A History of Assam c21.51

c21.51

The advantages to be gained from a sanitarium in the hills had already been recognized. David Scott had favoured Nungklow, but that place was found to be unhealthy and liable to mists. Some advocated the claims of Mairang, while others preferred the tableland between the Shillong Peak and Nongkrem, and others again a site near Serrarim. The decision was eventually given in favour of Cherrapunji, mainly on the score of its accessibility from Sylhet. In 1864 this place was abandoned for Shillong. The native name for the site of this town is Yeddo, but there is another place of this name in Japan, and its founders preferred, therefore, to call it Shillong, after the peak which dominates it.