In the far reaches of India’s Northeast, where hills meet rivers and memory lingers in the mist, lies a region shaped by its landscapes as much as by the people who call it home. Here, the mountains of Arunachal give way to the floodplains of Assam before rising again into the Patkai Hills of Nagaland. Every turn reveals a new rhythm of life, bound to land, water, and time.

This journey follows three such worlds- the Apatani of Ziro, the Mising of Majuli, and the Konyak of Mon- each offering a distinct way of seeing and surviving, connected by a shared spirit of resilience.

In Ziro, the valley of the Apatani, life has long been rooted in permanence. For centuries, the community has lived here as settlers and cultivators, guided by Donyi Polo, the ancient Apatani philosophy of balance between sun, moon, and life itself. Their fields are quiet marvels of ingenuity, where rice and fish are grown together without machines or animals. Bamboo houses stand in neat rows, smoke rising softly from their hearths, and every lane carries the calm pulse of a people who live in harmony with their land.

From the stillness of Ziro, the road descends toward Majuli, where land gives way to water and stillness becomes flow. On this great river island, the Mising people have shaped their world around the Brahmaputra’s changing moods. Believed to have migrated from the hills of Arunachal generations ago, they built homes on stilts and lives on trust in the river’s rhythm. Here, permanence yields to adaptation. Each flood reshapes the land, yet life continues- in bamboo crafts, in songs that rise over the fields, and in the Neo-Vaishnavite Satras where monks dance devotion into art and carve gods into masks.

Further east, the Patkai Hills rise in deep green folds, and memory grows older. This is Mon, home to the Konyak Nagas, a people whose history carries both defiance and dignity. Once known as hunters and warriors, the Konyak resisted British rule with fierce independence, relying on their knowledge of terrain and unity of spirit. When conquest proved elusive, the British turned to quieter means, introducing opium to subdue resistance. Yet, even in that, the Konyak endured. Today, their legacy of strength lives on in blacksmiths’ workshops, in intricate beadwork, and in tattooed elders who carry the stories of their ancestors with quiet pride.

Across nine days, this journey moves from valley to river to hill, tracing the arc of permanence, adaptation, and remembrance. Along the way, you’ll share local brews, witness bamboo architecture that breathes with the land, and discover flavours and crafts shaped by centuries of indigenous wisdom.

The landscapes change, but the thread remains- a quiet strength that binds makers, myths, and memories together. Another chapter in the story of the Northeast, waiting for you to walk its path.