The naming of Kongthong as ‘whistling village’ has been objected by most tourism operators including local villagers who felt that such a nomenclature was misleading.
Kongthong village in Khat-ar-shnong area of Sohra has been selected for entry to the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNTWO) list as ‘Best Tourism Village’ along with two other villages in India.
The two other villages that have made it to the list are Pochampally of Telangana and Ladhpura Khas in Madhya Pradesh.
Kongthong is known for its unique tradition called ‘Jingrwai Sur Iawbei’ where a mother assigns a tune or lullaby to a child within a week of birth, which becomes his/her unique identity, instead of a name.
The mother has to make the tune different from the already existing ones to ensure the child’s identity remains unique. People of the village are used to communicating through tunes.
But Kongthong is now wrongly known as “whistling village”, a term coined by few media persons.
Speaking to Highland Post, Meghalaya Rural Tourism Forum chairman Alan West said that Kongthong’s tradition in no way was associated with whistling.
“I would urge the Meghalaya government and the Government of India to correct the mistake of naming Kongthong as a whistling village. The unique tradition of the people of Khat-ar-shnong, not only Kongthong, by assigning a song as a name to a newborn child in no way is associated with whistling,” West said.
“Verbal utterance of words in the form of a song when naming a child is totally different from someone who is producing a sound from their mouth in the form of whistling. I urge upon all concerned to take corrective steps so as not to mislead the future generations,” he added.
Meanwhile, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Rajya Sabha MP Rakesh Sinha who has adopted the village since 2019 have congratulated Meghalaya on the selection of Kongthong for entry to UNTWO list as ‘Best Tourism Village’.
“Congratulations Meghalaya on Kongthong being selected ‘best tourism village. The village in which people compose a tune for calling a person in place of names,” Sitharaman tweeted.
Sinha on the other hand tweeted, “Whistling village Kongthong, adopted by me since 2019, has been selected for entry into the UNTWO best tourism village in the world. Thanks to PM Sh @narendramodi ji for promoting village tourism. Thanks @sangmaConrad for his help.”
