Rhino Spotting in Kaziranga

One Horned Rhinoceros in Kaziranga, Assam

Kaziranga is a National Park in Assam which is famous as the home of the endangered one-horned Rhino. It is another place on this big North East India tour which I had visited before, but I was more than happy to come back with my family since it is one of the highlights of the "Seven Sisters" - an affectionate name for the seven states of the North East.

A visit in Kaziranga virtually guarantees seeing these fantastic wild rhinos. This is especially the case if you go on an elephant safari. Elephants and rhinos live peacefully side by side here, so rhinos will be less disturbed by humans on elephant back than humans in jeeps. However, we also took a jeep trip to be able to cover a bit more ground. In all we got very close to about 4-5 rhinos and saw dozens over longer distances. We also saw wild elephants, wild boar, tons of deer and a couple of birds I have never seen before including the very cool pied kingfisher.

For nature lovers going to the Northeast a visit to Kaziranga is a must, in my opinion. I hope these pictures convey the reasons why.

Elephant in the morning mist

The mist lifts to reveal a Ranger's Cabin

First Rhino spotting of the day in the woods near the park gate before we had started the safari proper

The only proper transport for rhino safaris is elephant back

The scaly bum of the second rhino spotted on the characteristic grasslands of Kaziranga

A third rhino taking a good look at the intruders into its territory. It clearly decided we were not important enough to fight off.

Typical scene from the park. The little grey dots on the meadow across the water are rhinos. I count 9 of them in this picture - a concentration you will not find anywhere else.

Here you can just see the top of a wild boar, which I was lucky enough to spot (it is said to be good luck to discover one). They love the tall grasses of Kaziranga, which act as excellent camouflage.

Wild elephant crossing the road in front of us. Contrary to popular imagination wild elephants are much more dangerous than wild rhinos and cause many deaths in Kaziranga and rest of India every year. They must to be treated with utmost respect.

An elephant eye. This particular one is domesticated.

Sunset over one of Kaziranga's watering holes. A pelican enjoys a late night swim while other birds take to the trees for the night.

Return to Kohima

Fire trucks at Kohima fire station

Although I had been to Kohima before, I also wanted my parents to experience the place so we made sure to spend a few hours exploring the place before moving on to Assam. I managed to fit in a few sights, which I missed the last time around so even for me it was an interesting return to Kohima. The must-see attraction of Kohima is the immaculately kept War Cemetery for the British casualties of the legendary WWII battle of Kohima, which turned the war fortunes in the Asian land war in favour of the allies as the Japanese failed to take the town and thus block the Imphal road supplying the British forces in Manipur

But we also managed to go visit the decent State Museum (pictures not allowed, so not included in this post) and we made it to an abandoned British Tank, which came under Japanese fire and tumbled sideways down a hill. Amazingly the crew, despite landing close to the Japanese positions managed a safe return by forcing the tank's guns to auto-rotate and auto-fire and escaping in the confusion. According to their wish the tank was never moved from the spot where it landed on that day in 1944.

Me at the abandoned British Tank

On the way we also visited this small covered local market to buy some fruit

A bunch of larvea for sale

Nitoli pretending to eat one. However, despite being a Naga, she is pretty squeamish about this kind of food so it never got further than the pretending

My mother and brother wandering around Kohima's War Cemetary

One of the many, many hundred grave stones here. Each stone marks the name, religion (many Hindu and Muslims Indians fought for the Allies), rank and age of the person buried beneath. This particular stone is noteworthy for being for the highest ranked soldier buried at Kohima: Brigadier W.H. Goschen.

A dignified memorial tablet. As far as I understood this covers those who bodies went missing or for other reasons couldn't be buried here.

My parents going back to the car while my brother Ole and Nitoli chat in the lower part of the picture

At the lowest point of the cemetery a small monument has been erected in honour of all those who fell here. It bears a very beautiful and sad poem of remembrance:

When You Go Home
Tell Them of Us and Say
For Your Tomorrow
We gave Our Today

Village Life Around Kohima

Old ladies carrying firewood in Khonoma Village

For the majority of Nagas life is predominantly lived in the village and so you have to go to the villages to see what Naga life is all about. So after the Hornbill festival we visited a couple of villages near Kohima - neither our first nor last visit to Naga villages but still worth a picture series.

The first village we visited was Kigwema, which is very close to Kisama, where the festival takes place. It is a very big village but only a few traditional houses left. However, the village is very much alive and it's possible to see lots of activity such as women weaving traditional Naga shawls.

The following day we went to the smaller and quieter, but much more picturesque - and historically significant - village of Khonoma, which Nitoli and I had visited 2 years earlier and also wanted my family to see. Below are pictures from both villages. This post is quite long with many pictures, but I hope you find it worthwhile to look through them.

Houses of Kigwema Village

Angami lady weaving a shawl outside one of Kigwema's nicest houses with traditional Naga wood carvings on its facade.

Another lady weaving - this is all manual work, with very simple tools to assist. The shawls are such an important part of Naga culture, hopefully not a custom which will die out with modernization

Another house with a semi-traditional facade and some really, nice and huge weaved baskets below - probably containing rice

The boys dormitory (morung) which is an important institution in Naga society. This is the closest traditional Naga equivalent to a school where Naga boys would learn about the norms, values, knowledge and traditions of their tribe.

In most Naga villages the animals roam freely looking for food. I particularly like the chick which is second from the right in this picture. Look how cool its head is.

Village Elders enjoying the December sun (yes, I'm that far behind on my blog!)

Another village elder sitting outside on his low bench and watching life go by - you see this a lot

Yet another bench and another old villager. The oldest of these guys would have seen and perhaps even participated in the WWII battle of Kohima

Naga girls in front of a commemorative tablet in central Kigwema village

A new day and new sights: Rice terraces on the way to Khonoma

The big gate welcoming you to Khonoma Village signifies that this is a place, which - by Naga standards - sees a fair amount of visitors.

View of Upper Khonoma Village. On the left you can see the new Catholic church which lies on the road between Khonoma and the rest of the world. On the right you can see a few of Khonoma's famous rice terraces.

The exact opposite view taken from the Catholic church - showing the woody side of the hill on which Khonoma is situated

One of many little circular spaces surrounded by painted stones - an important meeting place in Angami villages

Old lady enjoying a cup of morning tea

View from Upper Khonoma down to lower Khonoma and the rice terraces in the bottom of the valley

My brother Ole in front of the rice fields of Khonoma

In Naga villages you don't necessarily go out and buy your baskets - when you can weave your own

Everything is done entirely by hand

Idyllic street in lower Khonoma

An older girl sitting with her younger sibling

Naughty boys chasing each other

My dad taking a picture in the Catholic Church

Chilling Out at the Hornbill Festival

Tribal dance at the Hornbill Festival

In my last blogpost I dwelled upon the various organised performances of the Hornbill Festival. These were quite interesting, but even more fun was it to walk around the whole Kisima heritage complex to observe the many activities taking place and to interact more closely with the tribal participants, who whenever they were not doing the official acts would go to their respective areas of Kisima with the houses corresponding to their home region. Here they would drink, smoke or dance together or simply just taking some time to rest. The tribes are extremely colourful and very different from each other - making it interesting to walk around and compare their different styles of clothing, dancing and their very different houses.

These women all found my brother adorable so they were all eager to have their picture taken with him.

My mother and brother, Ole, enjoying a glass of locally brewed rice beer. This is the only kind of alcohol, which is legally available in Nagaland.

Men share stories and a drink around a small bonfire. You can almost hear someone : "Do you know the one about the rabbi, the priest and the sailor who walk into a bar..."

"... and then the sailor said: No, it's just my wife!"

Pretty nice cup this one had! All made from bamboo.

Another tribe took the opportunity to do some more dancing

And yet another tribe did some drumming on a logdrum shaped after Nagaland's magnificent state bird, the Great Indian Hornbill from which the festival also takes it's name.

These girls were tired of dancing so they sat down to get a snack. I think it is inside the leaves they are holding.

One of the tribes gave tourists a fun way of getting a picture as a tribe member without actually having to change clothes.

A dancer's shoulder bag decorated with little skulls - presumably coming from local monkeys

This Dutch lady decided to join in the dancing with some young girls of the Kachari Tribe. Strictly speaking the Kacharis are not ethnic Nagas, but since they hail from Dimapur, which these days is part of Nagaland they are included in the festival . They make for a nice addition with a very different colour scheme from the red and black which tends to dominate in the Naga tribes.

One of the young Kachari men with his mobile cam demonstrating that the participants were taking almost as many pictures as the tourists.

Very friendly couple from local Angami tribe in front of Kisima's Angami style house

Here a house belonging to the Phom tribe

Compare the Phom house above with this one belonging to a different tribe. Quite different, right?

Animal skulls adorning one of the house walls as per Naga tradition

Apart from the tribal groups the festival area also had shops with local handicrafts and food stands with local dishes. Unfortunately I'm not a great fan of Naga cooking, but the rest of my family likes it. The newest attraction of the complex is a brand new WWII Museum focused around the legendary battle of Kohima, which halted and eventually reversed the Japanese advance into India. The museum, which is small but well made, was opened on the first day of Hornbill Festival.

All in all we had a great time at the festival and can recommend it to anyone else who might be able to make a trip to Nagaland in the beginning of December.

The main hall of Kohima's new WWII museum

A huge moth outside the museum. There were so many of them - bigger than any others I have seen.

Our good Icelandic friend Alistair shopping for spears. He actually managed to get two of these on the plane back to Delhi.

Our Danish friend Sidsel shopping for more peaceful items - for instance Naga scarves - in the bamboo built shopping "mall" while being offered some pork rinds, which are interesting very popular with Nagas and Danes alike.

The Great Hornbill Festival of Nagaland

Naga Warriors firing their guns, Kohima

The scene above was not a spontaneous meeting with a band of Naga warriors. It was one out of many performances from Kohima's annual Hornbill Festival in which members of all Nagaland's tribes come together just outside the capital to celebrate their respective and distinct cultural heritage. Every tribe is culturally and linguistically quite distinct from the others and the concept of Naga-ness is not very old at all. Prior to the British invasion the Nagas would identify themselves exclusively by their own tribe with no sense of shared identity with their neighbours. I have - with help from my Naga family - tried below to identify some of the tribes shown, but if I have gotten any of them wrong, I am sure a friendly blog visitor will enlighten me.

The event takes place in Kisima, which is an open-air museum of sorts, with full-scale versions of the houses of the different tribes of Nagaland. The organised performances take place on a big round amphi-theatre type field which is surrounded by hills where the houses are found. This first post will show some glimpses of the various performances which ranged thematically from militaristic displays of power and valour to courting couple's song and dances and even displays of traditional fire-making skills and agricultural techniques.

Although this festival is a fairly recent creation - I believe the first one was in 2000 - and attracts a fair deal of tourists (I saw about 50-100 foreign tourists there, which by Nagaland standards is a huge influx of tourists) the cool thing about this festival is that the participants themselves seem to enjoy the festival and show great interest in the other tribes' displays and performances. Everywhere you see the participants with their mobile phone cameras taking pictures of themselves and each other - and of the tourists. It is nice that this is an event which brings the Nagas together in shared celebration of their heritage.

A group of warriors (same groups as above) of the fierce Konyak tribe make their entrance onto the field

This was the leader of the group. Notice the tatoo's on his face. This guy is an old-school warrior. Not just dancing and prancing around for the sake of the spectators. He has seen actual combat!

Another tribe's young men perform a simulated battle - in this case without guns, only spears

Couples' dance from the Zeliang

Dancers in mid-air from the Sangtam tribe

Members of the Chakhesang tribe demonstrating how to make fire, without any matchsticks or lighters of course. It took them a few tries but they got it eventually.

Demonstrating a game in which you try to known down a row of stones by skipping a small rock at them using a certain technique

A view of the spectators. It's a mix of local (western dressed) Nagas from the Kohima area, foreign and Indian tourists and finally the biggest group of spectators: The other performing groups.

A group of adolescent boys of the Angami tribe sit in the audience

A group of Manipuri Nagas - ethnic nagas, who don't live in Nagaland but in the neighbouring state of Manipur

Aboy, also Angami, with a spear and probably his grandfather sit in the audience, perhaps waiting for their turn to go on

Our Naga Wedding Celebration

Nitoli and I in our semi-traditional Naga dress, surrounded by "Warriors" of the Sema tribe after our Naga Wedding Ceremony in Dimapur

On the 29th of November the time had finally come for our third (and last) wedding celebration, this time in Nitoli's home state of Nagaland. For the past 5 or 6 decades Nagaland has become increasingly Christianized by American Baptist missionairies to the point where today well over 90% of the population profess to Christianity. As such most Naga weddings are white church weddings emulating primarily American wedding traditions.

Since we already had our white church wedding according to Danish traditions we decided to it differently by honouring the old wedding traditions of the Nagas' pre-Christian days. We couldn't do everything the same, since in those days the groom would be running around in loin cloth and it would be way too scandalous for a foreigner like me to do the same. However, we did get a cultural troupe of Semas (Nitoli's paternal tribe) dressed in proper traditional dress, inclyuding loin cloth. They danced their traditional wedding dances and took other traditional steps such as aggressive posturing and threatening the groom to make sure he is aware of the consequences if he should misbehave later in the marriage. After the speeches and other performances were done, we invited our guests to a buffet next door.

Naga weddings don't last for many hours like European ones do. So after the lunch buffet people tend to leave. So instead we arranged a night party for our many younger guests, who had come from near and far to celebrate this even with us. Take a look at the picture below.

My mum, dad and brother Ole ready for the celebration in their Naga colours

The Sema Cultural Troupe performing traditional wedding dances on stage

Dancer threatening the groom to behave. I think I have done okay, so far.

Our reaction to a dancer's quite delicate malfunction leaving little to the imagination

I went to stage to give a speech to Nitoli and her family. I impressed the audicence with almost correct pronounciation of the Naga delicacy "Axone" (fermented soyabeans).

Another performance: Young girl sings a song - she was very good.

Nitoli's uncle giving his speech.

Nitoli greeting our guests after the ceremony

Several hundred guests means several hundred hands to shake

Posing with spear and dao (traditional Naga knife) and a bear fur head dress outside the hall. All my attempts at looking fierce - Naga style - failed miserably.

One of the youngest dancers getting a good look ar our friend Ulla. Blonde girls are not a very common sight in Nagaland it should be said.

Some of our guests enjoying the buffet, mostly with Naga food, but also some Indian

Group picture of all of our friends who came for the wedding. Most of them came from Delhi, but we also had visitors who came all the way from Europe

The scene of the night's after party for our friends. One of our good friends from Delhi arranged for us to have the party on the lawn at her family's estate.

Quite cozy with several nice bonfires - Nagaland nights get a bit chilly in winter

Later there was dancing in the pavillion. That is me to the right, showing off some bizarre move.

The pavillion seen without flash

We even had fun with some experimental photo techniques. Here is a "ghost picture" of our friend Chubala.

The day after: Nitoli's sister and her two adorable daughters helping with the opening of gifts. We mostly got shawls as is tradition in Nagaland

Into the Naga Villages: Medziphema

Semi-traditional residential house with courtyard, Medziphema Village, Nagaland

Nagaland is not a state of great cities. So one of the great attractions of travelling in Nagaland is to visit some of the state's many small towns and villages and we continuously did so over our stay. The first we visited was Medziphema, a village belonging to the Angami tribe located just a few hundred metres off the main road between Nagaland's two most important cities: the economic hub of Dimapur and the political capital of Kohima.

(For those interested in going to Nagaland and visiting any villages this is the best map I have been able to find. Medziphema can also be found on this)

Given its location on the most important highway in Nagaland, this is by no means a place untouched by modernization. By Naga standards this is very developed village, but still a nice and idyllic place to go for a wander and many of houses are still semi-traditional: Weaved from bamboo thatch and other natural materials (as seen in the picture above) rather than made from concrete and processed wood. However these semi-traditional houses are not architecturally not as interesting as houses here would have been in older times, and most have at the very least a metal roof.

One of the more modern houses, built from wood and even with a small car parked outside

Flowers are everywhere, both wild and cultivated

As in most Naga villages the church is the biggest building. During our visit it was under restoration

Worker painting the cross on the church roof

This would be my family's first impression of the "real" Nagaland in the hills. And it was a great success. My mother loved the chance to see how people live in a semi-developed village like this and the locals were very friendly - albeit much more reserved than mainland Indians - and we were followed around by an entourage of curious kids, as this is not a place where tourists normally come. We were invited into several houses and at the end we were even given a bag full of delicious pomelo fruits plucked fresh from the tree.

A kitchen in one of the more traditional houses. It does have wooden floors...

...yet the section (in the same house) around the fireplace only has a dirt floor

A more advanced kitchen with gas hotplates instead of a fireplace.

Female workers carrying big bamboo sticks

Another lady worker smiling despite her hard physical labour (photo: Ole Agersnap)

One of the many kids following us around. He was quite naughty this one.

Another naughty one

A shy, not so naughty one

And yet another. It took a bit persuasion to convince this child to be photographed but I think the result is priceless. I love the facial expression and the folded hands

Local man picks Pomelos for us with baby helping out

On the village's main road, my mother carrying the bag of Pomelos. In the picture you see my father, mother, brother and our friends Lone and Troels, who had joined us for the wedding celebrations.

Women and Children in front of the local rice mill, as I understood a state project to support the local economy.

Inside the rice mill

A skull hung on the wall - this is an old custom for many Naga tribes

One of the more reserved boys observing us from behind a wooden fence

The road back to Dimapur is lined everywhere with small shacks selling fresh pineapples picked from the nearby fields that very same morning. Incredibly sweet and good compared to the ones you can buy in Europe., at virtually no cost.

The Beginning of an Amazing Journey

My parents and brother, Ole, all excited in the taxi just after landing in the Northeast.

Back in November 2008 my parents and younger brother came to India and we set off on a trip, which my mother would later describe as the journey of her life, far surpassing the exoticism and adventure of any travel she had done before.

The main purpose of the trip was for Nitoli and I to celebrate our marriage with a celebration in her home state of Nagaland. However, we had decided that this was our chance to show my family more of the largely un-touristy and amazing Indian Northeast surrounded by Burma, Bangladesh, China, Bhutan and Nepal, only connected to mainland India only by a long, narrow land corridor.

Over the following weeks I'll show images from this fantastic trip which took us from the Naga wedding to an amazing tribal festival in Kohima, into Assam for some rhino-hunting (only shooting with cameras though) and back up to the remote villages of Northern Nagaland, where the old head hunters can still be found. We even made an informal crossing just over the border into neighbouring Burma.

First leg of the trip, which I will cover today, was a short flight from Delhi to Guwahati (capital of Assam) followed by a 5-6 hour train ride to Dimapur, which is the largest and most developed town of Nagaland, which is home to Nitoli's parents and therefore also the venue of the wedding celebration.

Lunch in Guwahati at one of the best restaurants in the Northeast (Tandoor at Dynasty Hotel)

On the train to Dimapur. It may look like night, but it was actually a day journey. I still had a nap in the top bunk though.

Unlike the rest of Nagaland, Dimapur is not situated in the hills, but rather on the hot plains making it a bit less "Naga" and a bit less interesting - although living standards are higher here than in the rest of the state. Never the less we spent a day there before the wedding, checking out the local market and some roughly 700 years old ruins left by the Kacharis (a people who ruled area before the Ahoms and later the Nagas conquered it), which are pretty much the only proper tourist sight in Dimapur. If it all looks a bit familiar, it might be because I have written about it all before.

The Kachari ruins of Rajbari Park, dominated by a number phallic pillars, probably serving some cermonial purpose.

The single largest pillar stands oddly alone in the park far away from the others. The reason for this is not known today.

The park also has a nice lotus pond.

Very close to Rajbari park is Dimapur's atmospheric daily market, with small stalls under bamboo-thatch canopies

Naga baby playing with his mother's necklace (photo by my brother Ole Agersnap)

Young vegetable vendor. One kilo of cauliflower would sell at perhaps 40 rupees (aprox. USD 0.84 or EUR 0.60), but this varies greatly depending on season - could go as low as 20 rupees or as high as 60.

One of the very popular local products. Nagaland is home to the hottest chillies in the world, far surpassing anything you'd find in Mexico

Another popular product at the market: Dried seafood - in this case a form of shrimp. This is probably a freshwater shrimp from the rivers of Assam or the lakes of neighbouring state Manipur

Yet another product of the market: Bee larvae. These are considered a delicacy here and are still alive when you buy them. Before eaten they are usually boiled with chili and bamboo shoots, plus possibly some local herbs.

A Few Hours in Dharamsala

Jane in Dalai Lama's Throne Room

After returning from the trek we had a few hours to spend in Dharamsala (or technically it's twin town of McLeodganj). This Himalayan town's claim to fame is that it is the home of Dalai Lama's Tibetan Exile Government. The few hours we had was not enough to fully see the town, but it did give us a chance to get a hot shower, a good meal and then still sea a few Buddhist complexes.

First we saw the complex where Dalai Lama lives (his living quarters are obviously closed to the public) including the Tsuglagkhang Cathedral. After that we took a taxi ride to something called the Norbulingka Institute, which is a centre for Buddhist culture and especially production of arts and handicraft.

Colourful writing on stone slabs on a wall in Dharamsala

Beautiful metal figure

Jane rolling the prayer wheels at Dalai Lama's temple

Monk performing some simple ceremony

Offerings for the god. In old times it would have been fruits and such, but today cholocate and bisquits are often preferred.

Visitor leave money offerings

Scary but well made wooden figure

Tank and pavillion at Norbulingka

The main temple at Norbulingka

One of the old metalworks masters teaching all the young students at Norbulingka

I don't know if this is a lion or dragon, but it looks nice

Trekking Day 3 (Kakeri Village to Dharamsala)

Old lady and a small Shrine in Kakeri Village

On the second day of trekking we had reached Kakeri Village, which as far as i could tell must have had a few hundred inhabitants. It was a nicer place to stop over than the temple of the previous night and there even was a tiny store where I could get a sugar fix. To my regret we only had a short time to explore the village before it got dark, but we managed to take a small walk around early in the next morning as well.

After breakfast we set off on the last day of trekking. Since Kakeri Village is on a (slightly downwards sloping) plateau fairly high up the mountainside we had a fairly steep walk down to the river from where we could catch a local bus to Dharamshala. By now I was generally pretty tired and my right knee in particular was causing me a lot of trouble, making me realise I am no longer as tough I used to be/though I was. It did not make things better to realise that this path I was in such great difficulty following is the same path the local kids take to school every single day apart from Sunday.

Even so, it was still a good walk through varied landscapes. I was surprised to walk through an area, which looked more like Califpornia than the Himalayas with red clayish ground and fir trees. All in all we had a great trek even though certain particulars could have been a bit better organised. We caught the bus back to Dharamshal, from where I'll show a few pictures in my next post.

Jane enjoys a rest in the high part of Kakeri with a view to the snow topped mountains.

View downhill from the higher part of Kakeri to the lower part. In between there is a nice meadowish grassy patch which is used for grazing

In the village we saw this plant, which is quite unlike anything I've seen before. The seeds look almost like little chicken eggs

Houses of lower Kakeri Village

Some plant lying out to dry. Possibly corn but I'm not sure anymore

A cow peeking out from it's stable, which is just the lower floor of the family house

Young boy on the outskirts of Kakeri

Another Kakeri child

Starting our descent from Kakeri. I don't know if you can see it in this picture, but it is quite steep.

Rocky landscape near the bottom of the descent

School children crossing the river on their way to school

A small girl greets us Indian style

A landscape and vegetation which to me is more reminiscent of California than Himalayas

These flowers were everywhere on the last part of the walk

Close to the main road where we got on the bus, people crossing the river over makeshift bridges and big rocks