Kuzhovesa Soho
Makhel | July 3
An ordinary looking tree stands in the heart of Makhel village in Senapati district. Villagers say that whenever there was some strange but significant appearance on the tree, forefathers of the village would predict the occurrence of natural calamities and disasters that would befall the people living facing the zone (direction). Found to have existed since time immemorial, this tree had no proper name; however, with the tree resembling a “banyan tree”, visitors to the village called it a ‘banyan tree’.
Preserved by the Makhel community, the tree has been fenced and within the fencing a brief story of the tree has been inscribed on 2 huge stone slabs in the local dialect. Standing tall at a height of approximately 20 metres, this tree is lush with branches that face equally in all directions (north, south, east and west) predicting the nature of the region.
Interacting with this Correspondent of The Morung Express here at Makhel village, N Saleo, the village chief, explained, “When a certain portion of the tree facing a particular global direction dies and decays on certain occasions, the people living on that zone experience certain epidemics like floods, landslides, etc., which leads them have famine for the whole year.” Likewise, the fates of the people living across the globe were predicted by the Makhel people.
Saying that while there were good instances too, Saleo went on, “During 1942, the north portion of the tree completely decayed, following which the people living in that zone faced famine the whole year, although I cannot remember the stories very clearly as of now.” The village elders of Makhel, while witnessing about such occurrences in the past, said they had tried to cut down the very tree on several occasions. However, to their surprise, unexpected weather would occur whenever anyone would try to do so. The elderly thus believe that the tree possesses some power.
To make this phenomenon known to more people, Saleo revealed to this Correspondent that he was writing a book on this ‘banyan’ tree which he expected to completed soon. Speaking on the nature of the people of Makhel, he said the locals believe in the natural occurrence in their vicinity as a message sent from above, thereby keeping them warned of any unexpected things to occur at any time.
Saleo further went on to cite a story of the Makhel people migrating to different lands. He reveals that many Makhel people migrated to Chakhesang lands and some of these stories are still being told by those people to this day. Refusing to disclose more, he said the rest of the story may be obtained from his book which would be made available to the readers soon.
