Meghalaya's Enchanting Sacred Forest ! Exploring SHILLONG | Mawphlang Sacred Forest |

SACRED FOREST MAWPHLANG
It's close to Shillong yet a little off-route if you plan to visit other popular places like Sohra, Nongriat Root Bridge, Dawki or Mawlynnong. "What's there in Mawphlang?", you may ask. Well, I can tell you all about it but you have to go there to understand a place so different. More importantly, you have to be there at the right time which is monsoons. The turn of the season and the first showers somehow convert the scenery into an HDR vision and unearth treasures of flora and fauna like you've never seen before.
Let me begin by introducing a concept of a sacred grove. Just as forest reserves and wildlife sanctuaries are areas preserved by government laws, sacred groves are similarly protected regions by the community laws of tribes in various parts of India. There are numerous sacred groves in Meghalaya. Almost every tribe has sacred forest in their village. Mawphlang sacred forest is one of the biggest and more popular one in the East Khasi region.
You cannot leave or take anything from the forest. That's the rule of thumb at this holy site. The forest is preserved with strict laws overseen by the community and the guides that take visitors to the forest. In the olden days, Mawphlang Scared Grove was the designated area for worshiping the local deity Labasa of the Khasi people.
There are various local guides that you can get in touch with before your visit to Sacred forest to completely understand the local traditions related to the forest and to also get to know the rich flora and fauna of the area. Our guide was Wankhangbok who I contacted through a local organization called Cultural Pursuits.
As we walked through a meadow adjacent to the sacred forest, our guide pointed towards the monoliths at the entrance of the forest. I had seen these monoliths in many places during my journey across Meghalaya and when I had earlier asked the locals why they are erected every time I would get a different answer. Sometimes these monoliths are erected as a boundary, sometimes as a foundation mark of a market place and here at the entrance of the sacred forest, these monolith were erected as ritual stones. Khasi people are required to pay homage at this spot before they enter the forest. The vertically erected stone is considered masculine and horizontally laid out stone is feminine. In the old times before the men of the tribe would enter the forest for rituals, prayers would be offered at the monoliths. It is said that if the deity Labasa appeared in the form of a leopard, they would take it as a good omen and proceed. If a snake appeared instead, the rituals would not take place since it's a bad omen. Interestingly, only men with beard and mustache were allowed to perform rituals at the sacred forest and women were not allowed.
Standing at the entrance, Wankhangbok also told us that this 76.8 hectare vast forest is divided into three parts. First is Laitdyrkhang, the old part of the forest where you can see the tallest of trees which are considered as old as 1000 years. Middle part of the forest is called Phiephandi, which consists of around 40 hectares of the total forest area. It was also the area where we explored during out excursion. The last and newest part of the forest is Law Nongkynrih, which is created as an extension to protect the old sacred forest area.
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