4.6 Cherra Punji (the plantation by the stream)

4.6

 Cherra Punji

(the plantation by the stream)

 Dak Bungalow

Scott’s Road now led to Cherra punji, which was to be the principal station in the Khasi Hills. Cherra punji went on to become an important military as well as a missionary base and could boast of a sanatorium, a jail, and a police station.
In 1827, the country about Chira was open and undulating, rose into gentle hillocks, and was intersected by ravines, at the bottom of which ran shallow streams of clear water, that formed occasional falls over projecting points of rock[63].

Remarkably, there were very few trees, only a few slender bushes. Many European fruits were found in the wild, like raspberry, strawberry, apple, and plum. At about 1835, Robert Pemberton saw carrots growing wild in every valley from Nungklow to Churra[64]. The characteristic fir tree of the Khasi Hills was a native of these parts. A fine nutritious short grass grew in abundance on the tableland and yielded excellent pasture. The cattle were, consequently of a superior quality to those of the plains. The climate was temperate and agreeable.

In 1828, at Cherra punji Scott built for himself a bungalow on the plateau, which was acquired from Dewan Singh, Syiem of Sohra (a neighbouring petty state in the Cassya Hills) by exchange for land in the plains of Sylhet, as the site of a sanatorium. Agreeing to the terms and conditions, the Syiem surrendered the village of Saitsohpen in exchange for Pandua (Mouzah Burryaile), a village in the plains of Sylhet.

As previously mentioned, around 1834, Alexander Lish of the Serampore Mission built one of three schools at Cherra punji and the Welsh Mission built their third school in Cherra punji in 1842.

Jacob Tomlin was a Protestant Christian missionary who served with the London Missionary Society. In about 1832, he was amongst the first missionaries to visit the Khasi Hills. He remarked that the view from the southern verge of the mountains, a little below Cherra punji, rivalled that from Nungklow[65]. From there, one could view the vast plains of Bengal (Sylhet plains), and on a clear day, discern the distant mountains of Arracan (in Burma), to the south.  Eastward, the ranges which bound the valley of Munipur, stretched towards Burmah. The mighty Ganges river, seen from a greater distance than the Burhamputur river, gleamed like a bright silvery cord in the sunbeam.

On reaching Cherra punji, the top of the table land, the Welsh missionaries noted that the Khasi country was described as ‘hilly’ rather than ‘mountainous’ because of the proximity to the high Himalayas, at the farthest point to which they lie[66]. However, they realised that when compared with those in Wales and Scotland, the Khasi ‘hills’ ought to be called ‘mountains,’ for they were between 4,000 and 6,000 feet high.

The Welsh missionaries also noted that the most remarkable phenomenon of any kind in the country was undoubtedly the enormous quantity of rain which fell at Cherra punji. Practically the whole of the rainfall occurred from May to October. There were two seasons in the year – the rainy and the dry[67]. The rainy season commenced in May, and continued, with but a few days’ intermission, until October. They also noted that the average rainfall then in England was under 30 inches in twelve months, while the average fall in Cherra punji was between 40 and 50 feet in five months - or sufficient to float the largest man-of-war!

It was here at Cherra punji that founding missionary, Thomas Jones, commenced his work and it was also here that he was expelled in 1847, under controversial circumstances, from the Welsh Calvinistic Methodist Foreign Missionary Society. Supposedly he had ‘gone native’ in the Khasi Hills, defending local interests in the face of British commercial exploitation. Speculation surrounds the identity of a child named Camilla, surname unknown, whose death in 1843 is commemorated on an isolated mountainside gravestone[68].

The headstone inscription includes a quotation from John Milton’s ‘On the death of an infant dying of a cough’ (1626), but the main memorial stone is also set on either side with two smaller unhewn stones in the style of Khasi ancestral megaliths known as Mawbynna (memory stones). According to Andrew Brown-May, because of the syncretism of the funerary ornaments, Camilla may have been an illegitimate child. He states that for some Khasis, Jones retains a reputation as both a religious and secular hero, a status reflected in a widespread local belief that after the death in 1845 of his wife Ann, he had married a local woman.

 

“O fairest flower no sooner blown but blasted,

Soft silken Primrose fading timelesslie,

Summers chief honour if thou hadst outlasted

Bleak winters force that made thy blossome drie;

For he being amorous on that lovely die

That did thy cheek envermeil, thought to kiss

But kill'd alas, and then bewayl'd his fatal bliss...”

In 1850, Hooker noted that the road to the northern or Assam face of the mountains ran between the extensive and populous native village, or Poonji, on the left, and a deep valley on the right, and commanded a beautiful view of more waterfalls[69]. Beyond this it ascended steeply, and the sandstone on the road itself was curiously divided into parallelograms, like hollow bricks.

Hooker goes on to describe that at about 5,000 feet the country was very open and bare, the ridges being so uniform and flat-topped, that the broad valleys they divided were hidden till their precipitous edges were reached. The eye wandered far east and west over a desolate level grassy country, unbroken, except for the curious flat-topped hills due to the limestone formation, which lay to the south-west.

In 1906, Gurdon noted that at Umstow, some 2 miles from Cherra punji by the cart road, stood two rows of fine monoliths, each row five in number, and standing on either side of the old bridle road[70]. All of these stones, except one, were thrown down by the earthquake of 12 June 1897. 

In the Khasi Hills, especially on the southern side, there are numerous rivers, sometimes of considerable size, which find their way to the Sylhet plains through very deep valleys, the rivers flowing through narrow channels flanked by cliffs which rise to considerable heights. Gurdon remarked that the scenery in the neighbourhood of these beautiful rivers was most romantic, and the traveller might imagine himself in Switzerland, were it not for the absence of the snowy ranges[71]. 

Cherra punji itself is a grassy, marshy, plateau, with streams and pools on every side, and huge masses of lime stock rock covered with ferns and moss[72]. The ruins of the old bungalows, which were built of solid masonry, still remain, to recall the time when in spite of its rainfall it was a small but gay European station, and the site of the jail, the cutcherry, the mess, and various other houses can still be seen. At the upper end of the plateau there is a large church and school belonging to the Welsh Presbyterian mission, while the Khasi village nestles on the crest of the first range of hills. The place is rich alike in monuments and memories. There is a fine stone pillar erected in memory of David Scott himself.

David Scott died on 20 August 1831, aged 45 years and 3 months. A monument was erected to his memory at Cherra Punji, at the public expense - an almost unprecedented honour. A drawing of this handsome structure was made by a Colonel Tickell, C. B. of the Engineers, which had been approved by the Government. There the remains of David Scott now sleep, amid those of the friends whom, in life he so sincerely loved and lamented.

The monument was erected for him at a tableland in Cherra punji, which is close to the modern post office. The following was the original inscription on the black marble tablet of the monument erected at Cherra Punji:

OF

DAVID SCOTT,

Agent to the Governor General on the North-East Frontier of Bengal, and Commissioner of Revenue and Circuit in the districts of Assam, North-Eastern part of Rungpore, Sheerpore, and Sylhet; died 20th August, 1831, aged 45 years.

Is erected by order of the Supreme Government, as a public and lasting record of its consideration for the personal character of the deceased, and its estimation of the eminent services rendered by him in the administration of the extensive territory committed to his charge.

By his demise, the Government has been deprived of a most zealous, able, and intelligent servant, whose loss it deeply laments; while his name will be held in grateful remembrance and veneration by the native population, to whom he was justly endeared by his impartial dispensation of justice, his kind and conciliatory manners, and his constant and unwearied endeavours to promote their happiness and welfare.

There is a massive tomb which covers the remains of Mr. Harry Inglis who most successfully exploited the immense stores of limestone in the neighbourhood[73]. The cemetery, which is set on a hill, affords abundant evidence that many of the poor invalids who were sent to this hill sanatorium, arrived too late to shake off the fevers of the plains. The Khasi tombs are, if anything, more noticeable than those of the Europeans.