Tribal Tour of Arunachal Pradesh

A road trip through the mountains of Arunachal Pradesh, a state blessed with heavy rain and tropical forest. You travel across the central tribal belt, where people follow Donyi-Polo — worshippers of the sun and moon. In the Ziro valley you meet the Apatani, quiet hill people who still hold to their old customs and their sustainable way of farming. Land matters here: houses are built close together to save ground, and the paddy fields raise fish as well as rice. They even make their own salt for iodine, from the ash of certain burnt plants. Conservation, productivity, and respect for the land sit at the center of the culture. The older women can still be seen in traditional dress, with facial tattoos and large nose plugs. In Ziro you stay with an Apatani family, which is the best way to understand any of it. In the Subansiri valley you meet the Tagin, smoking handmade pipes and wearing intricate cane hats, carrying themselves like kings of their own country. In the Siang valley you meet the Adi, a warrior tribe justly proud of having ambushed British advances more than once. Here the Siang forms a huge valley as it comes down off the Tibetan plateau, about a thousand miles from its source at Mount Kailash. The Adi build complex cane and bamboo bridges to cross it — good enough that the early explorer W. Robinson wrote that the skill in building them “is really surprising, and is such as would not do discredit to the more civilized nations.” They are also one of the few tribes here who do not practice shifting cultivation, cutting terraced farms into the mountains instead. In Tibetan Buddhism the Siang is a mysterious thing in its own right, said to hold the Beyul of Pemako, the most important of the hidden paradises. This is the last frontier of old traditions and old forest, and it is extraordinarily rich in both. Keeping tourism small and responsible is what protects it, and it puts income directly into the hands of local guides, property owners, and artisans. In some months the communities come together for their own festivals, in full glory, in respect of the way their ancestors did it.

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.