Siat Khnam

bekN · Post by **bekN** » Wed Oct 26, 2011 2:45 am

Hi all.

im not sure whether this topic has been discussed here or not, but maybe it will worth while just for the sake of the pictures.
I have just came back form north east India, where i visited the town of Shillong, meghalaya. the region is known as the Khasi hills, after its inhabitants, the Khasi people, who speak an austro-asian language which is close to Khmer language and other south east asian languages.

the town of Shillong use to be a British hill station, and still poses a few well build colonial buildings. for me, the most interesting feature of the town, was the countless bookies specialise in the local madness, Siat khnam.

Siat khnam is taking place in a relatively small semi-circular range, where dozens of club member archers sit with their bows and arrows, waiting for the signal to be given.
the minute the signal has been shouted, they start to shoot continuously for about five minutes unto a small cylinder of straw, after the given time, a certain is being raised, and the arrows are being counted, a winner is the one who has guessed correctly the two last numbers of the arrows hit the target. for an example, if the number of arrows which have hit the target is 422, the winner will be the one who bet on the number 22.
i have lost 20 rupees.
the bows are a simple bamboo stave self bows, lengthening about 1 meter, and look not unseemlier to a touristic bow i had once from Thailand. the string is also made out of bamboo. the arrows are short, about 40 cm in length, and are decorated with coloured in order to ease the identification by the owner after the round (there are two rounds) has been finished.

bekN · Post by **bekN** » Wed Oct 26, 2011 2:47 am

one more

bekN · Post by **bekN** » Wed Oct 26, 2011 2:48 am

the last one was wrong bad quality picture...

bekN · Post by **bekN** » Wed Oct 26, 2011 2:52 am

shooting

bekN · Post by **bekN** » Wed Oct 26, 2011 2:53 am

one more

bekN · Post by **bekN** » Wed Oct 26, 2011 2:54 am

one more

bekN · Post by **bekN** » Wed Oct 26, 2011 2:57 am

Im trying my best shot

bekN · Post by **bekN** » Wed Oct 26, 2011 3:00 am

i will try to upload better quality pictures later on, anyone knows how to delete a picture?

Justin Ma · Post by **Justin Ma** » Wed Oct 26, 2011 3:11 am

This is pretty awesome to see. Thanks for sharing the pics and the description.

hcspng · Post by **hcspng** » Wed Nov 02, 2011 8:22 pm

Thanks for sharing it.you told that they make string from bamboo.do you have more pics of it?

bekN · Post by **bekN** » Thu Nov 03, 2011 10:09 am

Hi,
as i recall, the string was made from the outer layer of the bamboo cane, i will try to look for a detailed picture.

best.

Noam

Siat Khnam

Siat Khnam

Hello

bow string