FUNERAL NIGHTS

AN AMBITIOUS DOCUMENTATION OF KHASI LIFE AND CULTUREA group of friends from Shillong journey to a remote part of West Khasi Hills to witness Ka Phor Sohrat, the feast of the dead, a unique six-day-long funeral ceremony of the Lyngngams, a Khasi sub-tribe. It may well be the last time this ancient rite is performed. The ceremony - involving a number of rituals and the sacrifice of as many as fifty bulls—will conclude with the cremation of a beloved elder, a woman whose body has been preserved in a tree house for nine whole months.By mistake, however, the group ends up reaching the secluded hamlet of Nongshyrkon seven days early. Stuck in the jungle for eleven days, they spend their nights around a fire in the middle of a spacious hut built especially for them, sharing stories and debating issues in what turns out to be a journey of discovery for all of them.Funeral Nights is an unconventional novel—a vast collection of stories big and small, not so much about death, but about life, past, present and future. This is intimate access to a whole world, spectacular in its documentation of a tribe’s life and culture such as has never been attempted before.