Page 343 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - India

ASSA M & THE NOR THEAST  341

Agartala’s Ujjayanta Palace, built in 1901
e Agartala r Aizawl
West Tripura district. 600 km (373 Aizawl district. 480 km (298 miles) SE
A chief’s house in Nagaland miles) S of Guwahati. * 400,000. of Guwahati. * 400,300. ~ 35 km
has crossed gables and ~ 12 km (7 miles) N of town centre, (22 miles) W of town centre, then bus
is decorated with his then bus or taxi. @ n Tripura or taxi. @ n Mizoram Tourism,
tribe’s symbols. The mithun Tourism, Swet Mahal, Palace Bungkawn, (0389) 233 3475. Travel
(bison species) skull in the Compound, (0381) 222 3893. permits: required (see pp734–5).
foreground symbolizes
power and prosperity. The capital of Tripura, a former Perched along a ridge, its
princely state bordered by houses and churches standing
Bangladesh, Agartala is a out against the green hillside,
pleasant little town, its lush Aizawl is Mizoram’s capital, and
tropical greenery dotted with home of the Mizo tribes, said
red-brick civic buildings. to have migrated here from
Dominating the town is Myanmar’s Chin Hills 300 years
the sprawling white ago. In the centre of town
Ujjayanta Palace, is the lively Main
built in 1901 in Indo- Market, where local
Saracenic style. Now farmers congregate.
the State Legislature, Almost the entire
this palace’s opulent population of Mizoram
interior includes a (as of Nagaland and
tiled Chinese Room Cane basket Meghalaya) is now
with a magnificent from Tripura Christian, converted by
ceiling crafted by missionaries, who first
Chinese artisans. It is open to came here in 1891. As a result
This Naga chief used to be visitors when the Assembly of the schools they started,
a headhunter. The wooden is not in session (5–7pm). Mizoram has the second-highest
heads on his basket indicate Tripura is renowned for its literacy rate in India. Blue jeans
how many heads he took. excep tionally fine cane and are more commonly seen today
bamboo work, freely available than tribal dress among the
to buy in the market. men, but the women still wear
The Cheraw dance is their elegant puans (long,
performed at tribal festivals in Environs narrow skirts). Visitors can see
Mizoram. The Mizos love music Neermahal Water Palace, 55 km these being woven at the
and dancing, and the Cheraw (34 miles) south of Agartala, on Weaving Centre in Luangmual,
dance requires women to an island in Rudrasagar Lake, 7 km (4 miles) away.
step agilely between was the summer home of
rapidly moving the former maharajas of
bamboo poles. Tripura. Built in white marble
and red sandstone, this fairy-
tale palace has a profusion of
pavilions, balconies, turrets
and bridges, and part of it is
open to the public. Udaipur,
58 km (36 miles) south of
Agartala, is renowned for the
16th-century Tripurasundari
Temple with its distinctive
Bengal-style roof. Aizawl, stretching across a ridge
For hotels and restaurants in this region see pp698–9 and p712

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