A solo expedition across the mountains of Northeast India
Curled beneath the eastern ramparts of the Himalayas lies a land of snow-armoured peaks and dense forests: the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh. The largest and least populous of the Seven Sisters – the septet of states that make up India’s tribal Northeast – it’s folded between the Tibetan plateau, Myanmar, Bhutan and the flood-prone plains of the Brahmaputra Valley. Remote, mountainous and forbidding, here shamans still fly through the night, hidden valleys hide portals to other worlds, yetis leave footprints in the snow and the gods are appeased by the blood of sacrificed beasts. More indigenous peoples live here, and more languages are spoken, than anywhere else in South Asia. Part of the Indo-Burma “biodiversity hotspot”, ninety-two species of mammal have been documented here, as well as 490 species of butterfly, 500 species of bird and 360 species of orchid.
Yet Arunachal Pradesh remains almost unheard of outside India and little known by many within it. Cordoned off from the outside world from 1873 until the end of the 1990s, today the harshness of its terrain, a sensitive political situation and the need for restrictive permits still make it a little-visited region.
In 2016 I spent ten incredible weeks exploring Arunachal Pradesh. Travelling 2000 miles by motorbike, foot and boat, I went from the leech-infested jungles bordering Myanmar in the east, to the gompa clad peaks of Tawang in the west. I met shamans; followed explorer F.M Bailey’s footsteps to the border with Tibet; stayed with Idu Mishmi, Adi, Monpa, Singpho, Nyishi and Khampa families; sat around fires talking about tigers, yaks, yetis and spirit snakes; trekked deep into the sacred Buddhist kingdom of Pemako; got drunk with nuns and investigated the wreckage of American 2WW planes.
It was cold, wet, hot, mind-blowingly beautiful and constantly surprising.
