Skendrowell Syiemlieh was a Khasi singer and storyteller whose songs carried myths, history, village experience and moral tales through the sound of the duitara. He could retell a familiar episode from an intimate angle—as in “Iing Byndi,” which centres on the anguish of Tirot Sing’s family after his arrest—and sing about the texture of everyday life in the Mawiang dialect of “Ah Moina.”
Who was Skendrowell Syiemlieh?
According to Raiot’s biographical profile, Syiemlieh was born on March 1, 1945, to Plentimai Syiemlieh and Romuel Ryntathiang, and grew up in Umthied Bynther in West Khasi Hills. He began singing with a four-stringed Khasi duitara when he was eight. The profile says he had an opportunity to sing on an All India Radio programme in 1967–68 and later became a regular artist on All India Radio Shillong (Raiot’s profile).
A Meghalaya Directorate of Information and Public Relations Chronicle search excerpt from July–September 2008 reports his death and names songs including “U Tirot Singh,” “Ah Moina,” “Lucy” and “Akor Khasi.” That government publication provides a limited reference rather than a full account of his life or a detailed record of his death.
What stories did he sing?
Raiot describes a repertoire that moved between Khasi sacred tales, historical memory and tragic or legendary figures. The subjects it names include Tirot Sing in prison, U Lohryndi, U Manik Raitong and Ka Suna. His story-songs were accompanied by the duitara, guitar and violin.
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Scroll also presents the songs as narratives that could entertain while teaching or admonishing. In its reading of “Ka Mahadei,” envy and deception meet a reckoning in the end. The article reproduces and translates these lines from the song:
“Oh envy, oh jealousy! For how long would you last? / You may have ill-treated the poor, / but suffering will come to you and in the end, / you will be shamed and laid bare.”
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The words are the song’s lines as reproduced and translated by Scroll, not a separately verified translation. Their direct address makes the moral warning part of the storytelling itself.
How “Iing Byndi” changes the perspective on history
“Iing Byndi” tells of Tirot Sing in prison, but Scroll’s account says Syiemlieh foregrounded the anguish of the chief’s family after his arrest rather than simply repeating a heroic account of Tirot Sing. That shift gives the historical story a domestic perspective: political events are also experienced by the people left waiting and grieving.
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Village life, dialect and the meaning of “Ah Moina”
Scroll connects “Ah Moina” with lost love through the song’s mynah motif, and notes its use of the Mawiang dialect associated with West Khasi Hills. Its imagery includes nature, field work, playing the duitara and eating u sohphlang. The dialect and details of daily life root the song in a particular place and way of speaking, rather than in an abstract pastoral landscape.
The Scroll author reads the song’s apparently empty box as an image of poverty, but also as a container for experiences that urban outsiders may fail to recognize as valuable. That is an interpretation, not the only possible meaning of the image.
Other songs extend this attention to home and community. Scroll reads “Shnong ba nga ieij” as expressing attachment to village life and “Akor Khasi” as mourning the loss of Khasi manners and values. These readings connect personal affection for a place with concern about social change.
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The storyteller’s voice and the duitara
Raiot reports that Syiemlieh often opened songs with “Ha sngap ho para ngan iathuh khana,” translated in the profile as “Listen oh my brothers and sisters I will tell you a story.” It is a song-opening phrase, not a formal interview quotation. The invitation makes the storytelling role explicit: the song begins by gathering listeners for a tale.
The four-stringed duitara was part of that identity from childhood and accompanied his performances. Raiot also names guitar and violin among the instruments used for the story-songs. Scroll argues that this meeting of folk material and familiar Western instruments helped a newer generation relate to folktales through contemporary sounds. That is the article’s interpretation of the musical blend, not a measured audience finding.
What can—and cannot—be established about his legacy
Raiot and Scroll, both profiles by Donboklang Ryntathiang, portray Syiemlieh as a singer whose work joined Khasi stories, moral reflection, dialect and village experience. Their accounts explain why the Scroll remembrance frames him as someone who “immortalised” fading folktales and village life. That language describes the profiles’ assessment of his cultural importance; it should not be mistaken for audience measurements or proof that any particular song remains widely known.
The available accounts are not a complete discography or a primary archive. They do not establish a full release history, awards chronology, current recording availability or listening figures. What they do show is the range of his storytelling: inherited history seen through family grief, moral tales shaped as songs, and ordinary village details preserved in local speech and sound.
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