Meghalaya's whistling village Kongthong selected for entry to Best Tourism Village

Kongthong village is located in the East Khasi Hills district, which is 60 km from Meghalaya's capital city Shillong. The villagers here call each other with a unique tune.

Hemanta Kumar Nath 

Guwahati

September 14, 2021

UPDATED: September 14, 2021 18:49 IST

People of this village have used whistling as a method of conveying their messages.

The Ministry of Tourism has selected Meghalaya's Kongthong village, which is also known as the ‘whistling village’, for entry to UNWTO’s (The World Tourism Organisation) "Best Tourism Villages" award along with two other villages in the country.

Kongthong village is located in the East Khasi Hills district, which is 60 km from Meghalaya's capital city Shillong. People of this village have used whistling as a method of conveying their messages to their fellow villagers and that is why it is known as the ‘whistling village’.

The villagers here call each other with a unique tune. Each of them has a unique tune for calling each other and this tradition has been going on for generations.

The villagers have called this tune Jingrwai Lawbei which means mother's love song.

The villagers have two names - one is a regular name and another is a song name.

The song names are two versions - a long song and a short song and the short song is normally used at home.

Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma tweeted - "#Meghalaya's whistling village Kongthong is selected for entry to the @UNWTO 'Best Tourism Village' along with 2 other villages in the country."