The two Tribes

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May 19th 2007

Published: August 13th 2007

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His Dudeness

Ziro

View of Ziro from our hotel

And so a diminished fellowship decided to extend their permit for Arunachal in order to also visit the eastern parts of this very interesting state... And though it was expensive business, there are no regrets...

Eastern Arunachal Pradesh is perhaps even more wild then the western part, and it is full of tribes, either still animistic or just converted to Christianity (yes there are souls to be won over here..)

The road winds it's way through the green jungle clad mountains, cut through by blue rivers with white sandy beaches every know and again passing bamboo villages... And I found what my hostel will one day look like, the houses are fantastic, all made of bamboo, with big verandas and on stilts and thatched roofs...

The tribes? Around Ziro, you have the Apatani tribe, where the women (at least the older ones) have nose plugs and tattooed faces, but unfortunately they are very camera shy and turn or run away as soon as you point your camera at them... At Daporijo, the Adi tribe hangs out, who wear cool hats and big swords... The most interesting tribal people you meet while waiting at the bus station, where we

Ziro

Adi tribal people in traditional dress

met what seemed to be a very important man, with feathers in his cap... A bit like a tribal Robin Hood...

Outside Along there is a nice village with even nicer houses and a cool rope bridge over the river... And the scenery wherever you go is breathtaking...

Then to get to our next destination we had to leave Arunachal for Assam, cross the Brahmaputra on a small boat, stay the night in Tinsukia, than take another bus, cross the river again and than back into Arunachal... All this to get to Roing, where there is nothing to see or do, but it was an interesting trip... There is a shorter road through Arunachal, but it is so bad most of the time that there is no transport available... Hence the long route... After this we went to Tezu and Passuramkund, where we rested from our constant travelling for a few days... Passuramkund has a temple, which isn't very interesting but the setting is magnificent, on the banks of the Brahmaputra in the foothills of the Himalaya range... So we stayed and bathed in the very cold Brahmaputra and recharged our energy for our next destination... Nagaland!

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