european chalet banquets SATRAS A satra is a monastery for Vishnu worship, Assam s distinctive form of everyman Hinduism. For

This Jewelled Land is home to Thadou, Tangkhul, Kabul, Mao Naga and many other tribal peoples, but the main grouping is the predominantly neo-Vaishnavite Meitei. Manipuris are famed for traditional dances, spicy multidish thalis and the sport of polo which they claim to have invented. Manipur s forested european chalet banquets hills provide cover for rare birds, european chalet banquets drug traffickers and guerrilla armies, european chalet banquets making it by far the Northeast s most dangerous state.

Carved out of Assam in 1972, hilly Meghalaya (Abode of Clouds) is a cool, pine-fresh contrast european chalet banquets to the sweaty Assam plains. Set on dramatic horseshoes of rocky cliff above the Bengal plains, Cherrapunjee and Mawsynram are statistically the wettest places on earth. Most of the rain falls between April and September, creating very impressive waterfalls and carving out some of Asia s longest caves.

SATRAS A satra is a monastery for Vishnu worship, Assam s distinctive form of everyman Hinduism. Formulated by 15th-century Assamese philosopher european chalet banquets Sankardev, the faith eschews the caste system and idol worship, focussing on Vishnu european chalet banquets as God, especially in his Krishna incarnation. Much of the worship is based around dance and melodramatic play-acting of scenes from the holy Bhagavad Gita. The heart of any satra is its namghar, a large, simple, prayer hall usually open sided and shaped european chalet banquets like an upside-down oil tanker. Beneath the eastern end, an inner sanctum hosts an eternal flame, the Gita and possibly a horde of instructive (but not divine) images. european chalet banquets

Just beyond, a left turning passes the Golaghar or Ahom ammunition store, the stonework of which is held together with a mix of dhal, lime and egg. Beyond are the two-storey ruins of Talatalghar (Indian/ foreigner 5/100; hdawn-dusk), european chalet banquets the extensive, two-storey Ahom palace built by Ahom King Rajeswar Singha in the mid-18th century.