Traditional trees and forest care practices of the Meiteis

Akham Bonbirdhwaja Singh *

A Banyan Tree inside Kangla - A very sacred place for the Manipuri :: Pix - Jackson Konjengbam

I remember one fine system of tree conservation in Sweden. You know, the forestry gives ten percent of its GDP and huge chunk of export share, but there trees are given their due value. The cultural trees are not cut and so also the historical trees. They are given a high value and protected. The forest and tree care systems are very well established. So, a good number of trees are saved from felling for timber. Hence, the landscape is never open. In Manipur also we have a strong tradition of cultural and historical trees, hence this article.

In Manipur, the tree felling is quite well regulated in the past, that is in addition to whatever is there in the Darbar Resolutions. Manipur having a history over three thousand years old of which two thousand years are well documented, has a well laid out and advanced social systems (which have not been fully or properly documented in the accounts of European authors like T.C. Hodson).

The forest and tree care systems have been among such social systems. The tribals of Manipur also have a fine system of tree conserving out of sheer necessity like trees in burial grounds, forests in the waterholes etc., but I shall be telling about such practices among the meiteis today. The tree worship also has been a common practice among the meities as in many other tribes in other parts of the country and world, so dendrolatry has been popular in Manipur. There has been cases of mythologizing the trees, there are enough examples of that. In the process, the practice of biodiversity conservation or tree care system evolved.

There are traditional tree felling guidelines for the purpose of house building and boat making and the same has been clearly mentioned in many of the scriptures. There are also mentions in the royal chronicles, the Cheitharol Kumbaba. The queen planting the Khongnang Tree too has been mentioned. There are scriptures which describes the trees, flowers, bamboos etc. These are used in the folksongs such as Pena, Khongjom Parba, Khunung Eeshei etc.

So from all the past and present practices and documents available, the tree care practices can be seen in four forms:

1. Tree Protection for worshipping
2. Tree Protection due to Utility
3. Worshipping Sylvan deities in Sacred Groves
4. By popularising knowledge about trees in the form of Literatures and Folklores

Tree worshipping:

The meiteis have been tree loving people, they worship and protect trees. Certain trees are protected due to worshipping. As the society is an old one, the systems have been placed in position and such practices have found place in the literatures. There are also orally transferred to generations. Very old trees are protected because

1. They are believed to have divine powers.
a. Some deities are believed to live on those trees. The Khongnang (Ficus religeosa) trees are more associated with this belief and are highly revered by the local people.
b. Some evil spirits are believe to live on very old trees
c. Some trees are believed to be resting places of departed souls

2. Some trees are regarded as sacred because
a. They are considered to be favourite plant of some of the deities; Tairel Tree (Cedrella toona) is like Sacred Basil for many meiteis.
b. They are required for our cultural and customary rituals and practices. The Panggong Tree (Butea monosperma) are used to make effigies of death ones when the body is not found.

3. Some are worshipped because
a. They are appealing due to their sheer size
b. They have weird shapes or huge sizes having sprawling branches
c. Some are very old trees having historical values.

There are innumerable numbers of historical trees like that of Meitram Khongnang, Pureiromba Khongnang, Satikhongnang, Khongnang Pheidekpi, Naharup Panggong etc. I will take up very old historical trees inside Lai Umangs separately latter.

Tree Protection due to Utility

1. Some trees are preserved because they have medicinal properties and the amaiba and amaibi depend on them for traditional health care systems. The meiteis have an elaborate and well laid out medicinal system and more than one thousand plants have been recognised to possess medicinal properties. The traditional health care system of the meiteis are among the best in the country.

2. The fruits of trees are associated with our culture such as Heirangoi (Aphanamixis polystachia).

3. Some trees are protected due to their usefulness like Tera (Semul-Bombax ceiba) are protected because of bed mattress requirements. In later part, they were declared as royal tree and given royal protection.

4. The meiteis also consume a large number of leaves and condiments of various tree species such as Uthum, Heibra, Ching Yenshil, Mukthrubi Heiribob etc. and these plants are protected if grown near the homesteads.

One is forbidden from looking at some of the trees which have evil spirits. Such trees are under social protection and the society takes care and nobody fell such trees. The social outcasting is a possible penalty, which may be a severe one otherwise.

Sacred Groves:

The role of sacred groves and associated sylvan deities are very important in the culture and history of any place and people. The worshipping and protecting the deity and sacred groves are common in Phillippines, Latin America, Mexico etc. The American Indians had this practice for centuries. In Europe, the Germans, the Celts, the Greeks, Romans had the culture of sacred groves and it was associated with various activities. In India, sacred groves are found all over the country and abundantly along the Western Ghats in the states of Kerala and Karnataka.

Although, there has been no comprehensive study on the sacred groves of the entire country, experts estimate the total number of sacred groves in India could be in the range of 100,000 – 150,000. In the North East India, the sacred groves of Khasia-Jaintia Hills and Garo Hills are famous and high degree of sanctity is maintained; and any human interference is completely prohibited. The Khasi Sacred Groves are believed to contain high degree of biological diversity. Due to its past relevance, the sacred groves are associated with many traditional knowledge, ethnic plants etc.

The meiteis of Manipur had a strong tradition of maintaining the sacred groves. However, in recent times the culture of sacred groves and tradition of worshipping sylvan deities are dying. The sacred groves in the urban areas and near the homesteads are dwindling in area. Continuous destruction of forests around the sacred groves resulted from numerous anthropogenic activities; the sacred groves become fragmented habitats housing a variety of gene pools and become the last refuge of many endemic, endangered and rare plants. There are many sacred groves in Manipur. The sacred grove is called Lai Umang and the associated deity called Umang Lai. However, in many cases, the two are used synonymously.

The sacred groves closely and intricately associated with the culture and life of the people and had a great impact on the social condition, Martial Arts, Food Habits etc. In the cultural activities and various programmes associated with the sacred groves, the plants, flowers, trees, leaves etc. have many important roles to be played and these roles to a great extent kept the plant deity association intact which contributes to the conservation the associated biodiversity as indirect impact. The total number of such deities as mentioned in the Palace Office publication is 418 and the same has been cited in the Working Plan of three Valley Forest Divisions of Manipur.

Many of these Umang Lais does not have their own area demarcated and recorded in their names and a few of them do not have their own land. This probably is the reason that in many related studies, the number of Umang Lais have been cited as 166. Most of the Umang Lais are in four plain districts of the state.

Important trees found in sacred groves are
Leihao (Michelia champaca),
Uthum (Talauma hodgsonii),
Gulamjat (Eugenia praecox),
Uri (Symplocos cochinchinensis)
Tairel (Cedrella toona),
Heikreng (Celtis australis),
Tumitla (Litsaea polyantha),
Shamba (Oroxylum indicum),
Pheija (Wendlandia tinctoria),
Chingthrau (Bauhinia purpurea),
Mallotus phillippensis, Nongleishang (Xylosma sp.) etc,
to name a few.

Sacred Groves are well renowned practice of forest and tree conservation. They are known to be the repository of many rare plants and biodiversity.

The transgression or encroachment inside Sacred groves is regarded as a serious offence and nobody dare to commit any offence. Felling of trees in such sacred groves is also a taboo among the meiteis. Even if an offence is made by mistake, there has to be offerings to be made and the maiba has to exorcise the spirits. For deliberate serious offences, the offender may be referred to palace office. If any penalty is fixed from there, it could be serious.

Traditional knowledge about trees

Folklores: The literatures and folklores regarding the trees and plants are so well documented by the meiteis well beyond one could imagine. As the institution of king and palace has been with us for thousands of years, the royal amaiba has been a part of the institution, the plants have been most well recognised. The Pena recitals and Folk Songs (Khunung Eeshei) have been a part of the rituals connected with the sacred groves. These are actually recitals for appeasements of the concerned deities. These recitals continue for days together as long as the functions continue.

The annual such programmes may extend to mostly five days, sometimes up to seven days or even up to nearly a month. So, the flowers, bamboos, trees have all been described, whatever that is found in the vicinity and whatever that are being offered to the deities. So, in a way, the recitals, sacred groves and rituals of deities have a great contribution towards development of the literatures.

Literatures& Scriptures: Not only the folklores, there is also a rich store of knowledge about the trees, flowers and plants but these literatures developed from these folklores. That is how, we have detail description of these groups of plants, Leirol (Description of flowers), Urol (Description of trees) and Warol (Description of Bamboos) have evolved.

In fact, such descriptions are found in the form of ancient scriptures of the meiteis. There is a belief that some of these recitals have not been documented, but meitei customs and traditions have been unbelievably well documented in archaic language. Of course, we have been lagging in converting them in to modern languages and translating them in to English so that they are understood by all.

There are other scriptures such as Uyanlon (on art of felling trees), Heejing Heerao (on art of making and launching a boat) etc. The Uyanlon gives elaborate procedures to be followed in felling of trees. The hill from where to be felled, what size and how to select, how to carry out the rituals and how to fell are all elaborately given. I am not in a position to give the details because the same is in archaic Manipuri (the one I am having) and the transcript in modern Manipuri is not in my possession yet.

The Heejing Heerao is all about making and launching of boats. As the plain area of Manipur (Yimphal or Imphal, the capital) had a number of wetlands (including the Loktak) and many rivers, there was a great necessity of boats. The dug out boats (the canoe type) have been very common in the state and hence the art of making boats too.

Other Practices

There are other practices too, of that the tree or bamboo planting practices around the homestead land is famous. Every house has a good number of trees and a few clumps of bamboo, for protection as wind belt and for meeting immediate domestic needs. Now also, such trees and bamboo groves become a useful gene pool for further propagation. This practice is different from other tribes. Another practice is that the Heikreng Trees (Celtis australis) are saved in households and groves because this tree can be burnt even when it is freshly felled, so it becomes handy for funeral pyres in rainy days.

Conclusion

A point that can be analysed here is how the meiteis have taken so much to dendrolatry. Generally, the traditional tree and forest care practices are mostly driven by the demand in the past in places where tree growth is less and wood is scanty. Another probability of such tradition is the old custom of worshipping trees and other natural objects at the dawn of civilisation, which are carried forward. I feel that the latter holds good for the meiteis as there has not been any dearth of trees and wood in the past as there were plenty in the surrounding hills not too far from their homesteads.

The rights for Collection of forest produces from these hills nearby were also officially recognised (in the para 3 of Darbar Resolution No. 10A of 1932) and such forests have been classified as valley village reserves in the said DR. So, it is clear that the tree care practices are not exactly due to the necessity of house building wood and fuelwood requirements. It has more to do with culture and tradition.

Many accounts on customary practices are fraught with bias and presumptions and have low universal acceptability when they are noted down from oral accounts, because oral accounts differ from place to place, there are too many aberrations. Words having double meanings are quite common in such old oral accounts, which get interpreted to suit modern designs with bias. The advantage the meiteis have is having own script for recording all such social practices and can escape being branded of creating customary practices.

Further, through the medium of its rich cultures and folk songs, these practices have been popularised. Manipur has an unparalleled culture of folk songs and literature and fortunately, these elements are still with us to a reasonable extent. Some signs are of course visible of being on the wane. There is a strong need for proper documentation of such sylvan practices by documenting them from our recitals, folk songs and archaic literatures including the scriptures. By scientifically documenting such documents, we can see the mythical components are critically examined so that the acceptability of documented knowledge is high.