Assam Travel Guide
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GOODEARTH PUBLICATIONS Assam Travel Guide GOODEARTH PUBLICATIONS Eicher Goodearth Private Limited New Delhi Assam Tourism AN EICHER GOODEARTH PUBLICATION CONTENTS Copyright @ 2011 Eicher Goodearth Private Limited, New Delhi ISBN 978-93-80262-04-8 Introducing Assam 4 The Land 5 Brahmaputra 10 Editor and Publisher: Swati Mitra History 13 Design: Kadambari Misra Editorial Team: Anupriya Roy, Bodhisattva Sen Roy, Exploring Assam 17 Parvati Sharma Photographs: Wildlife in Assam 18 Ananda Banerjee pp 26, 28; Anupriya Roy pp 12-13, 20-21, 24, 29, 31B, 47M, 50-53, 56, 60AR & B, 65A, 66, 67B, 69, 71A, 72B, 78B, 79, 81B, Guwahati and Around 36 85, 90-93, 98, 99AR, 101M, 103A & B, 104A & M, 105, 111A, 121L, 136- Kamakhya Temple 57 38, 147; Bodhisattva Sen Roy pp 9A, 10, 14, 15B, 20A, 25, 31A, 33, 35B, 40-45, 47A, 48-49, 54-55, 63, 65M, 67A, 68, 69B, 70, 72A, 73B, 74B, 76, Sualkuchi 64 78A, 80, 83, 86-87, 88A, 94, 96, 99A & B, 101A & B, 102 A & M, 103R, Hajo 66 104B, 105BL, 108, 110, 111B, 112, 113B, 115, 116A, 117A & BL, 126-27, 134, Madan-Kamdev Temple 70 140A, 142, 145, 149, 152L; Dipankar Ghose p 18; Tezpur 75 Kamalendu Bhadra pp 7A, 39, 62B; Nidhi Dhingra pp 131, 139; OIL p 121AR; Rituraj Konwar pp 4, 6, 22A, 27, 36, 82, 95, 122-25, 129, 141; Sasank Barua pp 106-07; Swati Mitra pp 8, 15A, 46, 53AR, 57,59, Jorhat and Around 84 60AL, 64, 65B, 71B, 73A, 74A, 75, 77A, 81A, 87M, 88M, 97ML, 99ML, Jorhat 84 102B, 109A, 113A, 114, 116B, 117BR, 135A, 137B, 140B, 143, 152R, 154 Tea in Assam 90 Cover (Above Left & Below): Rituraj Konwar Majuli 95 Sivasagar 108 Illustrations on pp 27, 29 by Nidhi Dhingra Dibrugarh 118 GOODEARTH PUBLICATIONS Special thanks to: Oil in Assam 120 H S Das, Principal Secretary; A Choudhury, Joint Secretary, Finance & Tourism Deptts, Assam Secretariat; Silchar and Around 122 Monalisa Goswami, Director, Assam Tourism North Cachar Hills 123 And the following for their inputs: Barak Valley 126 Anal Bezbaruah, Aruni Kashyap (on Culture), Diana George, Indrani Rajkhowa (on Handlooms), Assamese Culture 130 Roman Sarmah (on Cuisine), Sangeeta Barooah Pisaroty Dance 130 (on Jorhat and Around), Sona Adhikari, Tanya Matthew Music 0131 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, Theatre 132 stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any Art 134 means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, Handicrafts 136 without the prior permission of the copyright owner. Handloom Traditions 138 Great care has been taken in the compilation, updation and validation of Dress 140 information, and every effort has been made to ensure that all information is Festivals 141 as up-to-date as possible at the time of going to press. However, the Publishers Cuisine 142 are not responsible for errors, if any, and their consequences. The Publishers would be happy to receive suggestions and corrections for inclusion in the next edition. Please write to Executive Publisher, Eicher Goodearth Pvt Ltd, Eicher House, 12 Commercial Complex, Practical Information 144 Greater Kailash II (Masjid Moth), New Delhi 110 048. Email: [email protected] Index 154 This publication has been supported by Assam Tourism Printed by Ajanta Offset & Packagings Ltd., New Delhi on behalf of Eicher Goodearth Pvt Ltd, New Delhi The Land INTRODUCING ASSAM Stretched out like a soaring bird, Assam is comprised of three main geographical areas: the Brahmaputra Valley which constitutes the expansive wingspan, the Barak Valley extending like a tail and the intervening Karbi ‘Blue hills bound the view on almost Plateau and North Cachar Hills. every side, the villages are buried in groves of slender palms, feathery Assam is synonymous with unspoiled bamboos, and broad-leaved plantains, natural beauty, teeming wildlife, immaculate and even in the dry season the country tea gardens and warm, beautiful people. looks fresh and green’ Its strategic location in the northeast of the country, and its accessibility from the rest (Imperial Gazetteer, Vol 6, 1908). of the country make it the gateway to the northeastern states. It shares borders with Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Majuli, the largest Manipur, Tripura, Mizoram and West Bengal; riverine island and has National Highways leading to their in the world sits capital cities. It also shares international regally on the borders with Bhutan and Bangladesh. Brahmaputra GOODEARTH PUBLICATIONS 4 5 ASSAM The Land Assam is the largest The Brahmaputra Valley is an alluvial plain tea producer in India about 724 kms in length and 81 kms in breadth. It is enclosed on the north by the daunting Himalayas, and to the south by the Garo, Khasi, Jaintia, Karbi and Naga hills. The Brahmaputra, the lifeline of the valley which shares its name, floods the nearby land with fertile silt every year to ensure a rich harvest. It is bound on either side by marshy land covered with thick jungle grass, interspersed with patches of rice fields and terraced tea gardens. There is little to interrupt the vast panorama except the occasional lone hillock. Only in the south of the valley is the even horizon broken by the charming hills of Karbi Anglong. Further south are the North Cachar Hills. Located here, amidst beautiful orchards, is Assam’s only hill station, Haflong. GOODEARTH PUBLICATIONS 6 7 ASSAM The Land A Mishing home The southern part of Assam is the Barak on the outskirts of Valley, which derives its name from the Barak the eastern range of river. Comprised of three districts – Cachar, Kaziranga Karimganj and Hailakandi – this region is a treasure trove of untouched natural beauty. Facing page: Cows Green is the dominant colour of the state, are herded home as with an impressive 35% forest cover and dusk sets in outside thousands of hectares under tea cultivation. Jorhat Assam has five national parks including the World Heritage Sites of Kaziranga and Manas, and 20 Wildlife Sanctuaries. The great Indian one-horned rhinoceros is one of Assam’s most prized denizens. Supporting the state’s abundant wildlife and luscious vegetation are the monsoons. They stretch from late May to September, but there are intermittent rains even in the winters. High temperatures cause the rivers to swell with melted snow from the Himalayas. With their combined force, rains and rivers flood the land without mercy. According to official statistics, the floods annually hit over 12% of the GOODEARTH PUBLICATIONS total area of Assam. Winter begins in late November and continues till February. Cool, gentle breezes blow in January and February keeping the days clear and sunny. Winter mornings in most of Assam are marked by a dense fog which gives the land an aura of ethereal beauty. Over the centuries, people of various ethnic, religious and linguistic backgrounds have been attracted by the fertile river valleys of Assam, and adopted them as their home. The people of Assam are a mosaic of various cultures. They are from a range of racial backgrounds including Austro-Asiatic, Indo-Aryan and Tibeto-Burman. It is no wonder then that Assam is said to be like a miniature of the whole country itself. 8 9 ASSAM The Land Brahmaputra the Dibang from the northeast… ‘and thence- forward rolls for 450 miles [724 km] down the Flowing majestically along the dreamlike valley of Assam in a vast sheet of water, broken Assam valley is the Brahmaputra. It finds by numerous islands’ (Imperial Gazetteer, Vol 1, mention in the Kalika Purana which traces its 1909). birth to a union between Brahma, the divine creator, and Amogha, the wife of the hermit In Assam it is a vast, placid river through most Shantanu. The river is said to be their son or of the year, occupying a massive river-bed, putra, making it the most important male river which at places is almost 10 kms wide. With its in Hindu mythology. sandy banks and waters that seem to extend to the horizon, it is no wonder that early British The Brahmaputra originates from Chemayung- traders mistook it for an ocean. Unlike the Dung glacier near the sacred Mount Kailash Ganga, it is not used much for irrigation, but is and the Manas Sarovar. Known here as the an important thoroughfare, with busy traffic in Tsang-Po or the purifier, it flows east over the the shape of boats, trawlers, and the occasional icy Tibetan Plateau. Three other rivers, namely luxury cruise. the Indus, Sutlej and Ghagra, also originate from around this mountain. The Indus At Saraighat, in Guwahati, the river is at its flows west and ‘between them [Indus and narrowest, barely a kilometre wide. It was Brahmaputra],GOODEARTH these two mighty arms of Lord PUBLICATIONShere that the historical battle of Saraighat was Shiva hold the span of the Himalayan range’ fought in 1671 between the Ahoms and the (Bill Aitken in Seven Sacred Rivers). Mughals (see p 15), and nearly three centuries later in 1962, the first rail-cum-road bridge over According to Aitken, the most unique feature the Brahmaputra was opened to traffic. of the Brahmaputra is ‘its navigability at the astounding altitude of 12,000 ft [3657 m] for a An exceptional characteristic of the mind boggling distance of 640 km through the Brahmaputra is its numerous islands. As Tibetan plateau’. WW Hunter notes, ‘the least impediment placed in its current’ may give rise to ‘a The river flowing at a height of 2,400 m then wide-spreading, almond-shaped mud-bank’ displays a complete change of disposition as (from The Indian Empire). Sometimes streams it takes a spectacular U-turn around Mount diverge from the main river and ‘rejoin it after Namcha Barwa and thunders down through a long separate existence of uncontrollable the Himalayan range at an awesome velocity.