Page 333 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - India

ASSA M & THE NOR THEAST  331

Festivals of Assam &
the Northeast
Losar (Feb/Mar), Bomdila
and Tawang. The Monpa
and Sherdukpen tribes of
Arunachal Pradesh celebrate
their New Year with feasts,
masked dances and special
prayer sessions at monasteries.

Rows of prayer wheels at the 17th-century Tawang Monastery
4 Tawang over 500 resident monks. It was
Monastery also the birthplace of the sixth
Dalai Lama. The three-storeyed
Tawang district. 325 km (202 miles)
NW of Tezpur. @ _ Losar (Feb/Mar). dukhang (assembly hall) has a
Travel permits: required (see pp734–5). magni ficent 8-m (26-ft) high
∑ tawangmonastery.org statue of the Buddha. The ancient
library, leading onto the main
The famous Gaden Namgyal courtyard, has an excellent
Lhatse, popularly known as collection of thangkas and
Tawang Monastery, is the valuable Buddhist manuscripts.
largest Buddhist monastery in The Bramdungchung Dancers at the Rongali Bihu
India. It is situated in Arunachal Nunnery, associated with Tawang Festival, Assam
Pradesh, at an altitude of 3,050 m Monastery, is located 12 km Rongali Bihu (Apr),
(10,007 ft). As the road ascends (7 miles) northwest of Tawang. Guwahati. The Assamese
from Bomdila, the scenery The road to the monastery, New Year is celebrated across
becomes alpine, and lush with which can be reached by jeep, the state with exuberant
pine, oak and rhododendron reveals a stunning alpine land- singing, drumming and
forests, and a short, high-altitude scape of snowpeaks, Monpa dancing. The women perform
bamboo, which is the favourite hamlets, and juniper and dwarf a gracefully sinuous dance,
food of the red panda (see p303). rhododendron bushes. while the men accompany
Past the Dirang Valley with its Fluttering prayer flags and a them on horns and drums.
old dzong (fort), the road climbs long prayer wall mark the The liveliest festivities are
sharply to the Sela Pass. At approach to the nunnery, in Guwahati.
4,249 m (13,940 ft), this is the guarded, as are most in this Weiking Dance (Apr/May),
second-highest motorable pass region, by fierce Tibetan mastiffs. Shillong. This three-day
in the world; the highest is in festival to usher in the spring
Ladakh (see p147). This barren features processions, prayers
landscape is softened by a lake and dances. Khasi virgins,
that lies below the Sela Pass. wearing crowns and clan
Beyond a memorial to a jewellery, dance in a circle,
valiant Indian soldier who held while young men dressed
up the advancing Chinese army as warriors, with shields,
during the India-China conflict bows and arrows, form a
ring around them.
of 1962, the road descends to
a beautiful, wide valley. The Lai Haraoba (Apr/May),
monastery, dramatically located Imphal and Moirang. This
on a spur surrounded by Manipuri spring festival
honours the many pre-
snowcapped peaks, dominates Hindu nature deities revered
the valley. When the Dalai Lama in the region. Special
fled Tibet in 1959, his route into prayer ceremonies, dazzling
India was through Tawang, and displays of Manipuri martial
he still visits the area regularly arts and graceful ritual
to hold special prayers. dances are performed to
Founded in 1645 by a lama appease the deities. The
from Merak in neighbouring most beautiful celebrations
Bhutan, this Gelugpa (Yellow An intricately painted Wheel of Life mural take place at Moirang.
Hat) establishment (see p143) has at Tawang Monastery
Indian one-horned rhinoceros at Kaziranga National Park

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