11 Reasons Meghalaya Is A Lot Cooler Than You Think

Meghalaya— An exception in a predominantly patrilineal world.

1. Meghalaya is home to two of the last few matrilineal societies in the world.

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Meghalaya is the only society in India where ancestral property, such as rice paddies, land, and houses, is inherited by the daughters. The youngest daughter inherits all the property and becomes the caretaker of the parents. Children take their mother’s surname instead of their father's, unlike other communities in India.

2. That means men, not women, move out and live with the wife and her family after marriage.

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3. Much before the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan began, Mawlynnong in Meghalaya, earned the reputation of being the cleanest village in Asia.

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4. Women outnumbered men on final voters' list of Meghalaya this year.

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Women have outnumbered men, making up for 50.4 per cent of the registered voters in the final electoral rolls of the state this year. The voters’ list has names of 18,30,104 voters, out of which 9,23,848 are women.

5. An Indian woman from Meghalaya was a recipient of the prestigious Martin Luther King award.

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Urmitapa Dutta, who was born and brought up in Tura, was awarded the very prestigious “Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Distinguished Service Award” for her work on insurgency in the Garo Hills. She is an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Massachusetts of Lowell.

6. As per the census of India 2011, the sex ratio in the state was 986 females per 1,000 males which was far higher than the national average of 940.

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7. Meghalaya set a Guinness World Record for the largest guitar ensemble.

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Meghalaya strummed its way into the Guinness Book of World Record for the largest guitar ensemble with 1,730 guitarists in the year 2007.

8. India's third largest cave is in Meghalaya.

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119 kms away from Tura, lies Siju cave, which is considered to be one of the longest caves in the Indian sub-continent. It is situated on the banks of the Simsang river in South Garo Hills district of Meghalaya, and is home to more than ten thousands of bats.

9. Meghalaya has a Grand Canyon-like formation of its own.

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Balpakram National Park is often compared to the Grand Canyon of USA because of its deep gorges. It is often referred to as the "abode of perpetual winds" as well as the "land of spirits."

10. The only species of pitcher plant in India is found in Meghalaya.

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Nepenthes khasiana is an endangered tropical pitcher plant and the only Nepenthes species native to India, and is endemic to Meghalaya.

11. Meghalaya has many living root bridges.

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There are many living root bridges scattered across the dense valleys of Meghalaya’s Khasi Hills region, but the most spectacular and arguably the most famous is the Umshiang double-decker bridge, which is more than 180 years old.