Every religion, society, community or tribe have stories to share. The term exodus can be defined as coming out from one place to another. Most of the tribal people too have stories of their own exodus. In the Old Testament in the book of Exodus, we have the story of the Exodus of the Israelites. In this short article, I would like to mention few things about the exodus of a particular tribe called the Garos. Presently, Garos are living in the Western part of Meghalaya, in North Eastern part of India.
Linguistically and ethnologically speaking, the Garos belong to the Bodo race. Dr. Milton Sangma in his History of Garo Literature says that the Bodos, in turn were a section of the Tibeto-Burman race of the Tibeto-Chinese family, whose cradle is said to have been the North-Western China between the upper waters of Yangtse-Kiang and Huangho. Prabod Sangma one of the present Garo writer also says that the word Bod(o) is from the Tibetan language which means snow. Garo’s oral tradition also say that once they lived in the land of Ti·bot (Tibet). But when faced with several natural calamities, such as famine, they gathered in the house of Olbin Nokma Bonepa and decided to move on to in search of other, better place to live. After wandering through many places they reached to present Garo Hills, in Meghalaya and settled there.
As far as my observation is concerned, the Exodus of the Garos can be divided into three exoduses; i.e. Geographical, Sociological and Spiritual Exodus.
A. Geographical Exodus: In simple words the geographical exodus can be said of as moving out or coming out from one place to another. One of the Garo writer, Moniram R. Marak in his A·chik Katta (Word of the Garo) mentioned that once the Garos lived in the land of Tibet, near the Chinese border. As I mentioned above, oral tradition of the Garos also says that once they lived in the land of Ti·bot (Tibet). As years went by, they had to face great economic depression. They went to the jungles in search of alternative food source like wild yam, leaves of the trees, but hardly found any. Some died of starvation. Therefore, all the elders of the village gathered together in the house of Olbin Nokma Boneba (Olbin is the name of a person, Nokma is the title given to a village head, Bone is the name of Olbin’s son). In that meeting they decided to move on to another place in search of a better place to live. In Milton’s History of Garo Literature, is written that the Garos after coming from Tibet they settled in Koch Behar for about four hundred years and then moved on to Dhubri, but later, the ruler of Dhubri did not allow them to settle permanently. Then they moved on the Jogigopa. According to Garo tradition the word Jogigopa comes from two Garo words - jogi, the name of a beautiful maiden (probably Garo name for Parvati) and gopa, which means hidden. According to their stories, there was a beautiful girl in one of the Garo families. When they settled in that place (Jogigopa), the ruler of that place fell madly in love with Jogi. The Garo custom then did not allow inter-community marriage; and that ruler was trying to marry her by force. Therefore, the Garos tried to hide the young and beautiful Jogi in a certain cave and fought a war with that ruler. The Garos lost the fight and Jogi was forcefully married to that ruler. They were then forced to move across the Brahmaputra River by making the boat out of plantains. After facing many enemies and wondering many places, they reached to present Garo Hills under the leadership of Abong Noga and settled permanently.
B. Sociological Exodus: The Garos are unique in terms of following the family linage. At present, they follow a matrilineal system. The tradition says that the Garos once did followed the patrilinial system. At that time, the women had to live with men’s family far away from their own parents and relatives. Women were discriminated by men for many reasons. The tradition says that there are many reasons for changing of patrilinial society into matrilineal society. One of the reasons for this was a famine. As I already mentioned above, while they were living in Tibet, they had to meet a great economic depression. Therefore while they were meeting in the House of Olbin Nokma Bonepa, some of the village elders realized that famine occurred because they neglected women and discriminated them. So they began to give a special privilege to women – family linage should be taken from mother’s side, man should come to woman’s house, youngest daughter should inherit the property, and the father should arrange one of his nephews to marry her youngest daughter and look after family and to inherit the properties. Besides this, it was also decided that the other daughters also should get some share of the properties.
C. Spiritual Exodus: In those days, Garos followed the indigenous tribal religion called Songsarek. They worshiped and sacrifices to different gods. Unlike Hindus, they don’t have idols. They also have mythological figures like Goera, Gonga, Kalkame, and Dikki-Bandi and they regarded them as heroes.
It was Omed Momin and Ramke Momin who first accepted Jesus and became Christian from among the Garos. Both of them were strong believer of Garo traditional religion, but their thirsts for true God was not satisfied. They studied Hinduism and Islam, but also found them unsatisfactory. That time, Omed was working in Goalpara as a Primary Teacher and his nephew Ramke was living in of the Official’s house in Gauhati. There were some people distributing tracks called Apathy Nashak and Omed received one of these tracks. When Omed read this booklet he came to know that it was a word from God, and he tried to share it with his nephew, Ramke. At the same time where Ramke was living, a servant when cleaning the house found another small booklet which had somehow come into the house. When Ramke read it, he knew that it was a word from God too. It was amazing that, both the uncle and nephew got the same pamphlet and both of them began to share their experiences. So they wanted to become Christian and therefore they went to Guahati in search of Missionary, there they met Rev. Kandura. A few days later, on the 8th of February1863, on a Sunday morning, both Omed Momin and Ramke Momin were baptized in the Sukheswar Ghat of Gauhati by Rev. Miles Bronson. They were the first converts among the Garos which can be termed as the spiritual exodus of the Garos. After becoming Christians, they suffered many persecution but they continued to be focused on their faith and converted many other Garos and neighboring tribes into Christianity. At present almost 80% of the Garos are Christians. Before, they were known as head hunters but today, they are soul winners.
Though the materials are taken from the oral source, we cannot deny that these stories are not true. Many researchers found that there are some similarities with those stories. Dr. Lee from Korea, who is working in Bharati Hospital Pune, once told me that there are some people in China near Tibet border who followed the matrilineal system. Even today, many Garos are found in places like Koch Behar, Jalpaiguri and some parts of West Bengal, Assam, almost all parts of North East and even in Bangladesh. But the Garos of Koch Behar and Jalpaiguri are not in touch with their language and culture. The only identifying factors they have are the clan names like Sangma, Marak, and Momin etc. Whatever the case may be, it was God who brought them to present Garo Hills to meet the American Baptist Missionaries so as to know about Him. Thanks be to God that he has opened the eyes of the Garos, including a concern for women, which can serve as an example to other peoples in the world.
- Bluwin Ch. Sangma, N.B.D.III
Linguistically and ethnologically speaking, the Garos belong to the Bodo race. Dr. Milton Sangma in his History of Garo Literature says that the Bodos, in turn were a section of the Tibeto-Burman race of the Tibeto-Chinese family, whose cradle is said to have been the North-Western China between the upper waters of Yangtse-Kiang and Huangho. Prabod Sangma one of the present Garo writer also says that the word Bod(o) is from the Tibetan language which means snow. Garo’s oral tradition also say that once they lived in the land of Ti·bot (Tibet). But when faced with several natural calamities, such as famine, they gathered in the house of Olbin Nokma Bonepa and decided to move on to in search of other, better place to live. After wandering through many places they reached to present Garo Hills, in Meghalaya and settled there.
As far as my observation is concerned, the Exodus of the Garos can be divided into three exoduses; i.e. Geographical, Sociological and Spiritual Exodus.
A. Geographical Exodus: In simple words the geographical exodus can be said of as moving out or coming out from one place to another. One of the Garo writer, Moniram R. Marak in his A·chik Katta (Word of the Garo) mentioned that once the Garos lived in the land of Tibet, near the Chinese border. As I mentioned above, oral tradition of the Garos also says that once they lived in the land of Ti·bot (Tibet). As years went by, they had to face great economic depression. They went to the jungles in search of alternative food source like wild yam, leaves of the trees, but hardly found any. Some died of starvation. Therefore, all the elders of the village gathered together in the house of Olbin Nokma Boneba (Olbin is the name of a person, Nokma is the title given to a village head, Bone is the name of Olbin’s son). In that meeting they decided to move on to another place in search of a better place to live. In Milton’s History of Garo Literature, is written that the Garos after coming from Tibet they settled in Koch Behar for about four hundred years and then moved on to Dhubri, but later, the ruler of Dhubri did not allow them to settle permanently. Then they moved on the Jogigopa. According to Garo tradition the word Jogigopa comes from two Garo words - jogi, the name of a beautiful maiden (probably Garo name for Parvati) and gopa, which means hidden. According to their stories, there was a beautiful girl in one of the Garo families. When they settled in that place (Jogigopa), the ruler of that place fell madly in love with Jogi. The Garo custom then did not allow inter-community marriage; and that ruler was trying to marry her by force. Therefore, the Garos tried to hide the young and beautiful Jogi in a certain cave and fought a war with that ruler. The Garos lost the fight and Jogi was forcefully married to that ruler. They were then forced to move across the Brahmaputra River by making the boat out of plantains. After facing many enemies and wondering many places, they reached to present Garo Hills under the leadership of Abong Noga and settled permanently.
B. Sociological Exodus: The Garos are unique in terms of following the family linage. At present, they follow a matrilineal system. The tradition says that the Garos once did followed the patrilinial system. At that time, the women had to live with men’s family far away from their own parents and relatives. Women were discriminated by men for many reasons. The tradition says that there are many reasons for changing of patrilinial society into matrilineal society. One of the reasons for this was a famine. As I already mentioned above, while they were living in Tibet, they had to meet a great economic depression. Therefore while they were meeting in the House of Olbin Nokma Bonepa, some of the village elders realized that famine occurred because they neglected women and discriminated them. So they began to give a special privilege to women – family linage should be taken from mother’s side, man should come to woman’s house, youngest daughter should inherit the property, and the father should arrange one of his nephews to marry her youngest daughter and look after family and to inherit the properties. Besides this, it was also decided that the other daughters also should get some share of the properties.
C. Spiritual Exodus: In those days, Garos followed the indigenous tribal religion called Songsarek. They worshiped and sacrifices to different gods. Unlike Hindus, they don’t have idols. They also have mythological figures like Goera, Gonga, Kalkame, and Dikki-Bandi and they regarded them as heroes.
It was Omed Momin and Ramke Momin who first accepted Jesus and became Christian from among the Garos. Both of them were strong believer of Garo traditional religion, but their thirsts for true God was not satisfied. They studied Hinduism and Islam, but also found them unsatisfactory. That time, Omed was working in Goalpara as a Primary Teacher and his nephew Ramke was living in of the Official’s house in Gauhati. There were some people distributing tracks called Apathy Nashak and Omed received one of these tracks. When Omed read this booklet he came to know that it was a word from God, and he tried to share it with his nephew, Ramke. At the same time where Ramke was living, a servant when cleaning the house found another small booklet which had somehow come into the house. When Ramke read it, he knew that it was a word from God too. It was amazing that, both the uncle and nephew got the same pamphlet and both of them began to share their experiences. So they wanted to become Christian and therefore they went to Guahati in search of Missionary, there they met Rev. Kandura. A few days later, on the 8th of February1863, on a Sunday morning, both Omed Momin and Ramke Momin were baptized in the Sukheswar Ghat of Gauhati by Rev. Miles Bronson. They were the first converts among the Garos which can be termed as the spiritual exodus of the Garos. After becoming Christians, they suffered many persecution but they continued to be focused on their faith and converted many other Garos and neighboring tribes into Christianity. At present almost 80% of the Garos are Christians. Before, they were known as head hunters but today, they are soul winners.
Though the materials are taken from the oral source, we cannot deny that these stories are not true. Many researchers found that there are some similarities with those stories. Dr. Lee from Korea, who is working in Bharati Hospital Pune, once told me that there are some people in China near Tibet border who followed the matrilineal system. Even today, many Garos are found in places like Koch Behar, Jalpaiguri and some parts of West Bengal, Assam, almost all parts of North East and even in Bangladesh. But the Garos of Koch Behar and Jalpaiguri are not in touch with their language and culture. The only identifying factors they have are the clan names like Sangma, Marak, and Momin etc. Whatever the case may be, it was God who brought them to present Garo Hills to meet the American Baptist Missionaries so as to know about Him. Thanks be to God that he has opened the eyes of the Garos, including a concern for women, which can serve as an example to other peoples in the world.
- Bluwin Ch. Sangma, N.B.D.III
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