North East Explorer

Stay with Buddhist Nuns and drink tea with ex-headhunters in a trip to see the tribal life of India's North East States

This trip allows you to experience some of the traditional ways of life of the peoples of the tribal states of North East India. We start with a road trip through the jungles of Arunachal Pradesh into the peaks of the Himalayas to the Tawang valley. We visit the largest Tibetan Buddhist complex outside of Lhasa before staying a night with the nuns at a small nunnery and at a village that stills practices the Bon religion that existed in Tibet before the introduction of Buddhism.
Then we will head to Nagaland to spend time with the retired head-hunters of the Konyak Naga during their annual Aoleang harvest festival. This will include spending a night in Longwa, an anomaly of a village positioned half in Myanmar and half in India. We will continue through Arunachal Pradesh and Assam, stopping at the Ziro valley to see the unique sustainable farming system of the Apatani before staying in in a colonial era tea plantation.

Highlights:

Visit the Tawang valley and stay with Tibetan Buddhist nuns
Breakfast with ex-head-hunters in Nagaland during their annual harvest festival
Stay in a colonial tea plantation bungalow
Discover the unique sustainable society of the Apatanis
Spend at night with Bon worshippers high in the Himalayas

Itinerary / Highlights

24th March 2012 (day 1)

We will meet in Guwahati the capital of Assam and drive across the state of Assam past paddy fields and small holdings. We will spend the night in a small lodge in Nameri National Park.

25th and 26th March 2012 (days 2 and 3)

We will take 2 days to drive from the plains of Assam to the Tawang valley high in the Himalayas. Starting in the jungles surrounding the Kameng valley we will pass through the lands of the Miji and Aka tribes. The road passes many scenic views and waterfalls until we enter the land of the Mompas, Tibetan-Buddhists that arrived in this region centuries before. We will overnight in Dirang, a beautiful Tibetan-Monpa stone built town where we will have time to visit the 500 year old Kalachakra Gompa. The second day will see us enter the alpine beauty of the Himalayas passing over Se La top at 4100m. The scenery changes and yaks, Buddhist gompas and prayer flags ensure that it is a magical ride.

27th March 2012 (day 4)

Tawang is a huge steep sided valley wedged in between Tibet, Bhutan and the rest of Arunachal Pradesh. It is a remote area and one of the best places to get a glimpse of the Tibetan Buddhist lifestyle which is slowly disappearing from the world. We have a full day in Tawang and will ensure we have plenty of time to visit the Tawang Gompa, the second biggest Tibetan monastery complex in the world and still rarely visited by tourists. In the afternoon we will head to a nearby nunnery where we will stay the night with the nuns that live there to get an insight into religious life in this far flung corner of the world.

Dinner will be included when staying with the nuns.

28th March 2012 (day 5)

We will wake with the nuns and be able to experience their life of prayer and meditation before heading back to Tawang via some of the other Gompas in the valley.

29th March 2012 (day 6)

We will head back over the Se La to spend a night in Dirang.

30th March 2012 (day 7)

Before Buddhism spread to Tibet, the people worshipped an ancient animist religion called Bon. There are still a few people who practise this religion and we will travel to a village in which some of these people still live. It is a steep 2 hour walk from Dirang and we will spend the night at the village understanding the local culture and customs as well as getting an insight into a rarely seen and understood religion.

All meals will be included in the Bon village

31st March 2012 (day 8)

We will leave the Bon village and head down to the plains of Assam. We will stay overnight in a the small town of Balakpong that acts as the border between the states of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh

1st April 2012 (day 9)

We will travel from Balakpong along the Assam plains before returning to the hills of Arunachal Pradesh to visit the Apatani people of Ziro. They live in a small valley and due to their lack of space they have developed a uinique sustainable farming system. For every tree they cut they plant five and they famously use the water in their paddy fields to cultivate fish. The Apatani ladies are renowned throughout Arunachal Pradesh for their beauty. In the past Nyishi warriors would charge into Ziro and carry off the most beautiful women. To prevent this the Apatani women had their faces tattooed and huge plugs put in their noses and ears to disfigure them so as not to be found so attractive. This practice has ended but some of the older women still have these facial markings.

2nd April 2012 (day 10)

We will spend a day in and around Ziro visiting the villages and local people who we know. They will discuss their culture and the meanings of the wooden carvings, grass hoops and pagan totem poles that are dotted across the villages.

3rd April 2012 (day 11)

From Ziro we will head back to the plains of Assam. En route we will stop for lunch at a small tea plantation owned by a member of the Nyishi tribe. We will cross the Bramaputra by ferry and stay in an old colonial tea managers bungalow on the outskirts of Dibrigargh.

4th-6th April 2012 (days 12-14)

From Dibrigargh we will head to the Mon district of Nagaland. This is the home of the Konyak Nagas and contains the most traditional villages in Nagaland. The trip co-incides with the Aoleang Festival which celebrates the new harvest. There is drumming, traditional dancing, sports and singing. We will spend one night in Longwa village perched one a ridge half in Myanmar and half in India as well as visiting the other villages in the area. We will have time to take tea with the Angh's of the villages as well as some of the older members of the village who can tell tales of there time as head-hunters and the ancient conflicts between the villages.

7th April 2012 (day 15)

We will return to Dibrigargh for the flight back home.

Other Details

Accommodation Details

Hotels, guesthouses and homestays in villages and monasteries.

Departure Dates, Options & Prices

Nov 2012 - £1890