Visited the sisters Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Nagaland:
Arunachal Pradesh
In the most northern sister you can visit a lot of different tribes. Every village in a district is home for another tribe. I visited Apatani, Nishi, Tagin, Adi Gallong and Adi Minyong villages. You feel like travelling through the jungle, the road goes up and down through the green mountains without any straight road. Most of the people are followers of Donyi Polo religion (sun and moon), followed by Christian and Hindu people. The Apatani people are the most evocative people, women have tattoos in their face and wear big nose plugs.
Myoko
I was lucky to join the celebration of new year for the Apatani people. This event, called Myoko, is celebrated every year on March 21 and takes 30 days. This year Myoko will be celebrated in the villages Bamin, Michi, Mudang Tage, Tadu, Dutta and Hija. Next year it will be celebrated in Hong and in 2014 the villages Hari and Bulla host the festival. During Myoko there will be a lot of rituals. I visited the second and the third day of Myoko. On the second day we went to Bamin. In a shrine hangs a skull of a monkey which was killed in december. Men walked in a procession through the village with rattan leaves in their hands and sang. During the procession a chicken was killed in the shrine. His blood was poured over the skull of the monkey. The liver of the chicken was handed to the shaman and the village elder. The shaman concluded that everything is ok.
On the third day of Myoko we went to Mudang Tage. Before 6 AM we arrived and there were a lot of people on the street. Some girls were dressed the same way with a lot of colorful beads around their necks. They gave rice beer and rice powder to the residents and visitors and pouring it over pigs which should be sacrificed. The shaman mumbles against the pigs. Two men killed the pig, they made an incision in the abdomen. One of the men snatched the heart out of the animal while it was screaming. One hour later we had breakfast…
Assam
Connection between all the sisters and host Brahmaputra valley, national parks, rice fields and many tea estates.
Nagaland
The most evocative people of Nagaland are the headhunters, their faces are full with tattoos and they wear their trophies. If you are lucky you will see some, but they become older and older, so they will disappear within the next decades. I visited some Angami villages around Kohima and Konyak villages around Mon. Every year in the first week of April, the Konyak celebrate Aoling, a colorful festival. Small villages celebrate their own Aoling, but Mon is the heart of the Konyak and will celebrate the biggest one. People from every part of Mon and one group from Burma came together to celebrate the festival. Each group has its own colorful costumes and they sing and dance and shoot a lot of blanks…
The trip was organized by DimSum.
Itinerary
| Day | Destination | Transport |
| 01 | Delhi | Airplane |
| 02 | Tezpur | 4×4 |
| 03 | Nameri | 4×4 |
| 04 | Itanagar | 4×4 |
| 05 | Ziro | 4×4 |
| 06 | Ziro | |
| 07 | Ziro | |
| 08 | Daporijio | 4×4 |
| 09 | Daporijio | |
| 10 | Along | 4×4 |
| 11 | Along | |
| 12 | Pasighat | 4×4 |
| 13 | Pasighat | |
| 14 | Dibrugarh | 4×4 |
| 15 | Kohima | 4×4 |
| 16 | Kohima | |
| 17 | Mokokchung | 4×4 |
| 18 | Mon | 4×4 |
| 19 | Mon | |
| 20 | Dibrugarh | 4×4 |
| 21 | – | Airplane |
| 22 | Amsterdam | Airplane |
