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Updated: September 27, 2025
The above tribes and sub-tribes are not strictly endogamous, nor are they strictly exogamous, but they are more endogamous than exogamous; for instance, Syntengs more often marry Syntengs than Khasis, and vice versâ, and it would be usually considered derogatory for a Khasi of the Uplands to marry a Bhoi or Wár woman, and a disgrace to marry a Lynngam.
The Lynngam males wear bead necklaces, the beads being sometimes of cornelian gathered from the beds of the local hill streams, and sometimes of glass obtained from the plains markets of Damra and Moiskhola. The cornelian necklaces are much prized by the Lynngams, and are called by them 'pieng blei, or gods' necklaces.
In the Lynngam village is to be seen a high bamboo platform some 20 to 30 ft. from the ground, built in the midst of the village, where the elders sit and gossip in the evening. All the villages, Khasi, Wár, Lynngam and Bhoi, swarm with pigs, which run about the villages unchecked.
In the country of the Lynngams the crop belongs to the person who cultivates it, but the land belongs to the kur or family. The Lynngam villages; like those in the Khasi Siemships, do not pay any rent to the Siem.
The effect of the different climates can at once be seen by examining the physique of the inhabitants. The Khasis who live in the high central plateaux are exceptionally healthy and strong, but those who live in the unhealthy "Bhoi country" to the north, and in the Lynngam portion to the west of the district, are often stunted and sickly.
The cloak is not so frequently worn as amongst Khasis, except in cold weather. The Lynngam dress is very similar to that of the neighbouring Garos. The males wear the sleeveless coat, or phong marong, of cotton striped red and blue, red and white, or blue and white, fastened in the same manner as the Khasi coat and with tassels.
This somewhat paradoxical state of affairs is explained by the fact that the children of the mother's brother belong to a different clan to that of the mother, i.e. to the mother's brother's wife's clan. The Khasi, Synteng, Wár, and Lynngam divisions are not strictly endogamous groups, and there is nothing to prevent intermarriage between them.
These gongs have a regular currency in this part of the hills, and represent to the Lynngams "Bank of England" notes. It would be interesting to try to ascertain what is their history, for no one in the Lynngam country makes them in these days. Is it possible that the Garos brought them with them when they migrated from Thibet?
Lynngam houses and villages are usually much cleaner than the ordinary Khasi villages, and although the Lynngams keep pigs, they do not seems to be so much en évidence as in the Khasi village. There is little or no furniture in a Lynngam house.
There are several Megam villages in the north-eastern corner of the Garo Hills district, and there is regular communication kept up between these villages and the Lynngam inhabitants of the Khasi Hills district. The Lynngams must not be confused with the Háná or Námdaniya Garos who inhabit the low hills to the north of the Khasi Hills district, and are called by the Khasis Dko.
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