Meghalaya

Meghalaya is located in the northeastern part of the country. It is bounded by the state of Assam to the north and northeast and by Bangladesh to the south and southwest. Meghalaya—alaya (“abode”) and megha (“of the clouds”)—occupy a mountainous plateau of great scenic beauty.

One of the world’s wettest regions is found in Meghalaya—Cherrapunji, which has an average annual precipitation of about 450 inches (11,430 mm) during the monsoon season (from May to September). (Rainfall at Cherrapunji may be exceeded, however, by that at Mawsynram, a village directly west of Cherrapunji, where rainfall totals of some 700 inches [17,800 mm] per year have been recorded.) Annual rainfall in Shillong, only about 50 miles (80 km) from Cherrapunji, is about 90 inches (2,290 mm). During the winter months (December to February), the climate is relatively dry.

Most of the inhabitants of Meghalaya are Tibeto-Burman (Garos) or Mon-Khmer (Khasis) in origin, and their languages and dialects belong to these groups. The Khasis are the only people in India who speak a Mon-Khmer language. Khasi and Garo along with Jaintia and English are the state’s official languages; other languages spoken in the state include Pnar-Synteng, Nepali, and Haijong, as well as the plains languages of Bengali, Assamese, and Hindi.