I don’t usually use quotes in whatever I write, well, I just prefer to think on my own. But this time I’m going to start with what I read in Lonely planet about a place I was about to visit:
“There aren’t all that many places left in the world where the maps may as well have blank spaces on them, snowcapped mountains remain unnamed and unclimbed, forests are filled with creatures that scientists have yet to lay eyes upon and hill tops are crowned with unmolested tribal villages, but northeast India is one such place.” – Lonely Planet, India
So I ask myself, how can that be, we live in the world of explorers and scientists that want to research every single detail on the planet. The reason for this unknown place being still so authentic is manifold. First of all, up to this year, the area was closed for general public. It was very hard to step foot into this part of India if you were not a native. The northeast India is filled with rebels on one side and national army on the other. In Manipur, army has a right to shoot on sight based solely on suspicion. This year however, they have come to an agreement for a ceasefire and the states are finally open for foreigners. Still, the foreign ministry of Slovenia advises against all travels to Manipur, especially Imphal. Another reason for this region being still so authentic is that it’s a part of India. The explorers prefer to visit new countries and research them, and India is quickly dismissed as being researched enough already. So they focus on other countries, the more remote Asian countries and of course Africa. A third reason that I can think of is that people here are not really concerned about making the region publicized. Who knows about Manipur, the land of jewels? Who knows about Assam, except for the tea? Most of the tea drinkers have no clue where the name comes from. Many people know that the coldest place on Earth is Siberia, but how many know that the wettest (most rain) is in Meghalaya? How many people know that Manipur contains the only floating natural park in the world and the world’s hottest chili? These reasons should be more than enough to have the region majorly publicized even if it was not possible to visit it as a tourist.
Unfortunately, my trip was far from long enough to get to experience all of this. However, I had a great introduction and have definitely developed interest to come back and spend more time here. I was on a trip to Imphal to attend a wedding in a Thadou Kuki tribe village in Manipur. It can hardly get more authentic than this, so I was obviously extremely excited about the whole week that I was to spend in Manipur and learn about such a remote a culture.
Thadou Kuki is a Tibeto Burman tribe that speaks its own language. It has 250 thousand people in India and another 150 thousand spread in the neighboring countries of Myanmar and Bangladesh. It’s a hill tribe and it’s over a 1000 years old with a long and strict culture. Their race in no way resembles mainland Indians, but look a lot more like Southeast Asians, a Mongoloid race. They had their own gods but converted to Christianity in the last century. Official language in Manipur is Meitei, so each Thadou Kuki tribesman also speaks Meitei. Add also Hindi and English, the official national languages, to get 4 that every tribesman speaks already as a child. People want to be modern but have to live according to their possibilities. They have electricity, even the remote village on a hilltop that’s only accessible by a three hour walk has electricity. They may be poor and stuck in this part of the world, but they seem advanced and extremely capable. Due to unclean water, their food is always boiled and offered together with rice and the hottest chili in the world that grows in Manipur. They only drink tea, which is very sweet - sugar used to be expensive, spending it on a guest is a sign of hospitality. There is no sign of prejudice towards anything, especially not something as different as a white man coming to meet their tribe. People were genuinely interested to meet me and talk to me and I could sense no hint of hostility of not belonging there, even though I was probably the first white man they ever saw outside of their television. I could really feel they accepted me as one of their own and that made it possible for me to really experience a tribal life.
Photos
Photos
