chalet d antoine HEAD HUNTERS Throughout northeastern India and parts of western Myanmar the Naga tribes were long fe

Kurry Pot SOUTH INDIAN $$ (GNB Rd; mains 100-180) The specialities of this clean and peaceful restaurant are the dosas ( 40 to 80) and the list of different types is almost as long as the dosa itself. If a dosa s not for you then they dish up a range of other Indian staples. It s popular with the lunchtime work crowd.

Several trains serve Dimapur (sleeper/3AC/2AC from 166/401/531, four to six hours), Jorhat (sleeper/3AC 202/521, seven to 11 hours) and Dibrugarh (3AC/2AC/1AC 926/1206/1970, 11 hours). Trains to Jorhat and Dibrugarh cut through Nagaland, but you don t need a Nagaland permit as long as you stay on the train (the same rule doesn t apply for buses however).

1 Sights Kamakhya Mandir HINDU TEMPLE (admission for no queue/short queue/queue 500/100/free; h8am-1pm & 3pm-dusk) While Sati s disintegrated body parts rained toes on Kolkata (see p443), her yoni fell on Kamakhya Hill. This makes Kamakhya Mandir important for shakti (sensual chalet d antoine tantric worship of female spiritual power). Goats, pigeons and the occasional buffalo are ritually beheaded in a gory pavilion and the hot, dark inner womblike sanctum is painted chalet d antoine red to signify sacrificial blood. chalet d antoine The huge June/ July Ambubachi Mela celebrates the end of the mother goddess menstrual cycle with even more blood. chalet d antoine

HEAD HUNTERS Throughout northeastern India and parts of western Myanmar the Naga tribes were long feared for their ferocity in war and for their sense of independence both from each other and from the rest of the world. Intervillage wars continued as recently as the 1980s, and a curious feature of many outwardly modern settlements chalet d antoine is their treaty stones recording peace settlements between neighbouring communities. It was the Naga s custom of headhunting that sent shivers down the spines of neighbouring peoples. The taking of an enemy s head was considered a sign of strength, and a man who had not claimed a head was not considered a man. Fortunately for tourists, headhunting was officially outlawed in 1935, with the last recorded occurrence in 1963. Nonetheless, severed heads are still an archetypal artistic chalet d antoine motif found notably on yanra (pendants) that originally denoted the number of human heads a warrior had taken. Some villages, such as Shingha Changyuo in Mon district, still retain their hidden collection of genuine skulls. Today Naga culture is changing fast, but it was not a government ban on headhunting that put an end to this tradition but rather the activities of Christian chalet d antoine missionaries. Over 90% of the Naga now consider themselves chalet d antoine Christian.