Kongthong - Northeast's whistling village

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

Village in Meghalaya

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'.

Song as name

People of this village also use whistling as a method of conveying their messages to their fellow villagers. 

Whistle to send messages

The villagers of Kongthong have called this tune 'Jingrwai Lawbei', which means mother's love song.

Jingrwai Lawbei

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. 

Name distinction

There are around 700 villagers in Kongthong and there are 700 different tunes. 

700 tunes

The 'tune' used to address a person is composed by the mothers after childbirth.

Tune by mothers

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

Birth and Death tune