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Travelling through the North East of India: Assam
Hi everybody 🙂
Welcome to my “Travelling through the North East of India” series. Today’s post is on the culturally rich state of Assam. Those of you who have missed the earlier parts of this series, here are the links:
A bit about Assam…
Assam is the central state and the largest and most accessible of the seven states in the North-East region of India. Its capital is Dispur, located within the municipal area of Guwahati city which is the gateway to the state and the rest of the seven states. Guwahati is not only the most important city in the state but also one of the 100 fastest growing cities in the world.
Assam is best known for its tea. Around 60% of India’s tea is grown here.
The state is rich in culture and literature. Most of the cultural heritage dates back to the early 13th century when the Ahom Kings travelled from Thailand through northern Myanmar to this region. Their rule lasted for 600 years.
The state is famed for its rich biodiversity. It’s most famous attraction is the Kaziranga National Park, home to the rare Great Indian One-Horned Rhinoceros.
A high rainfall region, Assam is endowed with lush greenery and the mighty river Brahmaputra.
In Guwahati…
The city has numerous interesting temples. It is home to the goddess Kamakhya. Kamakhya Temple is one of the most venerated temples in the country and the earliest of the surviving ancient monuments in Assam.
In Jorhat…
Jorhat in the Brahmaputra valley is one of the important towns in Assam, centrally located for visiting Majuli Island, Karizanga Wildlife Sanctuary and Sivasagar.
Majuli Island is the largest inhabited river island in the world, nestling in the lap of the mighty Brahmaputra. Not only that, it is also the seat of neo-Vaishnavite culture, a monotheistic offshoot of Hinduism. This is where the 15th century saint and fountain head of Assamese culture, Sankardeva, first established a (neo-Vaishnavite monastery), born of insightful discourses with his spiritual successor, Madhabdeva. Since then 65 came up for the propagation of ethics and socio-cultural ideals but today only 22 of these are in existence. The others had to be shifted to safer places due to the devastation of flood and erosion.
I was told there were plenty of beautiful Shiva temples in Sivasagar. Majuli was seen as a strife-torn place, its only treasures being the . I was going to visit Kaziranga from Tezpur so I had to choose between spending an entire day either in Majuli or Sivasagar. I chose the former.
Accompanied by a “plain clothes” military escort, I set out in a hired vehicle for Nimati Ghat, the main ferry boarding point for Majuli.
Watch my video: Brahmaputra River Cruise to Majuli Island
The mighty Brahmaputra…
It was an enjoyable cruise of more than an hour. The state’s Chief Minister had also chosen the same day and same time to make a trip to the island, which was his home constituency.
Security arrangements in place during his visit…
The institution of is a unique feature of Vaishnavism in Assam. It propagated a modified form of Vaishnavism which gradually shaped the cultural landscape of not just Majuli but the whole of Assam. It rejected the discriminatory (caste) system of Brahminical Hinduism and emphasised on egalitarianism. Monotheism, chanting of the Lord’s name as the only form of worship, rejection of animal sacrifice and idolatry, are the other hallmarks of this sect.
The consist of a large prayer hall facing a simple shrine, surrounded by dormitories and bathing tanks for monks. Here, the Lord is worshipped through dance, drama, music and poetry.
Each is known for a special craft like intricate masks with sun-dried bottle gourd and the bark of the betel nut tree, hand-fans, fine wooden boats, etc.
I was lucky to meet and have an interesting chat with him before he left to attend the Chief Minister’s meeting. The spiritual heads of the other Satras that I later visited had already left for the meeting.
Musical instruments…
A temple…
Inside the temple…
museum
A mask…
Chess…
Due to the annual floods and constant land erosion, Majuli is slowly but steadily shrinking to one-third of its original size of 1256 sq. km. as recorded by the Imperial Gazetteer in 1901. This has forced many of the to shift base to Assam’s mainland. The government has yet to initiate effective measures to save Majuli from the ravages of the mighty Brahmaputra.
Majuli produces about a hundred different varieties of rice without a drop of pesticides or artificial fertilisers. Paddy fields, migratory birds, cotton trees…a walk through the village is truly delightful!
Capturing the beauty of the “blue” Brahmaputra on the return journey…
Read this earlier post of mine: Sunset over the Brahmaputra
Watch my video: Evening cruise across the Brahmaputra River, Assam
In Tezpur…
Tezpur abounds in lush greenery and …tea gardens! The Sonitpur district has 73 tea gardens including world’s biggest tea garden, Monabari. A visit to a tea garden is a must to discover the secrets of Assam tea and why it is strongest tea in the world.
Some 55 KM away from Tezpur lies the Kaziranga National Park, a World Heritage site and home to more than 75% of the world’s total population of one-horned rhinoceroses. Kaziranga also has the highest density of tigers among protected areas in the world and was declared a Tiger Reserve in 2006.
I took an early morning elephant safari to sight the one-horned rhino.
Watch my videos:Kaziranga National Park
Kaziranga is a vast expanse of tall elephant grass, marshland, and dense tropical moist broad-leaf forests, crisscrossed by four major rivers, including the Brahmaputra, and the park includes numerous small bodies of water. With over 400 species, it’s also a bird watchers paradise.
The park is home to large breeding populations of elephants, wild water buffalo, and swamp deer.
Later, I went on a jeep safari in the park..
Watch my video: Close Encounter with an Elephant at Kaziranga
Ok, guys…that’s it for today! I hope you had a great time visiting me. My next post is on the lovely, lush green state of Meghalaya. So, see you soon…till then, take care 🙂
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