chalet architecture FACIAL TATTOOING Historically famous for their beauty, Apatani women were all too often kidnapped by

State Museum chalet architecture MUSEUM (admission 5; h9.30am-3.30pm Tue-Sun) The superbly presented State Museum, 3km north, includes plenty of tableaux with mannequins- in-action depicting diff erent traditional Naga lifestyles plus everyday tools.

FACIAL chalet architecture TATTOOING Historically famous for their beauty, chalet architecture Apatani women were all too often kidnapped by warriors of the neighbouring Nishi tribes. chalet architecture As a defence , Apatani girls were deliberately defaced. They were given facial tattoos, like graffitied beards scribbled onto living Mona Lisa paintings, and extraordinary nose plugs known as dat fitted chalet architecture into holes cut in their upper nostrils. Some men also have tattoos. Peace with the Nishis in the 1960s meant an end to that brutal practice, but many older women still wear dat. Photography is an understandably sensitive issue, so ask first. Some Apatani women have had cosmetic surgery to remove their tattoos. chalet architecture

Draped across the dazzling hills and valleys of the India Myanmar border regions is Nagaland, an otherworldly place where until very recently some twenty headhunting Naga tribes valiantly fought off any intruders. Today the south of the state is fairly developed, chalet architecture but in the north, tribesmen in loin cloths continue to live a lifestyle that is normally only seen within the pages of National Geographic magazine.

some impressive traditional buildings all set, surreally, under two giant mobile phone towers. Shingha Chingyuo chalet architecture village (20km, population 5900) has a huge longhouse decorated with mithuna (pairs of men and women) and deer skulls, three stuff ed tigers, and a store of old human skulls. Longwoa (35km) is spectacularly sited on the India Myanmar border, chalet architecture with the headman s longhouse actually straddling the two nations. Despite its popularity with tourists it remains one of the most interesting villages. chalet architecture Chui (8km) includes chalet architecture an elephant skull in its longhouse collection. Shangnyu chalet architecture village has a shrine full of fertility references such as tumescent warriors, a crowing cock, a large snake, a man and woman enjoying chalet architecture sex and, to complete the picture, a double rainbow. Langmeang village, with its stack of human skulls piled up in a wooden box, is also highly impressive.