Festivals Tours March– April 2015/2016

Creating Travel for more then 25 Years

FESTIVALS

OF NORTH EAST INDIA

Festivals of North East India Head-hunter tribes, native textiles,tatooed-faces,exotic food

and centuries of tradition

March - April 2015/2016

This March and April give in to the extravaganza of culture and celebration in Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh as you get a chance to engage yourselves in the colorful celebrations of the Aoling, Mopin and Myokoh Festivals. Have a look at our exciting tours that sums up the uniqueness of this region as we present to you a plethora of destinations in India’s North East. Jungle Travels India celebrates the spirit of travel mavericks who push boundaries to seek truly, authentic life experiences.

The Aoleang Festival , Nagaland April The Aoleang festival is celebrated by the head-hunter tribe of Konyak in the Mon district of Nagaland. While the Konyaks no longer hunt heads, they do still keep a stash of human skull souvenirs in their homes! The Aoleang festival signifies the beginning of the New Year for the Konyaks and, as with any new year, this festival is celebrated with much gusto and fanfare.

The Myokoh festival, ARUNACHAL PRADESH March The Myokoh festival, celebrated by the Apatani tribe of Arunachal Pradesh, marks the end of win-ter and the beginning of spring. As in cultures around the world, spring is symbolic of new begin-nings and the Myokoh festival celebrates just that: new beginnings, new friendships, and new hope. The Apatanis are noted for the large nose-plugs that their women wear – an age-old custom that is practiced in order to deliberately disfigure a woman’s beauty so that enemy tribes do not claim them as their own when marauding villages.

The Mopin Festival, ARUNACHAL PRADESH April The Mopin festival of the Gallong Adi tribe is celebrated chiefly at Along in Arunachal Pradesh. This festival is cele-brated to receive universal happiness as well as to drive away evil spirits bearing bad luck and hardship. Tribal dances such as the ‘popir’ dance performed by tribal women, and folk songs lend this festival vibrancy like no other.

MON, Nagaland This place is big on the international “offbeat” trail. Mon offers the exotic tribal deal-fierce, outlandishly dressed warriors with a penchant for macabre home decor and freshly hunted meat. This after all, is the land of the head-hunting Konyaks.

Nagaland, India A visitor to Naga village is heartily received and enter-tained with a surfeit of rice-beer, which is generally served by the lady of the house or her young daughter with a warmth which is unforgettable. The festivals are mostly related to agricultural operations. The impor-tant thing about the Naga festivals is their corporate character. The community as a whole participates in the celebrations. The unmarried men received belts as presents from their girl friends, the married men got from their wives. Nagaland is a state in the far north-eastern part of In-dia. It borders the state of Assam to the west, Arun-achal Pradesh and part of Assam to the north, Myan-mar to the east and Manipur to the south.

Arunachal Pradesh, India

Arunachal Pradesh means “land of the dawn-lit moun-tains”. Literally it means “land of the rising sun” as the first rays of morning sun that touches down upon India lights up this distant state first. It borders the states of Assam and Nagaland to the south, and shares international borders with Bhutan and Tibet in the west, Myanmar in the east and China in the north. Itanagar is the state capital.

Like other parts of North East India, a majority of the people native to the state are of Mongoloid stock and speak Tibeto-Burman group of languages. The popula-tion mostly comprises of 26 major tribes and over 100 sub-tribes, each with its distinct tradition and customs.

Ziro , Arunachal Pradesh Ziro is home to one of the most prominent tribes of Arunachal Pradesh - the Apatani. Apatanis make their houses completely out of Bamboo and Pinewood from the surrounding forest. Everything about the Apatanis is unique – their handmade homes, ancient tattooing and piercing practices, their farming prac-tices, the indigenous salt they make and their Doniyo Polo faith, in which the Gods are the Sun and the Moon. You spend the whole day at Ziro and at Apatani settlements considered to be the biggest manmade settlements in the world.

About the tours The remote regions of India's North East is a little-explored destination that is teeming with undulating hills, ver-dant tea gardens, swathes of national parks and wildlife sanctuaries, and indigenous tribal cultures dating back centuries. These tours are specially designed to allow visitors a glimpse inside the very private lives of the North-eastern tribes. Entrenched in the past and in no hurry to accept modernity, these tribes are living relics of the Northeast's fascinating history. Air-conditioned comfortable vehicles, the best accommodation available everywhere we go, an English speaking escort accompanying throughout the tour and local guides wherever necessary, these tours have been designed to give you the best of this region and create a memorable experience for you. Destinations : NAGALAND - Mon, Kohima , Eastern Nagaland, ARUNACHAL PRADESH - Ziro, Daporijo, Along , Mechuka , ASSAM: Kaziranga National Park, Sibsagar, Jorhat, Tezpur These tours are designed with focus on special interests and gives you ample opportunities for photography. A deep insight into the local culture and traditions by our accompanying experts makes these tours special in every way .

About the company JTI is a family-owned company specializing in carefully crafted small group tours and bespoke holidays to India, Bhutan and Nepal. Having started as a destination specialist of Northeastern India, JTI has grown over the years to today offer tasteful tours in selected areas of India, Bhutan and Nepal. Recognized for good service and word-of-mouth recommended tours, JTI is also known for its award-winning products – the superbly appointed Diphlu River Lodge, and its pioneering long-distance river cruises on the Ganges, Hugli and Brahmaputra rivers. As a tes-tament to our passion for these destinations, JTI was awarded the National Tourism Award. . Jungle Travels India have been handling FIT’s and small group tours to all regions of India including South, Cen-tral, North, West and with specific focus on Eastern India for more than two decades. We are active members of Indian Association of Tour Operators (IATO) & TAAI( Travel Agents Association of India), Tour Operators for Ti-gers (www.toftigers.org), CII (Confederation of Indian Industries), ICC (Indian Chamber of Commerce) and we are also members of Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) - India chapter. Jungle Travels India is the first IATA accredited Travel Company of North East India. Today, after 25 years of organizing successful tours, a lot of hard work and learning along the way; and the sheer passion for doing what we do. JTI has expanded into representative offices in New Delhi, Kolkata and Cochin and works closely with our selected partners in Bhutan and Nepal. Our sister company, Assam Bengal Navigation, pioneered long-distance Indian river cruising in 2003. For this, we were awarded another National Tourism Award. And our jungle lodge, Diphlu River Lodge was adjudged as the 2nd best wildlife lodge in India by Lonely Planet magazine.

For detailed tour programs and tour prices around these festivals and destinations please do drop us a mail at

info@jungletravels.in

www.jungletravelsindia.com www.assambengalnavigation.com

www.diphluriverlodge.com