The Northeast India Travel Blog

At 4.30 pm every day, a tiny space in the hill station of Shillong in Northeast India becomes alive – with the presence of men who come to test their luck.

Welcome to the popular game of Siat Khnam – a unique way of gambling, where arrows are continuously shot in a haystack for a five minutes duration. The shooters are far away from archers – they are mostly men who are hungover from a night of heavy drinking, or men with beautiful smoking pipes in their mouth, or hobos and old proud men. While, the crowd bets on the number of arrows that hit and stick the haystack.

Shown above, the moment of judgement!

Vaivhav

Vaivhav

Vaivhav enjoys creative thinking, the sciences, arts, culture, astronomy, music and escaping to curious distant lands. Free spirited and an avid lover of the great outdoors, he co-founded Greener Pastures with an aim to integrate tourism with environmental conservation and community development in the fascinating region of Northeast India.