cycle is one of the ways by which the traditional Garo society understands the beginning and the end of a year?s calendar. The cycle of jhum starts with the A?a O?pata Orjumang Sia, in which, a particular jungle spot is selected and cleared.

If no ominous dream comes to the person who will cultivate on that plot of land, it is taken as a proof that Abetpa Rangapa, the God who looks after the jungles on earth, has allowed him to cultivate that very spot. If an ominous sign is dreamt, the chosen spot is abandoned and search begins for a new plot.

Wangala is celebrated in honour of the God of harvest, known as Misi Saljong, who is supposed to be incarnated in rain.

Hence, Misi Saljong can be said to be the Rain God. It is up to him either to bless with good crops for or to destroy them to show his wrath upon the people if he is not propitiated. Hence, for the Garos, who depend entirely on the rain for cultivation, it is very important to appease the God. Thus, the big feast held in the honour of Misi Saljong.

The Garos are one of the tribal groups inhabiting the state of Meghalaya. It was on April 2, 1970, when an autonomous state within the state of Assam was created and christened Meghalaya, ?the abode of clouds?.

But the full-fledged state came into existence on January 21,1972. It is now divided into seven administrative districts ? Jaintia Hills, East Garo Hills, West Garo Hills, East Khasi Hills, West Khasi Hills and South Garo Hills being some of them. The total area covered by Meghalaya is about 22,429 square km and has an estimated population of more than 9,00,000 hill tribals.

Meghalaya is predominantly inhabited by Khasis, Garos and Jaintias.

The Garos are believed to belong to the Bodo group with Tibeto-Burman lineage and trace their origin to a place known as ?Tarua? in Tibet. There are two major groups of Garos ? hill Garos and plain Garos.

Wangala is a thanksgiving festival to give back Misi Saljong the best portion of the harvest and in order to do this, the Garos reserve the best paddy from which a liquor would be produced. This is then given to Misi Saljong during Rugala ceremony, with which the festival begins.

The celebration continues for a week or so, depending on how long the prepared liquor lasts. The entire village takes part in the celebration and when different rituals have been performed, every house in the village is visited in accompaniment of musical instruments. Every household, depending on their ability, should entertain the visitors by offering liquor.

Rich people offer a feast to the visiting parties as a mark of respect and co-operation with the villagers. However, these offerings are not compulsory. On the final day, all the musical instruments, which were used during the festival, are brought to the house of Nokma for the celebration of the grand finale.

With the advent of the British to the Garo areas, followed by the rapid spread of Christianity, a threat was perceived to the traditional practices that were prevalent among the Garos during the pre-Christian period. Even though the Garos have converted to Christianity, they still cherish and value their inherent tradition and culture. Their attempt to preserve their own distinct cultures can be seen from the way they have been trying to organise their festival ? Wangala ? every year, at the historical Asananggre, situated about 15 to 16 km east of Tura.

From the records, it is known that the state government-sponsored the 100 drums Wangala festival began in 1976. Since then, the festival is celebrated annually at Asananggre. The organising committee of the100 drums Wangala festival, Asananggre, celebrated the silver jubilee of its celebrations on November 2001.

The celebration of the Wangala festival for the past years has yielded results. The impact can be seen among the plain Garos, living on the outskirts of the Assam-Meghalaya border, who did celebrate the festival.

In 2000, the Garo Sahitya Sabha organised a grand Wangala festival at Nisangram. The next year, the same organisation celebrated the festival at Gohalkona, about nine km south of Boko under Kamrup district.

The Garo Students? Union also celebrated Wangala in 2001 at Nisangram under Goalpara district.

The different characteristics and aspects of this great traditional festival of the Garos have not yet been studied by any scholar so far. Perhaps those who are planning to join the festival at Gohalkona, Asananggre or Nisangram should keep this in mind.