Lyngdoh Kur
Khasi
At a glance
- Called a
- Kur
- Community
- Khasi
- Found in
- Meghalaya
About
Lyngdoh is a Khasi kur, a matrilineal clan of the Khasi of Meghalaya. The word lyngdoh is also the Khasi title of the priest, and early accounts say the priest is always appointed from the Lyngdoh clan. The Khasi are a Scheduled Tribe with their own traditional religion; a kur belongs to that system and is not described here as a Hindu caste or given a Vedic gotra.
What “Kur” means for the Khasi
A kur (also called jaid) is the Khasi clan, and it is traced through the mother: a child belongs to the mother's kur, and marriage within one's own kur is forbidden. It is a matrilineal clan, not a gotra and not a patrilineal surname.
Name and Origin
Lyngdoh is the Khasi word for the priest who performs the rites of a clan, village or state. Gurdon, the colonial district officer whose 1907 book is the standard early account of the Khasis, wrote that the priest is usually called lyngdoh and is always appointed from the lyngdoh clan. The sources checked do not explain where the word comes from or how the first Lyngdoh clan was chosen, and they do not say that every family named Lyngdoh today belongs to one clan.
Historical Journey
The Khasi were organised in small states, each called a hima and headed by an elected chief, the siem, with a council (durbar) of elders. According to Gurdon, a lyngdoh holds the priesthood for life, and when one dies the lyngdoh clan appoints the successor, with elaborate ceremonies in the Nongkrem raj of the Khyrim state. In a few Khasi states the priest took the place of the siem and ruled with his elders; elsewhere the two offices were separate. The Encyclopedia of World Cultures entry on the Khasi agrees that the lyngdoh comes from a special priestly clan, serves for life and is the main officiant of communal rites, and it adds that female priests (ka soh-blei) must be present at all sacrifices. In Hima Khyrim the high priestess is the siem's mother or eldest sister, and no religious ceremony is complete without her. A 2025 article in the Highland Post also names Lyngdoh as a religious clan with authority over some of the old provinces.
How the Kur Is Kept
Khasi descent and inheritance run through the mother. The kur is the largest matrilineal group; below it are the kpoh, the descendants of one great-grandmother over four generations, and the iing, the house of a grandmother, her daughters and their children. Ancestral property passes to the youngest daughter, the khadduh, and the maternal uncle (kni) carries out family and clan rites on the family's behalf. The saying tip kur, tip kha asks a Khasi to know the maternal clan (kur) and to respect the paternal clan (kha). Marriage within the kur is taboo. Traditional Khasi belief centres on a creator, called Blei, with ancestor worship and the propitiation of spirits; more than half of Khasis are now Christian, and the Lyngdoh priesthood belongs to the traditional religion. No family deity is attached to the Lyngdoh kur in the sources checked, and none is named.
Presence Across Regions
Hima Khyrim and the Nongkrem raj, Khasi Hills
Tribal - Khasi
Gurdon records the lyngdoh clan appointing the priest here, in a state where the high priestess is the siem's mother or eldest sister.
Stories and Legends
The priest and the chief
Gurdon's book describes two arrangements for the priest and the chief. In most Khasi states the siem and the lyngdoh held separate offices, one civil and one religious. In a few states the lyngdoh altogether took the place of the siem and ruled with his elders. In Hima Khyrim the two were joined in another way: Sir Charles Lyall, in his introduction to the book, describes the head of that state as a woman who combined priestly and royal functions.