SAVE CHE RAI DOI:

Che Rai Doi or popularly known as Charaideo, the land of Moidams of great Chao Phas or the Ahom Kings, is at the verge of extinction due to unabated illegal encroachment and gross apathy of the state and central archeological departments. It goes without saying that the moidams are akin to the pyramids of Egypt and Che Rai Doi is Sivasagar’s  Giza  for Cairo.  A recent visit to the place exposed huge encroachment of the hillocks and moidams of Che Rai Doi by illegal settlers and small tea planters causing gradual shrinkage of the huge plot of land that once housed the final rest place of Chao Phas and their families. Most of the moidams have remained unexplored or unidentified and the whole area is a treasure trove of history and archeological wonders. Besides the moidams it also houses the first worship place of the Ahom kings, the Ho Phi or Deo Hal and the remains of the Langkuri temple. Lack of preservation scheme from the government has caused much of the remains of the temples to be extinct already and the digging of earth of the moidams and hillocks by the ignorant illegal settlers are causing irreparable damages to the moidams. Even the Archeological Survey of India (ASI) in its bid to ‘explore and unearth the mystery of moidams’ has badly damaged one big moidam and its action amounts to nothing less than gross criminal negligence.

            The Ahoms are angry and desperate at the fate of their beloved land and historical monuments. Not only the moidams but the ramparts or garhs that used to fortify the important habitats of the kings and the nobles are not free from illegal encroachments. Greedy government officials are issuing settlement certificates or pattas over the historically important ponds or pukhuris and ramparts for exchange of money. The whole Gargaon, the capital of the Ahom Kings was defaced with unplanned settlements (or a planned strategy by interested circle to perish evidence of Ahom rule in Assam as suspected by some).

            Unless the Assam government or the Government of India enact some laws to protect these sites and the monuments, surely enough these would vanish very soon.

            09/04/2008