All Dirang s commercial services are in New Dirang, with a strip of cheap hotels, eateries and sumo counters around the central crossroads. Tourist Lodge (%200176; d 825), a kilometre south and overlooking New Dirang, is a basic but friendly family hotel in an old-style hill house crowded with potted plants. Nicer is the next-door Hotel Pemaling (%207265; s/d 1815/2420), which has shiny rooms, excellent service and a very pleasant garden where you can enjoy the views towards the sometimes snow-bound Se La and the high Himalaya beyond.
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 is their treaty stones recording the best chalet in the world peace settlements between neighbouring the best chalet in the world 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, the best chalet in the world headhunting was officially outlawed in 1935, with the last recorded occurrence in 1963. Nonetheless, severed heads are still an archetypal artistic 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 the best chalet in the world of Christian missionaries. Over 90% of the Naga now consider themselves Christian.
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