Something hidden. Go and find it.
Go and look behind the Ranges –
Something lost behind the Ranges.
Lost and waiting for. Go!
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Rudyard Kipling
Tucked away in the far north-east of India, wedged between the borders of Bhutan, Burma and Tibet, Arunachal Pradesh is India's newest and least-known state. Before the region was elevated to statehood in 1986, Arunachal Pradesh, along with Assam, Nagaland and 4 other states was known as the North-East Frontier Agency (NEFA). Excerpt for occasional forays by administrators and anthropologists during the time of the British, nothing much was known about this area for most of the 20th century. The isolation of the North East Frontier Agency was legally safeguarded by India 's own government; before laws permitting limited tourism were passed in 1995, even Indian citizens were not allowed to visit.
The North East Frontier Agency lands never belonged to ancient India. They were, and are, peopled by Mongoloid and Mon-Khmer austere stock, far removed from Aryan-Dravidian blood of the mainstream. The people here are animists; in the Highlands, wild Burmese tribes enthusiastically practiced indiscriminate head-hunting until as late as the fifties. To the north, Mongoloid tribals, bare-bodied in breech-clouts are encountering “civilization” still.
Our tours to NEFA explore Assam, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh. |
 Apatani woman
Photo: Gillian Marshall
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