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Tours and treks in Nagaland, Manipur and Assam are excellently carried out by

JUNGLE TRAVELS

located in Gauhati, Assam.
For a most reliable and experienced tour operator, offering fantastic assistance for trips to the Burmese Naga, please visit

MYANMAR EXPLORE

located in Yangon (Rangoon), Myanmar (Burma).
WELCOME TO

The Hidden World of the NAGA

Realm of the Warriors
Chang, Khiamniungan and Yimchunger
warrirors at Tuensang.
Welcome to one of the most amazing cultural regions on this planet! A land full of ancient traditions and spectacular peoples. A region full of ethnic diversity inhabited by people with a unique sense of pride and dignity.

Till 1963 Naga Hills formed a district of Assam. It was made into the state of Nagaland in that year. Being a land of rugged hills with small plains tracts, the total area of Nagaland is 16,579 square kilometres. The state is bounded by Assam in the north and north-west, Manipur in the south, and Sagaing district of Myanmar in the west. The population according to the 1991 census is 1,215,573.

The bulk of the inhabitants of Nagaland are known as Naga who are believed to be among the earliest migrants from south-east Asia to North-East India across the Assam plains.

There are thirty Naga tribes and sub-tribes, the ones on Indian ground being the Angami, the Ao, the Sema, the Lhota, the Konyak, the Chakhesang, the Sangtam, the Chang, the Yimchunger, the Zeliangrong, the Phom, the Khiamniungan, the Pochuri, the Maram, the Mao, the Poumai, the Tangkhul and the Rengma.

In Myanmar (Burma) the Naga-groups consist of the Kaiyaw, the Nokaw, the Ponyo, the Haime, the Yonkon, the Lainong, the Kuku, the Para, Most of the groups are interrelated with groups in India. All of them speak different dialects unintelligible to one another. For mutual communication they use a kind of pidgin Assamese which has been named Nagamese - i.e., Assamese as adopted by the Naga.

Rainforest near Dzulakhie
(Angami / Zeliangrong region) .
Sturdy and virile, the Nagas have been inveterate lovers of freedom. Inter-clan and inter-village feuds had been very common in the past and headhunting was once very much a part of the Naga way of life. Much of the Naga character of independence and alertness had been built up through the institution of the morungs or bachelors' dormitories

Today, the majority of the Nagas have adopted Christianity. Along with it, rapid spread of western education and the impact of modern western standards have made deep inroads into traditional Naga beliefs and customs. However, the Nagas are a tradition-loving people, and a more or less distinctive Naga way of life is still being maintained.