Churches of Northeast India

Presbyterian Church of India, Arunachal Pradesh, NE India

I am taking you off the Charleston peninsula this evening for a tour of Christian Churches in Northeast India.
The first one was far north in Arunachal Pradesh and in a military encampment area. I nodded, tried to look innocent and showed my camera to the Indian Army soldier guarding the remote border area to let him know I simply wanted a photo of the church.

Meghalaya, India

I am not sure about this one. Any ideas? Certainly a surprising sight on a country road in the hills of India. The wording above the entrance is the latin "Venite ad me omnes" which means "Come to me all". I am guessing it is a Catholic Church.

Meghalaya, India

Meghalaya, India

This is an Anglican Chapel in the old British Cemetery in Shillong. There were relocated tombstones from the years of British occupation here.

Meghalaya, India

I spotted this one perched on the side of a hill on a hike up to the Khasi Sacred Forest.

House of Prayer, Arunachal Pradesh, India

This House of Prayer was in the mountain area far north and on an Indian Army base.

I thought this was in interesting collection and reminded me of many of the village churches I worshiped in as a kid.  No worries - I have albums full of Buddhist Monasteries as well!  You should be able to click on the image to get a higher resolution view.

She is off!

Charleston, S.C.

My plane isn't until 3:30ish but I might as well go to the airport now. My mind is buzzing and I can't sit still. Woohoo. This is so exciting.

I've talked about bits and pieces of my story but this is the short version. My father was a school teacher in Canada who decided to go to north east India in 1963 to serve as headmaster of a little elementary school that was sponsored by his church. My mother had been a nurse and although she primarily helped teach in the school she also set up a first aid shop in our living room. I was seven years old and the third of eight children.

Actually I was the third of seven children at that time. My mother was pregnant when they moved and she didn't tell anyone. My father delivered my youngest brother Jim during a wild windy night in the room next to me. My parents tossed us all in the local school barefoot with little chalkboards to write on. I sharpened my pencils with a straight razor and we hiked to the rivers on the weekends to wash clothes and bath.

Meghalaya is a beautiful part of India, tribal and hilly. Most years it is the rainiest place in the world.  The British used to call it the Scotland of the East. The Khasi tribe is matriliniel with the youngest daughter inheriting and the children take the mother's name. When it came time for high school we walked three miles into Shillong to St. Mary's High School which was taught in English. As we each finished high school we were at a bit of a loss and one after another came back to Canada or the states to fend for ourselves. I landed in Toronto for Nursing School with waist length braids, dorky glasses and everything was new and fresh. Everything.

My brother Jim came back at the age of fourteen and years later after a trip back to visit he decided Shillong was where he felt most at home. He married Val, a Khasi wife and they have three adorable boys. They lead adventure eco tours of remote areas and that is where I am going. I am taking my daughter back to see what I have been talking about all these years.

We will meet up in Newark, fly Newark to Delhi (15 hours....help me...) where a lovely lady I have only met on Facebook is going to pick us up for a quick overnight. The next morning we fly to the northeast. Jim is to pick us up and we head immediately to a village which is holding a drum festival. Beside visiting my childhood haunts, we will go to Arunachal Predash the furthest north state close to China and visit Buddhist villages. The finale before heading home is the elephant safari in Kaziranga. Back to Charleston on Dec 1st.

I doubt I will have much internet access so other than quick messages I will shut down but I'll be back!  Keep the place looking nice, no feet on the coffee table. Pick up your socks. Have a great thanksgiving and know that I am so thankful for you - all the folks who drop by and leave a friendly comment. You make my life a treat!

Going Back Home

Shillong Peak, Shillong, Meghalaya, India

I'm going home. Next month at this time I will be in the hills of north east India. I haven't to Shillong since I graduated from St. Mary's High School in Laitumkrah many years ago. I went back to India once but at that time the hill states were closed to travelers and Darjeeling was as close as I could get. This time my daughter is going with me to see what I've been talking about all these years.  Sorry folks - my Khasi is so very rusty! I'll be embarrassed to open my mouth.

I've  been warned that things have changed - there is more traffic and noisy congestion, the sweet cottages with flower gardens are now buildings made of cement. My old bedroom where four of the eight Perry kids slept in a double bunk bed is now a classroom in the elementary school where my father was headmaster. I've asked to walk to the river where we washed clothes on Saturday mornings, picnicking and playing wild games while our laundry dried on the bushes.

The state's name "Meghalaya" means Abode of the Clouds and the British liked to call it their Scotland of the East. Most years it is the rainiest place in the world.  We are going north to places I've never been and will ride elephants on safari in Kaziranga. As soon as we land we are heading to a village drum festival.

My brother Jim lives there still with his wife and three young sons. I asked what I should bring and he emailed a link to a cookie press. They want to make Christmas cookies. It is the only thing already packed in my suitcase. I stopped at Micheal's today and picked up cookie cutters (still need gingerbread men), piping tips for icing and food coloring. Send me any of your best holiday cookie recipes! This should be interesting!

I don't leave until the second week in November but it is starting to feel like I am going on an adventure. It is all very exciting!
 

Happy Birthday Jim!

Mawlai, Shillong, India

One hundred and forty seven years ago tonight, give or take a hundred years, I sat straight up and wide eyed on the top bunk of a double bunk bed (yes, one bed - four kids) listening to the howling wind and knowing that my mother was giving birth in the next room. It was her eighth baby and perhaps less frightening to deliver with my Dad's help than go to an unfamiliar hospital. Things happened so fast the decision was quickly made for her.

Happy birthday Jim! Aren't you glad your sisters raised you right?

We strapped him on our backs and played wild games of tag, hardly ever dropped him on hard cement floors and halfheartedly taught him to read a bit in English. Click here to see a picture of my dad sharing a special moment with my two youngest brothers.

Staying Good

1965ish, Shillong, India

I was driven back to the airport after my recent trip to New York City by a turbaned Sikh cab driver and as we got out I couldn't help but say, "We are from South Carolina, you know, where we just elected the first Sikh Governor in the United States."

Of course he knew.

He said, "Yes, yes, I know. I hope she is good."

I said, "I hope she is. Sikhs are well known for honor and honesty. She is very clever and beautiful"

He was very thoughtful and said, "Yes, she is beautiful! I do hope she is good and will stay good."

Nikki Haley is the new Governor of South Carolina, a Republican woman and daughter of Indian immigrants. May she stay "good" and lead us well.

The photo is not of the very attractive Governor Nikki Haley but my father Donald Perry (on the left). He had grown a beard during our time in India and a friend wrapped a turban around him. When he sent the photo to his mother she didn't recognize him.

Sikhism believes in one supreme God. The Sikh school of thought teaches gender and race equality, sharing, working hard and being honest, contentment, selfless service, talking sweetly, worshiping, good etiquette, tradition, prayer, meditation, the concept of the saint-soldier/warrior, remembering God all the time in all actions, keeping in good company, proper sexual conduct, the life of a householder instead of becoming a celibate monk or rejecting the world, compassion, faith, justice, mastery, righteous actions, bravery, courage, love for God, humility, salvation, the afterlife, the law of karma which is counteracted by dharma, charity, and good will to humanity. It also teaches God's omnipresence, transcendence, omnipotence, and omniscience.

New Year

Shillong Peak, Shillong, Meghalaya, India

I've always liked New Year's eve and day. This photo is labeled 1965 so it was the end of the second year New Year I spent in India. I already had my friendships well established.

We always stayed up until midnight as kids, with the coal stove on, playing carrom and crokinole. There was a "midnight feast" and token gift exchange.

I am one of eight so there were enough of us to put on little plays and performances that always involved my sister Shirley doing her infamous Beggar Woman dance for tips. Gotta support the arts!

Church Photo in Lieu of Attendance - Khasi Hills

Khasi Hills, Meghalaya, India

When I was a kid, living in Shillong, India, we would often attend church services in the outlaying areas. All ten of us would pile in the old yellow Willy's jeep and head far into the hills to remote villages.

I often joke that I have a lifetime pass and won't need to attend another church service as long as I live - and I mean it. I am exempt. Sundays alone could easily involve three separate services, morning, afternoon and end in evening services by kerosene lantern.

I'd spend my time drawing cartoons of the preacher and eagerly offer to take crying babies outside. I'd lay on the grass playing with the kids and torturing ants with my magnifying glass while the congregation belted out the good old familiar protestant hymns in Khasi.

This image is from a brittle slide in my Dad's old box probably from the mid 1960's.

A trip down memory lane

St. Mary's High School, Shillong, India

I've been enjoying some comments that take me back to my past. A recent one said, "Joan, if I remember correctly your hair length was below the waistline. Sometimes it nearly reached the knees. And do you remember the schoolgirl whose hairline nearly touched her ankles?"

I do remember her. She was a classmate and good friend. Her name was Phimklet. Phimklet means "you won't forget," so of course, I never did.

We hiked from Mawlai on the outskirts of town, three miles to St. Mary's High School and back each day. No wonder I still walk everywhere.

Another reader who found me online some years ago sent me these pictures of my class. I had such good friends (Rani, Mala, Madhumita Roy, Neeta, Poonam) and although I wasn't famous for academics I knew every way in and out of that school. We were always playing pranks and practical jokes. I my fill of Italian nuns poking hard fingers in my chest demanding to know why I "wasn't more like my sisters." Heheh.

I am in the center of the top picture with my hair pulled back, big grin and dorky glasses. Fun days.

Googling around I found this poem about Mawlai.

Weekend Field Trip

Mawlai, Shillong, India

Okay, okay, I admit this one isn't from my Charleston album.

I have received emails lately from folks who have landed on my blog because of the Indian connection. It has been delightful to hear from you! I don't run into many Khasis in Charleston.

I did grow up in Meghalaya - the home of the clouds, and this is my elementary school photo. If you look closely you can spot a few pale faces scattered in the group and my mum on the left. I am on the top row center and am one of eight siblings. My dad was headmaster of the elementary school in Mawlai.

It was a terrific place to grow up and certainly one of the most beautiful parts of the world. We played wild late night games with packs of kids, washed our clothes in the rivers and our hair in the waterfalls. We took picnics to the old British polo grounds, Shillong Peak and rowed the boats on Wards Lake. I don't remember wearing shoes regularly until we hiked in to Shillong to high school.

My brother Jim lives there still and has written a traveler's guide to the north east available from chillibreeze. On Saturday 3/12, Jim successfully helped coordinate the Guinness book of world records Cheraw Bamboo Dance in Mizoram.

This is the link to my sister Shirley singing a Khasi favorite: Sier Lapalang.

To any Khasi who comes by I say "Khublei!" and want to show you that there is a greeting for you inscribed in the streets of Charleston. Of course I have no idea who did it. ;)

College students look younger every year!

Murray & Rydin, Shillong, Meghalaya, India

College students look younger every year!

When I sent my brother brake pads for his mountain bike, I wrapped them up in a couple of College of Charleston shirts. I opened my mail to find this adorable photo this morning. These are my nephews Murray and Rydin in Shillong, India. The boys are best known on my blog for the picture I once posted on the bottom of this page.

If you want to know why he needed brake pads, here is Jim's tale of an insane bike ride in the mountains of North East India. It's been suggested that I might send him a helmet as well.

Y'all go ahead and sleep in. I have to get to Lowes for paint. Because that is what I do. Blah.