Shillong, March 16: Basil Griffiths stood in middle of Laitlyngkot market trying to picture where his grandmother had her tea stall.

Or, the makeshift pulpit from where his grandfather goaded the villagers to give up liquor and try tea instead.

It’s difficult to imagine, of course. It’s been 130 years since his grandfather, a Welsh missionary doctor who set up the first dispensary in the Northeast at Mawplang, had walked on Khasi soil.

But 76-year-old Basil is not ready to give up.

“I have heard that my grandmother had 11 sons, including my father and some of my uncles, were buried here. I am looking for the graves,” Griffiths told The Telegraph in Shillong where he arrived from Wales a few days ago.

In 1878, Dr Griffith Griffiths was sent by Presbyterian Welsh Mission to give this cold, deathly place called the Khasi Hills a healing touch.

Soon after establishing his first dispensary at Mawplang, Griffiths set up hospitals and churches in Sohra (Cherrapunjee) and Laitlyngkot.

“I have been to Sohra in search of the burial place of my relatives, but I could not trace any,” Basil said.

“A few days back, I went to Mawplang and the elders in the village showed me several small tombs. The elders say some of my grandfather’s children may have been buried here.”

Griffiths preached every Sunday in Laitlyngkot in East Khasi Hills while his wife, Annie Phillips, set up a tea stall to encourage people to give up liquor and drink tea instead.

“I also visited the local market in Laitlyngkot where my grandfather preached together with grandmother. Even now, there are hardly any shops openly selling liquor in Laitlyngkot,” Basil said.

As a tribute to Griffiths, the villagers in Laitlyngkot and Nongshken have named portions of the hills as Lum Griffiths (Griffiths Hills).

Griffiths left Khasi Hills in 1906 and the Welsh mission to India ended in 1966.

Basil’s father, John Griffiths, remained in Khasi Hills till the age of 12.

“Father once narrated the devastating earthquake of 1897 which took the lives of 1,524 people besides razing down the stone and wooden structures in Khasi hills,” Basil recounted.

At that time his father was in a dormitory of a boarding school in Shillong.

“When my father was sent back home, he took with him the first complete edition of the Bible in Khasi, printed in 1885. He also put an emblem of the rooster on the flyleaf of the Bible and this is perhaps the only Bible with an emblem of rooster, the traditional Khasi religious symbol.”

Ironically, while most Presbyterian chapels in Wales have either been deserted, sold to developers or turned into nightclubs, the heritage continues in the Khasi Hills, said Basil.