Mawbru
Mawbru comprises the male and female rocks where the male rock is situated at Sawkhlieh village (now known as Rongjek) and the female rock at Mawsladiang village respectively. The female rock is already a huge tourist attraction where people comes and worship the Maa Monokamana Mandir popularly known as Mawkynthei among the Khasis. Legend has it that emergence of the rocks was the result of the following historical myth.
There was an orphaned brother and sister who have just touched their adolescence from Sawkhlieh village. One day, they visited their relative’s village at Shah Lyer and on their return, they were met by heavy rain and storm which forced them to halt for the night. The next day, they started homeward by crossing Umtring River. This river was flooded by the rain water which made the crossing a difficult task. The brother dutifully helped his sister in crossing the river but as a girl wearing a skirt, she had to lift her skirt to avoid herself getting wet. The brother on seeing this was incestuously aroused by her femininity and closed his eyes to control his sexual urges. His sister was totally oblivious of her brother’s intention and carried on but the brother was so overcome by lust that he decided then and there to physically abuse her in spite of it being a sin and incest. In spite of the humble pleas that she made to her brother, yet he did not spare her and disillusioned by her brother’s devilish act, she fled the place immediately and ran helter-skelter till she reached the village of Mawsladiang where she turned into stone. Today, the legend is evident in the fact that this stone has a vaginal like structure and like a woman; this stone menstruates once a year in the month of July for about a week. At the same time, this stone keeps on growing as years pass by.
The brother after realising the abominable deed he had done on his own sister searched her in every nook and corner but could not find her. Embittered and ashamed of his deeds, he made up his mind to end his life because it was unbearable to live with the shame and humiliation he would encounter in his life. He then took a knife to chop off his phallus and cried by saying, “because of you, I have now lost my dear sister and committed incest. It’s better to die than to live in shame”. With this, he chopped off his male phallus and put it on top of a hill at Sawkhlieh village and breathed his last. This phallic structure is now a monolith and it stands to be 10 feet tall.
