Heavens only knows what's it like being there. But this one-way journey to the undiscovered land for both the living and the dead is a solemn affair.
Preparations for these travellers who never return are therefore meticulous. The Egyptian Pharaohs took their materials comforts and even guidebook, the Greeks their Coins to ferry themselves to the after-world.
Closer home the people following the indigenous religion in Khasi-Jaintia hills never step beyond this world without take along with them their favourite eatables during this long and lonely journey.
Rice, Kwai (betel leaves with lime and areca nut) and other eatables, according to individual taste, are placed with the dead.
The dead are given the ritualistic bath then are decked in the finest of clothes and eventually rested inside a Coffin locally known as Krong.
The Krongs are an amazing maze of bamboo splints, although simple in appearance. They somehow reproduce the ultimate geometrical summation of life's intricate curvatures.
The solemn art of Krong-making is therefore very important, a knowledge which has been passed on for generations in these hills.
The Krong is covered with cloth with the dead rested inside. Another piece of cloth is placed near the head to symbolize the death of a male. A cloth near the chest is placed in case of a female's death.
KS Wahlang, President Seng Khasi, says rituals are followed so that the departed enjoys 'eternal peace in heaven.'
The dead is cremated inside an air-tight block made of banana trunk called Jingthang Kpep. The fire and subsequent combustion is greater due to the air-tight banana trunk chamber, unlike an open pyre.
"Bodies turn into ash within three hours," Wahlang maintains.
Unfortunately, with growing pressure from western influences, the dead seem to be taking one more thing with them to the afterlife these days - bits and pieces of these unique tradition and art.
Unless corrective measures are not taken, the end would only have memories of this unique ancient beginning…
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