The Tribal Frontiers of Northeast India

Home to more than 200 tribes, Northeast India is one of the most culturally diverse places on earth. The people here trace their ancestry back to Mongolia and Southeast Asia, speak hundreds of languages, and live in country that runs from very fertile plains to the forested mountains of the eastern Himalaya. Difficult terrain kept the region cut off from the outside world until the end of the twentieth century. That isolation preserved the cultures and the biodiversity together, and kept the relationship between people and forest close and mutual. Most people here still make their living from the forest, and they are very good at it — farming, weaving, wood, cane and bamboo work, traditional medicine, and a long list of other sustainable skills. It starts in Meghalaya. Shillong is a hill station with a colonial past and a very stylish Khasi population; below it, Nongriat sits at the bottom of a valley under lush forest and waterfalls, where the living root bridges are grown rather than built. In Assam you cross to Majuli, a large island in the Brahmaputra, home to medieval monasteries where monks learn art, music, drama, and dance, and to Mishing, Deori, and Kachari villages. Then the mountains of Arunachal Pradesh, the whole tribal belt, from the central valleys of the Donyi-Polo faith — worshippers of the sun and moon — out to the remote east. At Ziro you meet the Apatani, whose paddy fields also raise fish and whose elders still wear nose plugs and facial tattoos. In the Subansiri valley, the Tagin, in handmade cane hats and smoking their own pipes. In the Siang valley, the Adi, who ambushed British influence more than once and who build cane-and-bamboo bridges across the river that impressed the earliest explorers. Further east, in the last of the Himalaya, the three Mishmi sub-tribes — three or four people per square kilometer, expert hunters and craftsmen, animists whose beliefs make the hunting of certain animals taboo. The last stretch is Nagaland, over the Patkai range and into the Naga Hills. At Mon, the Konyak, among the last to give up headhunting, whose tattooed elders still show their markings. At Longwa, the village split by the Burma border. Around Tuensang, six tribes in one small area — Chang, Yimchunger, Khiamungan, Sangtam, Sema, and Phom — a part of the state very few travelers reach. And finally Mokokchung, the Ao heartland and the artistic center of Nagaland. In many of these places the infrastructure is thin. What you come for is the time with your hosts — watching how they live, learning what they know, and seeing a way of life that has nearly disappeared elsewhere. Visiting also puts money straight into these communities, which is the point.

Traveling with Greener Pastures means hassle-free, insightful journeys in the hands of passionate experts. All our naturalist guides are from the region and have deep knowledge of the local wildlife, terrain, and communities. Every tour can be tailored to your interests and fitness level.