chalet castor CENTRAL ARUNACHAL S TRIBAL GROUPS The variety of tribal peoples in central Arunachal Pradesh is asto

BUSES FROM GUWAHATI DESTINATION FARE ( ) DURATION chalet castor (HR) Agartala (Tripura) 660 24-26 Aizawl (Mizoram) 750 28 Dibrugarh 380 10 Imphal (Manipur) chalet castor via Mao 700 20 Jorhat 260 8 Kaziranga 260-300 6 Kohima (Nagaland) 330 13 Shillong (Meghalaya) 90-110 3 Sivasagar 310-390 8 Tezpur 140-150 5

CENTRAL ARUNACHAL S TRIBAL GROUPS The variety of tribal peoples in central Arunachal Pradesh chalet castor is astonishing, but although the Adi (Abor), Nishi, Tajin, Hill Miri and various other Tibeto-Burman tribes consider themselves chalet castor different from one another most are at least distantly chalet castor related. Over the last few decades Christian missionaries have been highly active throughout the Northeast and in the process have brought huge changes to the region s traditional cultures, religious beliefs and ways of life. Despite this, some aspects of the traditional lifestyle are just about holding on and many people continue to practise the traditional chalet castor religion of Donyi-Polo (sun and moon) worship sometimes at the same time as proclaiming themselves Christian. For ceremonial occasions, chalet castor village chiefs typically wear scarlet shawls and a bamboo wicker hat spiked with porcupine quill or hornbill feathers. A few old men still wear their hair long, tied around to form a topknot above their foreheads. Women favour hand-woven wraparounds like Southeast Asian sarongs. House designs vary somewhat. Traditional Adi villages chalet castor are generally the most photogenic with luxuriant palmyra-leaf thatching and boxlike granaries stilted to deter rodents.

some impressive traditional buildings all set, surreally, under two giant mobile phone towers. Shingha Chingyuo chalet castor 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, with the headman s longhouse actually straddling the two nations. Despite its popularity with tourists it remains one of the most interesting villages. Chui (8km) includes chalet castor an elephant skull in its longhouse collection. Shangnyu village has a shrine full of fertility references such as tumescent warriors, a crowing cock, a large snake, a man and woman enjoying sex and, to complete the picture, chalet castor a double rainbow. Langmeang village, with its stack of human skulls piled up in a wooden box, is also highly impressive.

FACIAL TATTOOING Historically chalet castor famous for their beauty, Apatani women were all too often kidnapped by warriors of the neighbouring Nishi tribes. 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 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.