The Mighty Apatani - Legends of North East India: click here to book through our partners Light and Land!
This tour will be taught with my fellow Light and Land tutor Mark Seymour.
This tour will be a once in a lifetime photographic adventure taking us from Guawathi and its Tantric temples to Majuli island, a natural paradise on the Brahmaputra river, from elephants and rhinos in the Kaziranga Reserve to fascinating tribes with unique, soon to disappear traditions.
Before heading for the Ziro Valley, where the Apatani tribe is located, we will start our photographic tour in Guwahati, the City of Temples. We will be witnessing and photographing the worshipping and religious practices in the famous Kamakhya temple.
We will then travel to and spend the night in Tezpur, the oldest city of Assam and known as its cultural capital.
We will reach the Apatani tribe in Arunachal Pradesh during the Myoko festival, celebrated to extend and strengthen their family bonds, and bless the family members with fertility and good luck. We will be spending 5 nights with them during the celebrations and will have the opportunity to stay in their homes to really get to know their culture.
The Apatani tribe lives in perfect balance with their environment with its sustainable agricultural traditions. The Apatani women are famous for their facial tattoos and nose plugs: according to legend, the tradition was born because of their beauty, that brought many raiders to take them for themselves. The tribe elders decided to make their women less attractive with these modifications to prevent them from being kidnapped.
Nowadays only the older women still wear the nose plugs: the practice was banned by the government in the 1960s, and this tradition will soon disappear.
Majuli Island, on the Brahmaputra river, is our next stop: once the largest river island in the world, it is now slowly being eroded away and might disappear within 20 years, but is still a natural paradise and home to the Mising tribe. Old style fishing, traditional crafts and welcoming people: this will be another highlight of the adventure, and we will stay 3 nights.
On our way back to Guwahati we will spend the night in the Kaziranga National Park. Here we will explore the park get to know the elephants and look for the rare one-horned rhinos before the last leg of the trip to go home.
Me and Mark will be with you throughout the photography tour along with our own private guide We will be guiding and helping you to make the most of your experiences and create incredible images you will be proud of. Don’t miss this fantastic adventure, book now! The number of attendees is limited due to the travelling routes and accommodation availability. This will make for a very tight and closely knitted group and will allow you to get a lot of individual tuition time!
