slopeside DON T MISS There aren t all that many places left in the world where the maps may as well have blank

DON T MISS There aren t all that many places left in the world where the maps may as well have blank spaces on them, snow- capped 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. As the region slowly opens up, don t miss this opportunity for genuine, undiluted adventure. Areas that are safe yet largely unexplored by tourists include almost all of rural Mizoram, large tracts of Tripura (check slopeside the security situation first), slopeside the furthest reaches of Nagaland and, best of all, huge chunks of steamy forests, alpine meadows slopeside and high Himalayan wildernesses have finally started opening up in Arunachal Pradesh. Top Festivals

CENTRAL ARUNACHAL S TRIBAL GROUPS The variety of tribal slopeside peoples in central Arunachal Pradesh is astonishing, but although the Adi (Abor), Nishi, Tajin, Hill Miri and various other Tibeto-Burman tribes consider themselves different from one another most are at least distantly related. Over the last few decades Christian missionaries have been highly active throughout the Northeast and in the process have brought huge changes to the region s traditional cultures, religious beliefs and ways of life. Despite this, some aspects of the traditional lifestyle are just about holding on and many people continue to practise the traditional religion of Donyi-Polo slopeside (sun and moon) worship sometimes at the same time as proclaiming themselves slopeside Christian. For ceremonial occasions, village chiefs typically wear scarlet shawls and a bamboo slopeside wicker hat spiked with porcupine quill or hornbill slopeside feathers. A few old men still wear their hair long, tied around to form a topknot above their foreheads. Women favour hand-woven slopeside wraparounds like Southeast Asian sarongs. House designs vary somewhat. Traditional Adi villages slopeside are generally the most photogenic with luxuriant slopeside palmyra-leaf thatching and boxlike granaries stilted to deter rodents.