Place · wettest upland town · India
Sohra / Cherrapunji
The upland town at 1,484m in East Khasi Hills district, Meghalaya, 54 kilometres from Shillong — famed as the second-wettest place on Earth with annual rainfall averaging 11,777mm (Mawsynram 15 kilometres away is wettest at 11,872mm). The 1861 British meteorological record of 26,462mm in a single year at Cherrapunji remains unbroken for a single-site annual total. The 1841 Welsh Presbyterian mission under Thomas Jones gave the Khasi language its Latin script here (based on Welsh phonetics) and reshaped the religious map of the Northeast — modern Meghalaya is now 75% Christian. The 1891 Welsh Khasi Bible, the Nohsngithiang Falls, and the Khasi root-bridges in surrounding valleys anchor the Cherrapunji heritage. The limestone caves (Mawmluh, Krem Phyllut) are among the deepest in India.
- Function
- Religious institution & practice
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
- Location
- 25.270, 91.730
Connections (1)
- AnalogueNartiang
The Khasi plateau and the Jaintia hills are adjacent, both matrilineal, and both raised standing stones as clan memorials into the nineteenth century — the largest group of them at Nartiang. The Jaintia court took up Shakta worship and a Durga temple while the Khasi did not, which is why one set of hills has a royal temple and the other has only monoliths.
On these journeys
Sources
Wikipedia, “Cherrapunji”. Archaeological Survey of India and State Archaeology monument records, and the standard regional literature.
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