The Garo People and the Hundred Drums

In the forested western hills of Meghalaya, where the plateau falls toward the plains of Assam and Bangladesh, live the Garo people, who call themselves A·chik, “the hill people.” A community of Tibeto-Burman origin, matrilineal like their Khasi neighbours and today largely Christian, they are famous above all for the thunderous drumming and dancing of their great harvest festival, Wangala.

From the jhum fields cut into the slopes of the Nokrek hills to the hundred drums of the Wangala, from the matrilineal clans through which land and descent pass to daughters to the churches that now stand at the centre of their life, the Garo carry a distinctive hill culture. This article traces their origins, language, homeland, society, religion, and traditions, and the vibrant world of this matrilineal people of the northeast.