Nov26,2023
Kongthong village or Meghalaya's 'Whistling Village' is located in the East Khasi Hills district, which is about 60km from Meghalaya's capital city Shillong
In Meghalaya's Kongthong Village, people do not call each other by their regular names but by a distinct melody or special tune, which is why the area is known as 'Whistling Village'.
People of this village also use whistling as a method of conveying their messages to their fellow villagers.
The villagers of Kongthong have called this tune 'Jingrwai Lawbei', which means mother's love song.
The villagers have two names - one is a regular name and another is a song name and the song names are two versions - a long song and a short song and the short song is normally used at home.
There are around 700 villagers in Kongthong and there are 700 different tunes.
The 'tune' used to address a person is composed by the mothers after childbirth.
A mother composes a new tune for a new born baby. But when a person dies, so does his tune. This system is going on traditionally from generation to generation