Tribes & Culture

Our longest journey, for travelers who want to go all the way in. Thirty-two days across Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, and Nagaland, reaching valleys like Anini and Hunli that see a handful of outsiders a year. The roads are rough. What you get is unhurried time with Adi, Mishmi, Konyak, and Ao families.

• — 32 days, four states
• — Anini & the Mishmi Hills
• — Adi, Mishmi, Konyak & Ao

Drive the central belt of Arunachal Pradesh, India's least-visited state. From the Apatani rice-and-fish terraces at Ziro through Daporijo and Aalo, down to the Siang river at Pasighat — meeting Tagin, Adi, and Gallong families and staying in their homes along the way.

• — Ziro's rice-fish terraces
• — Daporijo, Aalo & Pasighat
• — Village homestays throughout

Meghalaya on foot, built around the living root bridges at Nongriat — footbridges the Khasi have grown from fig roots over generations. You hike down, stay the night in the village below, and finish at Mawlynnong. A good first trip to the Northeast.

• — Living root bridges at Nongriat
• — A night below the bridges
• — Mawlynnong & the Khasi hills

A slow week in the Assam countryside. Begin at Namphake, a Tai-Phake Buddhist village on the Burhi Dihing, then take the ferry to Majuli — the largest inhabited river island in the world — for its 17th-century satras, mask makers, and Mishing stilt villages. Built for travelers who would rather sit with people than tick off sights.

• — Namphake Tai-Phake village
• — Majuli, the river island
• — Satras, mask makers & Mishing villages

Climb the Eastern Himalaya to Tawang, where indigenous belief and Tibetan Buddhism have grown into one culture. You break the ascent at Thembang, a walled Monpa heritage village, cross Sela Pass at 13,700 feet, and spend two days among the monasteries and lakes above the treeline.

• — Tawang monastery
• — Sela Pass at 13,700 ft
• — Thembang walled village

Four nights with an Apatani family in Ziro, a valley on UNESCO's tentative list for its farming alone. Meet the last generation of elders wearing nose plugs and facial tattoos, walk the villages of Hong and Hari, and see the rice-and-fish terraces that feed the valley. Our shortest cultural trip, and the easiest to add to another route.

• — Stay with an Apatani family
• — Tattooed elders & nose plugs
• — Hong, Hari & Siiro villages

Twenty days pairing five national parks with the people who live beside them — the Apatani of Ziro, the mask makers of Majuli, and the tattooed Konyak of Mon. Rhinos and gibbons in the morning, village kitchens in the evening. The single best introduction to the region if you only come once.

• — Apatani, Mishing & Konyak tribes
• — 5 national parks across 3 states
• — Namdapha rainforest trekking