Funeral Nights

Book excerpt: A group of friends journey to aremote part of West Khasi Hills to witness Ka PhorSorat, the Feast of the Dead,an ancient Lyngngam funeral ceremony that lasts six days. Concluding with thecremation of a beloved elder, a woman whose body has been preserved in a treehouse for nine whole months, this may well be the last time Ka PhorSorat isperformed. By mistake, however, the grouparrives early. So they wait, stuck in the jungle, spendingtheir nights around a fire in the middle of a spacious hut built forthem especially, sharing stories in what proves an unexpected journey ofdiscovery. Funeral Nights is avast collection of tales both big and small, less about death than it is aboutlife in all forms. It teems with admirable men and women, raconteurs andpranksters, lovers and fools, politicians and conmen, drunks and taxi drivers;it abounds with culture, history, gods, religions, myths and legends. Inspiredby Boccaccio's Decameron and The Arabian Nights, this isintimate access to a whole world, spectacular in its documentation of a tribe'slife and culture, and lush, warm, and entirely delightful in its telling.