Garo

Garo, The once a nomadic tribe of the Bodo group of Mongoloids now living in different areas of Bangladesh and in the adjacent states of India. Their faces are round, hair and eyes black, foreheads extended to eye area, eyebrows deep, eyes small, noses flat and jaws high. Beards rarely grow on their cheeks and they almost have no hair on their body. Garos are short but usually have stout bodies with wide chests and bulky arms, legs and muscles. Their skin is yellowish and smooth. Garos are said to have an ancestral relationship with China. There are some similarities between the Chinese and Garos in language as well as folk culture.
According to some anthropologists, Garos descended from the northeast bank of Koknar Lake of the northwestern Chinese province of Chinghai about 3-5 thousand years ago and were first settled in Tura province of Tibet and in Nakalbari area of Bhutan. But being forced to quit these areas, they moved to different places of Cooch Bihar and Assam and to Rangamati area of rangpur in Bengal. Goal Para, the abode of the Garos in Rangpur, had communication facilities that connected it with Assam during British rule. Due to internal conflicts, a group of Garos had to leave the place and started settling in the inaccessible forest areas of the Garo hills, and the tribe permanently got the name Garo. The Garo hills cover an area of 3,000 square miles. In the past, the territory was a part of Bengal but British rulers had included it in Assam.
The natural habitats of the Garo people are the hills, hillocks, deep forests and places near fountains, springs, and other water bodies. Animals, reptiles and bird are their closest neighbours and animals that they come in contact with include rhinoceros, tigers, elephants, wild buffaloes, goyals (wild cow), dogs, deer, porcupines and rabbits. Their main professions are jhum cultivation in the slopes of the hills, livestock farming and hunting. Handicrafts and the cottage industries are recent additions to their profession. mirza nathan, a Mughal army commander, remarked that Garos eat everything except iron. There is some exaggeration in this statement but in fact, they eat all animals except cats, which is their totem. They live in an isolated world and within their own geographic, economic and cultural boundaries and follow their own customary norms. They do not have any king but are ruled by the tribal chief.
In the past, Garos used to put on barks of trees. The common dress of modern day Garo males is jana or nengti (a narrow piece of cloth around the waist), although the Garo people of a relatively higher status wear short skirts woven by themselves. The women cover their breasts by knotting a piece of short cloth on their backs. The males also wear gamcha or dhuti and many women put on saris, shirts and trousers. Garos burn the barks of banana trunks and use their ashes for making soap and salt. Many also use the ashes as a special ingredient in making food. Fruits comprise the staple food of Garos and therefore, they hardly suffered from any shortage in food supply in the past. This contributed to their fast growth. Garos cook their food in bamboo pipes. They drink plenty of wine and entertain guests invariably with meat. On festive occasions, guests bring cocks or pigs while visiting someone's house.
Annoyed with the difficulties of living in the hills, many Garos have abandoned their houses there and started to live in forest zones in downhill areas. These Garos are known as Lamdani. Garos continuing to live in the hills call themselves the Achchik and to the Acchiks, Lamdanis are the Mindaya, a name derived from the Chinese word mandai, which means man. The Achchiks do not like Lamdanis. Garos live mainly in areas under old mymensingh district and in its bordering areas of the Indian State of Meghalaya. Gradually, they have spread to nalitabbari, kalmakanda, durgapur, sreebardi, barhatta, dhobaura, haluaghat, purbadhala, phulpur, fulbaria, bhaluka, madhupur and other places of Mymensingh, netrokona, sherpur and tangail districts. Many Garos left Bhaluka after the erosion of the hills and the extinction of forests. Some Garos live in sunamganj of sylhet, sreepur and Kawraid of gazipur and raumari of kurigram. Many Goros, once living in the Bangladesh territory, migrated to the Indian State of Meghalaya. A significant number did so during the war of liberation.
Garos historically did not own land. Whatever land they hold in possession, they do so without any ownership documents. They also do not pay rents for land. In the beginning of this century, the density of Garo population in the areas bordering with India was 44 persons per square mile. The pressure on land in the areas around Garo habitats has increased manifold with increase in population, especially because the jhum cultivation, which they practice, requires large land areas. A sample survey of 1979 concluded that in Bangladesh, 20% of Garos do not possess any land, 30% have only homestead land, 30% work as hired laborers and 20% cultivate mortgaged land.
Primitive Garo community had no social classes but the British introduced a feudal system amongst them based on land ownership. The British also introduced the notion of business in the Garo society. The British replaced the barter system of exchange that they had with transactions through money. Christian missionaries converted Garos into Christians and those who accepted the new religion were given blocks of land areas with ownership, while in the past, the land belonged to the tribe as a collective property and was cultivated under a cooperative system.
Garos are very conservative in their outlook. In the first hundred years of their campaign, Christian missionaries found them very reluctant in accepting the new religion. Later, the missionary process was geared up and according to a survey conducted in late 1970s, about 80% of the Garos of Bangladesh have become Christians. At present, almost all Garos are Christians and only a few are Muslims. One of the major reasons why Garos have adopted christianity is their immediate economic gain in the form of direct financial assistance offered to the newly baptised Christians. However, Garos have retained their traditional culture and customs even after being converted into Christians.
Besides traditional beliefs, Garos follow their own religion Sangshareq, which has roots in agriculture. They are not concerned about worshipping idols and do not bother about sin and virtue, gods and goddesses and heaven and hell. They observe thirteen or more brata (vows) and festivals in a year and pray for the fertility of the soil, safety of the harvests and protection from evil spirits, diseases and epidemics. The Sangshareq religion has elements of mantra-tantra and magic. Garos are animists and believe in dual existence of matters. They ascribe life to nature and inanimate objects and consider snakes and tigers as personised forms of dead souls. According to their belief, some men remain men at daytime, but become tigers at night. Garos name such men the Matsadu Matsabed. They believe that some trees, stones and hills are the abodes of the spirits and therefore, it is better to keep away from them. Among Garos, the people who arrange festivals, organise vows, and treat and cure patients by folk medicines are persons with supernatural power and therefore, enjoy respect and honour in the community. These persons are named khamal or kamal. Garos do not give their children any sweet names because, they believe, such names may attract evil spirits and cause harm to them.
When someone dies, Garos sacrifice animals, offer food to the guests and observe different vows before and after the funeral rituals, so that the soul of the dead person cannot do them any harm. In the past, Garos captured people from the plains and burnt them with the body of the dead person as sacrifice. They believe that the soul of a dead man stays for some time at Chick Sung, the highest peak of the Aro mountain. Then it moves round unknown places of the vast world and at last, returns back as a spirit or gets rebirth as a human being or animal. People who commit suicide or are killed by a ferocious animal are reborn as animals. Their funeral ceremonies are observed in prolonged rituals, of which mimangkham is the most important. In that ritual, the dead body is bathed and then thoroughly anointed with oil by a woman while other women sing traditional wailing songs. Then the men wrap it in a cloth sheet. People attending the ceremony pray for the departed soul and offer gifts. The body is then shifted to the funeral pyre and while still in fire, a piece of half burnt bone is collected for burial in the house, where the deceased had lived. The spot is called khatik. A portion of the ashes collected from the pyre is spread in the field. For seven days after death, members of the family take only vegetables and offer food to the dead person. Then they celebrate shraddha with rice, chicken and hem. In the evening of the day of sraddha, they hold a mourning procession. The last offering of food to the dead is marked by a feast with plenty of wine the celebrations include dances, songs, and rhythmic beating of drums.
The moon, sun, rain, rivers and crops are like gods to Garos. In the Bangla month of Chaitra, Garos clear jungles, burn woods and leaves to ashes, and sow paddy. Then they observe Asiroka (the New Year festival) and pray for safety and security throughout the year. They believe that evil spirits may steal away ripe and harvested crops from the field and storehouses. To protect themselves against spirits, they perform religious rituals in the form of festivals under different names while sowing seeds and harvesting crops. The largest among these festivals is the Wangala. This is celebrated in the whole Garo area in full fanfare. Adults drink homemade wine, young boys and girls wear specially designed dresses, colour their skin and sing and dance wildly. They also entertain each other with drinks and in their celebrations, chose their husbands or wives. The musical instruments used in the festival include buffalo horns and drums of different size. Strong and young boys dance vigorously with shields and swords in hands to frighten evil spirits. These performances are part of the Sangshareq religion and aim at neutralising spirits, ghosts, and demons in two ways, by offering rogala (oblation) to them and by frightening them.
According to a Garo legend, a woman named Nantanupanta created the earth from a handful of soil taken from the unfathomable bottoms of the sea. The version is well accepted in the Garo community. Garos are matriarchal. Husbands live in the houses of wives and are engaged in household work. The mother is the owner of all the property of a household. After her death, the youngest daughter or any daughter nominated by the mother becomes the heir and is called Nakma. The wife of a husband acquires ownership of the assets earned by him. The children are also treated as assets and are owned by the mother. They are known after the family of their mother. The mother is responsible for rearing the children. After the death of the wife, the husband has no moral right to stay in that house. However, the custom is rarely applied in practice. Daughters are more cared and loved in a family because the sons are to leave the home after marriage and are not treated well in the family if they do not marry in time. They wail at the time of leaving the home and in their new residence, they remain down-hearted in the initial days. The wife consoles him by love and care. Often, a newly married husband runs away, but is caught and brought back. Because the husbands do not own property, they care little about the family. But their wives scold them and sometimes even threaten them by the warning that they will be driven out of the house.
The rate of literacy in the Garo community is higher among the women than among the men. The reason is the matriarchal system. This makes it difficult for a girl to find a husband with equal standing. While in work or in movement, mothers hold their babies on their backs with a piece of cloth. In the Garo community, marriage within the same clan is not allowed since the boys and girls of a clan are considered as brothers and sisters. The Garo tribe is divided into ten clans. In case someone violates the principle of not marrying within the clan, he is deprived of all property rights and ousted from the village. On many occasions, if a young man of a suitable clan is liked by a girl, he is forcibly made to marry her. The clan of the bridegroom does not oppose the match.
Polygamy is not forbidden in the Garo community. After the death of the husband, the wife can claim anybody without a wife in the husband's clan to become her new husband. In such a marriage, the bride and the bridegroom may often not match in age. After the death of the husband, a woman can have her son-in-law as her own husband, too and the daughter and the mother may live peacefully as co-wives. If, on consideration of any special situation in a clan, someone marries a minor girl, he can have sexual relationship with his mother-in-law during the period until his wife attains maturity. In the past, there was a practice of group marriage and free sex in Garo society. Now, however, extramarital sexual relationship in Garo society is seen as a crime and is liable to punishment. In case of any such event, the khamal (informal clan leader) identifies the criminal through some complex tests. The punishment for adultery is confiscation of property.
The Garo language is called Achchik Katha (spoken language of the hill people). It does not have any alphabet. It is rich in proverbs, legends, rhymes and folk tales. The Garo songs are similar in melody to Bangla folk songs. Garos dance and sing in groups and have their own musical instruments. Garo dances and songs are very similar to those of the Malaysian hill tribe Orang Achlis. Like the Mymensingh ballads, the Garo language has narrative operas. According to a Garo legend, they had their scriptures written on rhinoceros skin. These scripts were lost during a journey. While hunting, a zamindar of Mymensingh found a few torn pages of the manuscript in a cave of the Garo hills and published them in the newspaper Saurav. But the reproduction was hazy and the words illegible. Outwardly, they look like the Chinese pictogram. Garos speak in both Garo and Bangla. Christian missionaries tried to introduce Roman letters into the Garo language, but the effort proved unsuccessful. However, the Garo language can now easily be written in Bangla alphabet. Many Garos perform Bangla dances very well and are good at singing Bangla songs.
Garos have their own sports and games. They build houses on elevated platforms and decorate the jadaps (rooms) with the horns of buffalos and deer. In the past, they used to decorate the houses with human skulls also. These skulls were of men attacked and slain in the plains and were symbols of power, aristocracy and heroism. Garos also traded in human skulls. Garo houses have separate cowsheds and granaries. Almost every big Garo village has a big decorated house or nakpanthe at its centre. This is used for residence and recreation of the young men of the village. However, girls are not allowed to enter the house.
According to the estimates of the Birisiri Cultural Academy, the number of Garos in Bangladesh was more than 100,000 in the 1990s. Of them, about 40,000 lived in the Mymensingh region. Garos do not practice family planning and the reproduction rate among them is higher than the national average. Thanks to the efforts of Christian missionaries, the rate of literacy among the Garos is also higher than the national average. But only a very small number of them acquire higher education. Some educated Garo women work as expert nurses in different hospitals at home and abroad. Some young men and women work in junior positions in Christian NGOs. Some of them teach in educational institutions in the Garo region. The social system, tastes, behaviour and dress of Garos are now undergoing changes as a result of their constant interaction with the people of the plains. However, the women of this matriarchal tribe are not in favour of accepting these changes.