Syiem Kur

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

The clan takes its name from the office. Each state had its own account of its first Siem. In Khyrim and Mylliem the Siems descend from Ka Pah Syntiew, 'the flower-lured one', a girl who lived in a cave at Marai and was drawn out with a flower; Gurdon gives two versions, in one of which the man was of the Mylliem-ngap clan and in the other a man from Nongjri in the Bhoi country. The people, believing her the daughter of the spirit of Shillong Peak, made her children Siems, and the Siems of Nongkrem and Mylliem still honoured U'lei Shillong. The Siem family of Nongkhlaw was said to descend from U Shajer, a Pnar who left the Jowai country with his sister Ka Shaphlong; the Siems of Nongstoin were said to descend from a stag. Gurdon calls these traditions, and does not date them.

Historical Journey

Gurdon describes the Khasi state as a limited monarchy: the Siem could do nothing of importance without his durbar of mantris, and was appointed from the Siem family by an electoral durbar of lyngdohs (heads of priestly clans), mantris and, in some states, village heads or the whole adult male population. Succession runs through the female line: the eldest uterine brother first, then the sons of the eldest sister, and failing them, by what has been called the 'knight's move', the sons of the next sister. As in every Khasi family, a Siem's own children belong to their mother's clan. There was no heir-apparent, and young men of the Siem family lived as ordinary Khasis; Gurdon knew of Siems called to office from humble positions. Khyrim (Nongkrem) differed: there a high priestess, Ka Siem Sad, was head of the state and delegated temporal power to a son or nephew, who became Siem; she was succeeded by her eldest daughter. Mylliem had once been part of Nongkrem and became separate after a quarrel between a Siem and his nephew. In Nongkhlaw, U Tirot Singh rose against the East India Company in 1829. In Cherra a new Siem had to cremate his predecessor to be Siem in Khasi religion, and when Gurdon wrote the embalmed bodies of two Siems, who had died in 1875 and 1901, still awaited cremation.

How the Kur Is Kept

Like every Khasi kur, a Syiem clan is exogamous and traced through the mother, and Gurdon records clan taboos: the Cherra Siem family may not eat dried fish, and the Siem of Mylliem may not eat the gourd. Only the Siem family might build a house with resinous timber. The Siem of Khyrim has priestly duties, above all at the yearly Nongkrem dance at Smit, part of the pom-blang or goat sacrifice, when he sacrifices with the high priest and the lyngdohs for good crops, and the dances are held at the house of Ka Siem Sad. Ka Pah Syntiew is honoured as an ancestress; the sources read do not name a family deity of the clan.

Presence Across Regions

Notable Personalities

Stories and Legends