Eleng-ghar of Deori

[Full title: Communities with Deka-chang (a): Eleng-ghar of Deori]

The Eleng-ghar is the traditional youth dormitory of the Deori community. In earlier days, the Eleng-ghar was a bamboo stilt architecture of conspicuous height. It was primarily constructed for the defence of the village. The institution is almost extinct in the Deori villages. Nowadays, a concrete model of the structure is however visible in some instances. Traditionally, the boys of a village used to stay in this house and spend their youth there. There had the convention to construct two youth dormitories in a village, on the both ends of a village.

The architecture of the Eleng-ghar is ordinarily resembles to their residential house in technique. Thus, it possesses a front michang followed by a hall to accommodate the youth. The structure was constructed very high above the ground to reach the height of up to 25 feet in some instance. The house may be either sparsely walled or un-walled so that the boy can keep vigil through the walls. The boys living in the dormitory used to keep a stick and torch (butha) with them. In this institution, the boys used to receive various kinds of training from their seniors. The Eleng-ghar is gradually disappearing in the villages. Consequently, the youths started using michang of the residential house to spend night.