Day 20 A garden of standing stones October 3, 2026
The plateau
From Dawki the road lifts onto the Jaintia plateau — wider sky, cooler air, terraced fields falling in steps. Jowai sits here unhurried, a town of the Presbyterian church, the Pnar market, and ten kilometres out the Nartiang monoliths: standing stones the Jaintia kings planted and then left standing when every king was gone. The kind of place you take slowly.
Kings carved in stone
The Nartiang Monoliths are what brought me here — a field of menhirs and dolmens in Nartiang village, about ten kilometres from Jowai. Between the 16th and 19th centuries the Jaintia rulers raised them: some to mark coronations and victories, others as memorials to warriors and ancestors. At over eight metres, the tallest standing stone is said to be the highest menhir in the world.
A stone's throw from the monoliths, the Nartiang Durga Temple — one of the 51 Shakta pithas, six centuries old — sits quietly through the year and fills with pilgrims from across India during Durga Puja. The old Jaintia cannons lie rusting in the temple compound: a kingdom that left its weapons in the grass beside its altars.
Three from the plateau
Road climbs through mist — the river sound falls away to plateau silence
Old kings in stone, their names worn off by rain — only the height remains
Evening comes cool; a bell from the temple yard, then the first star