Talk:Khasi
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A NEW DIMENSION IN THE ORIGIN OF THE KHASI PEOPLE
Hello! I am Dr Satyakam Phukan, I am a general surgeon from Guwahati, Assam India. I have written a book named "Ecossais, The Khasi Saga" on the ethno-linguistic root of the Khasi people of northeast India.
The conventional view about the Khasi people is that they are a people of Austric origin speaking a Mon-Khmer /Mon-Annam linked language, who migrated long back in history from some areas of south-east Asia. My book suggests that his may be only partially true. It points towards a diverse origin of the Khasi people keeping the older Austric notion very much alive as the primary stratum. It propounds the theory of a smaller but very influential contribution in the formation of the Khasi community from a group of people migrating from the west towards south-east Asia. these people who intermixed with pre-inhabitng Austric people were possibly of Caucasoid or even Keltic in affiliation. The nomenclature "Khasi" itself according to this research work has probably come from these people. Hence they are labelled the "Khasi element".
It is not known where exactly these people started their itinerary.They probably furcated into two or more groups and moved in different directions. But wherever they arrived they carried with them the whole ideas of a megalithic culture and maybe the concept of matriliny. There is striking similarity of the megalithic monuments and structures notably the monoliths of Khasi hills and those located in the western Europe chiefly Britain,Ireland and France. This co-incidence is cited there as possibly being the work of two groups of people sharing a common root, which could be Keltic.
About the practice of matriliny, example is given of it's prevalence amongst the Pict or Cruithne community, one of the original inhabitants of the British Isles, later concentrated mainly in the region of Scotland. Matriliny is the common practice among the Khasis from the remote past to this modern times.
Mention is made about the presence of Keltic Breton tribe named the Cassi in Roman age Britain. Scotland is called Ecossepronounced ay-KUHSS by the French, a part Keltic originated people. Likewise the French word for scotch or scottish goes by the word ecossais pronounced ay-KUH-SEH. Both these words sounds similar to the word Khasi and the book is so named Ecossais. These French word might represent the ancient Keltic terms for Scotland and scotch.
A large number of linguistic similarities evinced by like sounding words of Khasi and European languages namely the English, Keltic languages, Swedish, Old Norse, German, Greek and Latin are presented in the book.
The Khasis call themselves the people of the Hynniewtrep or the seven hut people. In Khasi hynniewmeans the number seven and trep means a hut. In some of the Keltic languages like old Breton, old Welsh etc. treb means a house. Hynniewtrep mythology is about seven families coming down from the heaven to the earth and originating the Khasi people. The coming down from heaven might be in reality a migration from a place with a higher level of civilisation.
The book scours many places of the past and the present in finding nomenclatural and linguistic similarities of the Khasis. It is seen that in several places round the world, the word element "Khas" or it's close simulants meant or denote some mountain or hill dwelling people. Examples are the mountain people mentioned in ancient Egyptian records called the Khastiu.The word Khasin the Persian language also means inhabitant of a mountain region. Reference is drawn towards the existence of a people living in the ancient times in the mountains of Iran, Iraq and Turkey known as Kassite, Kasshu or Cossaei. Many authorities opine that they are the predecessors of the present day Kurd nationality.The Kurdish language bears a multitude of similarities with the Persian language. The book gives a fairly large list of words similar between the Khasi and the Persian languages. A community known as the Khas has been historically present in the southern Himalayan region from Kashmir to Nepal.
The thesis expresses the view that it is probably via the northern slopes of the Himalayas in the southern-most Tibet that these people, who gave the "Khasi element" to the Khasis, travelled eastwards in their migration. Argument is presented that a particular word Lum Mangkashang meaning the Himalayas occurs in the Khasi vocabulary just because some ancestors of the Khasi people were familiar with the Himalayas by coming along it in the remote past.
An alternative view about the likelyhood of an Austric substratum being present round the globe is also put forward in the book.
The book is priced at Rs 150/- and is available in several bookshops in Shillong, the capital of Meghalaya and in few shops at Guwahati the capital of Assam.I am the publisher of the book.
A copy has been sent for the British Library, London per favour Mrs Jayne Lal an employee of that library while she visited Guwahati.
Yours sincerely
Dr Satyakam Phukan Jorpukhuripar, Uzanbazar Guwahati, Assam (INDIA) P.I.N: 781001
Telephone (Mobile): +91 99540 46357
[edit] Khasi necklaces: a distant connection to Ainu culture?
Those necklaces that the Khasi girls in that nice photo are wearing strike me as being indistinguishable from Ainu tamasay. Given that there seems to be some distant genetic connection between the Austro-Asiatics and the Koreans/Japanese, is it possible that some proto-Korean or proto-Japanese group might have introduced the tamasay to the Ainu people's ancestors prior to the Altaicization of the proto-Korean/proto-Japanese populations? Just food for thought. Ebizur 18:23, 10 November 2006 (UTC)
[edit] rewrite
much of this article was directly lifted from the cited resource. the reference of this article is in the public domain but was written from what I can find about 100 years ago. the wording in this article is very offensive to me and is quite outdated. the use of "he" when talking about the people as a whole I find offensive and makes the article of lesser quality than I would hope wikipedia would strive for. also I find the "appearance" section bordering eugenic or even what we would now deem racist. out of all the other articles I have read on a people I can not recall one where the color of their skin is mentioned. also the wording in this section is completely condescending. for example "A Khasi loves a day out in the woods, where he thoroughly enjoys himself. If he does not go out shooting or fishing, he is content to sit still and contemplate nature." oh how nice. but seriously, how culturally imperialistic. this wording definitely dates the publication referenced and it is my belief that the article needs to be rewritten so as to at least give these people some dignity. --Tainter 12:30, 10 January 2007 (UTC)
