A land that time has forgotten. It is a place that has a tiny population in relation to its size, that contains vast unexplored areas, colourful friendly tribes, pristine jungle-covered foothills, forested mountain ranges and unclimbed Himalayan giants. It is still administered by a rather quaint system, similar to that set up under colonial rule.
Arunachal Pradesh, once known as the ‘Hidden Land’, is the only state in India which has been completely closed to all outsiders since the latter days of the British in India.
One of the last great geographical puzzles that fascinated Victorian explorers was whether the Tsang Po River in Tibet swung around the eastern end of the Himalaya to become the Brahmaputra. Most famously one of the pundit explorers was sent on a mission to drop logs into the Tsang Po while Political Officers in India waited to see if they came out on the Indian side. Naturally, many explorers tried to follow the Brahmaputra through the system of gigantic gorges which do indeed bring the Tsang Po around the Himalaya and down into Arunachal Pradesh. Some of those early explorers were massacred by the fierce tribes who lived in the foothills on the approach to the Tsang Po gorges. This trek has, as one of its main objectives, a visit to the village of Komsing where there is the grave of Capt. Noel Williamson, just one of the explorers who met an untimely end. To this very day no westerner has travelled the entire length of the gorges from Tibet through into Arunachal Pradesh. It remains a fascinating objective for future explorers when political constraints allow. Apparently in the ‘old days’ villagers traded with Tibetans for metal using a route up the gorges but this no longer happens.
It was partly because the tribes were regarded as extremely dangerous, and partly because this area of land has, since the beginning of the last century, been claimed by China as part of its own territory, that Arunachal Pradesh and neighbouring states were strictly off limits. It is only now that this vast area of the Eastern Himalaya is slowly opening up. Of passing interest is the fact that the sixth Dalai Lama was born on the soil of Arunachal Pradesh and the present fourteenth Dalai Lama found safety and refuge here when he fled the cultural revolution in Tibet.
LOCATION: Arunachal Pradesh is situated on the north eastern tip of India, bordering Bhutan on the west, Tibet/China on the north, Burma (Myanmar) on the east and the Indian state of Assam to the south. It covers 84,000 sq. km, its climate varying from sub-tropical to alpine. Some 80% of the state is covered by natural forest, with numerous turbulent streams, roaring rivers, deep gorges, lofty Himalayan mountains and hundreds of species of flora and fauna.
TERRAIN: It is made up of mostly Himalayan foothills. These are jungle covered or forested, culminating in high snow capped peaks on the Tibetan border. The heights of the mountain peaks range from 11,000ft/3,353m to 21,000ft/6,400m, with the highest peak at 23,255ft/7,088m in Tawang District. There are five major rivers – Kameng, Subansiri, Siang, Lohit and Tirap which drain into the Brahmaputra river, but it is the Siang which is the Tsang Po coming from Tibet.
VEGETATION: There is a great variety of vegetation, ranging from climbers to an abundance of cane, bamboo and orchids. Arunachal Pradesh is known for a rich occurrence of orchids at varying latitudinal zones – from the foothills to the snow-clad peaks. There are about 450 species of orchids reported from this state and many more may yet be discovered. The government of Arunachal Pradesh has banned full-scale logging, hence pristine forests abound.
CLIMATE: The climate during the summer is hot and humid at the lower altitudes and in the valleys covered by dense tropical forests, particularly in the far eastern section. The rainfall is amongst the heaviest in India, with the annual average being more than 300cm! Therefore, as can be expected, the vegetation varies greatly in relation to the elevation, ranging from a wide belt of tropical rain forest along the foothills and the low-lying areas, to tropical and subtropical at higher altitudes. Our trek is timed to take place during the ‘dry season’ when the weather should be warm and sunny and the forests leech free.
PEOPLE: Although a number of tribal groups constitute the total population, the density of the population is only 8 per sq. km. There are as many as 25 tribal groups that form the population in the state.
All the individual tribes have a rich cultural heritage and have been unspoilt due to the remoteness of this area. During the 200 years of British rule in India the British Government itself closed the borders to its own kind in 1873. Arunachal Pradesh is one of the few states in British India which Christian missionaries were not allowed to enter, unlike Nagaland and Mizoram. Headhunting has long since ceased in the state (unlike Nagaland where this practice petered out relatively recently) and the Arunachalis are generally known to be a peace-loving people. However, one famous tribe in particular (the Wanchos of the south-eastern Tirap district of Arunachal Pradesh, who saw action against the British in the mid 19th century), used to infiltrate and attack the ferocious Konyak tribes of north-eastern Nagaland until quite recently.
Throughout the trip, one comes into contact with a number of different tribes. The Adi, meaning ‘hill man’, is the most prominent, forward-looking and independent-minded of all the tribes in Arunachal Pradesh and neighbouring areas. Both men and women wear their hair close cropped. Polygamy is widely practised. The Adis have two main divisions – Bogum and Onai – and under each there are number of sub-tribes – the Gallong being the most prominent. Adi villages are well organised, as is the council called Kibong and are generally situated on the spurs of hills. The main feature of the Adi villages is the dormitory club for boys and men called Moshup. Some villages also have a separate club for girls called Rishong. The main deity is Donyi Polo (Sun Moon God), a compound deity regarded as the eye of the world.
RELIGION: The religion of the bulk of the population consists of belief in the existence of a High God or Supernatural Being and a host of other spirits and deities. The High God is called differently by different groups of people. Many however, believe in the dual existence of the High God, one in the sky and the other on earth. While the High God is always believed to be benevolent, the spirits and deities are grouped under two classes – benevolent and malevolent.
TEMPERATURE AND RAINFALL GUIDE:
Climate: Summer :Max. 40°C, Min. 18°C; Winter: Max. 12°C, Min. 5°C
Best Season: Mid October to Mid March.
Rainfall :266 cms annually, most of it falling between May and September.
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