The Consecrated Sohpetbneng Peak (Navel of Heaven) - The Meaning and the Need for Protection, Preservation and Conservation

摘要

The Khasis like any other tribe or nation has its own civilization, different, unique and peculiar. Though it is an oral tradition in absence of writings, yet it had been manifested in the permanent objects of nature, this civilization is as old as that of Babylonian, Egyptian and Greek. The present world today with the progress of science and technology can be compared with the Khasi thought in the aspects of his religion (traditional), his social ways of life and the political aspect of regulating his people with a democratic essence of the highest order which the British as late as 1826 only admired without understanding the language. 'Sohpetbneng' literally means the navel between heaven and earth. However, in the philosophical thought of our ancestors, the word carries a different connotation. This can be seen and adjudged from the various ways of life of the Khasis as a race or tribe which cannot be effaced from the surface of the universe.The hillock (Lum) 'Sohpetbneng' is a divine manifestation of the essence of the Khasi thought which should be protected and preserved as a historical relic before any harm can come to it. The paper will further highlight the importance of the hillock to the Khasi Community and the kind of ritual rites and activities that are being perform on this place till date and the Architectural built components designed and supervised by the author in connection with the ritual rites and activities performed and the need to protect, conserve, preserve and recognized this hillock as one of the Heritage site.