Living Culture & Cuisine
Weavers, satras, and a proper thali.
Not a sightseeing checklist - the actual living culture. Silk looms at Sualkuchi, mask-makers on Majuli, a Khasi meal in a hill kitchen, and an Assamese thali eaten the way it's eaten here.
11 across the North East
01 - Full day - Assam
Guwahati Religious Circuit
Umananda on its river island, Ugratara, Basistha and Doul Govinda - the city's older, quieter shrines.
02 - 2 nights - Assam
Tea Garden Bungalow Stay
A heritage planter's bungalow inside a working estate - plantation walks, tastings, and very long verandas.
03 - 1-2 nights - Assam
Majuli - The River Island
Vaishnavite satras, mask-makers and pottery villages on the Brahmaputra's great river island.
04 - Half day - Assam
Sualkuchi - The Manchester of the East
A whole town of weavers working muga, pat and eri silk on handlooms you can hear from the road.
05 - 1-2 days - Meghalaya
Living Root Bridges - Nongriat
The double-decker root bridge at Nongriat - grown, not built, and now on its way to UNESCO.
06 - Half day - Meghalaya
Mawphlang Sacred Grove
A forest the Khasi have protected for centuries, where you may not remove so much as a leaf.
07 - Full day - Meghalaya
The Bamboo Trail at Wahkhen
A walkway of lashed bamboo pinned to a cliff face, built and maintained by one village. Not for the uneasy.
08 - 3-4 nights - Arunachal Pradesh
Tawang - Monastery at 10,000 Feet
India's largest monastery, the Bumla pass on the Chinese border, and Monpa villages in between.
09 - 2 nights - Arunachal Pradesh
Ziro Valley - Apatani Country
A flat green bowl of paddy fields ringed by pine hills, farmed by the Apatani in a way agronomists still study.
10 - 26 February - Arunachal Pradesh
Nyokum Yullo
The Nyishi thanksgiving - priests, ritual altars, rice beer and a great deal of dancing, held every February.
11 - Mid-April - Assam
Bohag Bihu in Assam
Assam's new year - husori troupes going house to house, and the whole state in a good mood.
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