Nagaland gives travellers a sense of mysticism and awe

If it wasn’t for the recommendation of trekkers, the Nagaland Hornbill Festival trip wouldn’t have happened. Also called as Festival of Festivals, the Hornbill Festival is held every year from December 1-10 in Nagaland.

The government organises this festival to encourage inter-tribal interaction and to promote the cultural heritage of Nagaland. Each day we decided to visit a couple of places, but somehow ended up covering more spots than we could imagine. Credit goes to people who travelled with me —  as they were ready to embrace whatever Nagaland offered. The festival is held at Kisama village, which is about 12 km from Kohima. It is where the 16 tribes come together and set up their own huts in traditional ways.

On a single day, we ended up seeing cultures of 16 tribes at Kisama village — we danced with them in the morning, saw the artworks by local artists, checked out weapons from World War 2, did zip-lining by afternoon and a music concert in the evening. Every day I used to ask my co-travellers to count the things that we have done. And most of the times, we ended up missing at least one of the activities.

There would be colourful performances, crafts, sport, food fairs, and various interesting ceremonies. During the Hornbill Festival, the NST road gets blocked by 7 pm and the locals put up stalls of fried chicken, pork and meats of all sorts. You can find cute beanies, masks, face painting stalls, balloons of various cartoon characters, wigs and many other things that glitter. There are a lot of coffee stalls that you might make friends with and would end up having a nice chat. Every hut will have a restaurant where you get to taste heritage food and rice beer. There is an amphitheatre where tribes come to showcase their talent in dance and music. Six main events happened daily below the amphitheatre.

There will be horticulture exhibitions where you get to buy amazing fruits and plants, painting and photography exhibition, adventure activities, sound and light show, Indian military weapon showcase and numerous stalls selling amazing handicrafts, weapons, wine, and naga chili. One of the interesting ceremonies is the stone pulling ceremony. It is a rare event where a large slab of stone is quarried from the local hillside and placed on a sled of tree trunks. The 16 tribes turn up in huge masses, dressed in traditional tribal clothing, to play their part. You will see women with baskets of refreshments and food to feast once the event gets over.

Another adventurous activity that you can try at Nagaland is the Dzukou valley trek. There was a forest fire, but that happened on the Manipur side of the valley and most part of the Dzukou valley is still intact. Glory peak is the highest point in Nagaland. Among the pine trees and forest, they have set up a small tree-house for two people. They have also built a six-storied watchtower with an amazing view to the valley.

Japanese cave in Pfutsero was used by the Japanese army to hide as they had an amazing vantage point of an entire valley from there. Once you are inside, switch of the light and see the darkness — it’s scary and exciting at the same time. Longkhum, a small hamlet of a village en route Mokochung, is another must-visit place. The village has a very old staircase through the sides of the village cemetery.