1 Sights Kamakhya Mandir HINDU TEMPLE (admission for no queue/short luxury mountainside queue/queue 500/100/free; h8am-1pm & 3pm-dusk) While Sati s disintegrated body parts rained toes on Kolkata (see p443), her yoni fell on Kamakhya Hill. This makes Kamakhya Mandir important for shakti (sensual tantric worship of female spiritual power). Goats, pigeons and the occasional buffalo are ritually luxury mountainside beheaded in a gory pavilion and the hot, dark inner womblike sanctum is painted red to signify sacrificial blood. The huge June/ July Ambubachi luxury mountainside Mela celebrates the end of the mother goddess menstrual cycle with even more blood.
All around Shillong gambling booths offer Forecast odds on Siat Khnam. This is a unique sport. A semicircle luxury mountainside of weatherbeaten Khasi men fire hundreds of arrows at a drum-shaped straw target for a set time before a canvas curtain is raised to keep further arrows off the target. Those that stick in are counted and bets predict the last two digits of this total. It s effectively a lottery but the shooting luxury mountainside is a gently fascinating spectacle. Shoots are usually scheduled at 4pm and 5pm every day, timings can vary somewhat by season. The easy-to-miss Siat Khnam site is a small grassy area approximately opposite the big Nehru Stadium on the south river bank.
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