Sacred Meaning and Tourism Branding in Khasi Festival Logos, Meghalaya, India

Tourism branding across the tropics often extracts Indigenous symbols for exotic appeal, but also provides spaces for communities to assert cultural self-representation. This study examines three Khasi tourism festivals in Meghalaya, subtropical Northeast India, analysing how festival logo designs communicate Indigenous identity while navigating the tensions between sacred meaning and tourism economies. Using a blended methodology that combines semiotic and iconological visual analysis with an emic ethnographic approach informed by interviews with designers and cultural knowledge-holders, the paper decodes symbols from three major festivals: the Monolith Festival, the Na Thymmei Festival, and the Tri Hills Ensemble Festival. Symbols such as monoliths, textile patterns, traditional instruments, weapons, rice and sacred landscapes operate as Indigenous signifiers that embed ancestral knowledge into contemporary design. However, as they enter commercial tourism circuits through branding and merchandise, they risk commodification and reductive interpretation. The findings demonstrate that Indigenous festival branding operates as a critical site of cultural continuity and adaptation, where symbols are reinterpreted and circulated within tourism economies. It shows how cultural visibility can be sustained while managing the pressures of tourism consumption. Overall, the study positions festival logos as spaces where sacred meaning and public consumption are balanced, advancing debates on decolonizing Indigenous festival graphic design.