North East Handicraft & Textile Trail for Collectors

Route: Arrive Guwahati airport; transfer to hotel; Assam State Museum

Your driver meets you at the airport. Guwahati is the main gateway to the North East and the market town for much of Assam's handloom.

If you arrive in time, visit the Assam State Museum for its sculpture and tribal textile collections, then browse a government handloom emporium to get a feel for prices before the villages.

Note on buying

Prices in the villages are often lower than in city shops, and the money goes straight to the weaving family. Carry some cash; cards are not always taken in villages.

Experience of the Day

• Airport pickup

• Assam State Museum

• First look at Assam silks

Food

Recommended: Paradise, a long-running Guwahati restaurant, for an Assamese thali.

Must-Try: Masor tenga, a light, sour fish curry.

Activities to Do

• Rest after the flight

• Museum visit

• Emporium browsing

Route: Guwahati to Sualkuchi on the north bank of the Brahmaputra, about 35 km each way

Sualkuchi is a town of weavers. In many houses the loom sits on the ground floor, and you hear the shuttles from the street. Most of the work is mekhela chador, the two-piece dress of Assamese women, and fine silk stoles.

Your guide shows you the three silks of Assam. Muga, from a silkworm found only in Assam, has a natural golden sheen that grows brighter with washing; it has had a Geographical Indication since 2007. Pat is a fine white mulberry silk. Eri, sometimes called peace silk, is spun from cocoons after the moth has left, and feels warm and soft like wool.

Watch reeling, dyeing and weaving in family workshops, and buy direct from the weavers.

The Human Story

Weaving in Sualkuchi is a family trade. Many households have woven for generations, and a single Muga mekhela chador can take a weaver several weeks.

Experience of the Day

• Silk reeling and weaving

• Muga, Pat and Eri side by side

• Buying from weaving families

Food

Recommended: A simple Assamese lunch in Sualkuchi.

Must-Try: Pitha, Assamese rice cakes, with Assam tea.

Shopping

Muga and Pat mekhela chador, Eri stoles and fabric lengths direct from the looms. Ask for the Silk Mark label on silk.

Activities to Do

• Workshop visits with a textile guide

• Buying time

Optional Nearby Excursions

• Hajo, a pilgrimage town close to Sualkuchi with Hindu, Buddhist and Muslim shrines

Route: Guwahati to Shillong with a detour to the Eri silk villages of Ri-Bhoi district

Ri-Bhoi district, on the way up from Assam into Meghalaya, is the centre of Khasi Eri silk. Here the silk is called ryndia. Women rear the silkworms on castor leaves, spin the thread by hand and weave it on simple looms, often with natural dyes from local plants.

Visit a weaving village such as Umden, where a weavers' cluster works with Eri. Then continue up to Shillong, at about 1,500 metres, through pine forest.

Experience of the Day

• Eri silkworm rearing

• Hand spinning and natural dyeing

• Climb into the Khasi Hills

Food

Recommended: Lunch on the road; dinner in Shillong.

Must-Try: Jadoh, red rice cooked with pork.

Shopping

Hand-spun, naturally dyed Eri stoles and shawls from the weavers.

Activities to Do

• Village visit with a weaving demonstration

• Drive to Shillong

Route: Don Bosco Museum, Bara Bazaar, a Khasi weaving workshop

The Don Bosco Museum of Indigenous Cultures has seven floors on the peoples of the North East. Its galleries of dress, weaving and ornaments are the best place to compare the region's textiles in one building.

In the afternoon, walk Bara Bazaar (Iewduh), one of the biggest traditional markets in the North East, run largely by Khasi women. Look for the jainsem, the Khasi women's dress, and the dhara worn on festive days. End with a visit to a Shillong weaving workshop or designer studio working with Eri silk.

The Human Story

Khasi society is matrilineal: children take their mother's clan name, and the youngest daughter usually inherits the family home. In Bara Bazaar you see many of the stalls run by women.

Experience of the Day

• Don Bosco Museum textile galleries

• Bara Bazaar

• Khasi weaving workshop

Food

Recommended: A café in Laitumkhrah or Police Bazaar.

Must-Try: Dohneiiong, pork cooked with black sesame.

Shopping

Jainsem fabric, Eri stoles, cane and bamboo baskets from Bara Bazaar.

Activities to Do

• Museum visit

• Market walk

• Workshop visit

Route: Shillong to Guwahati airport, about 100 km; fly to Dimapur; drive to Kohima, about 75 km

Drive down to Guwahati airport and fly to Dimapur in Nagaland. Then drive up into the Naga Hills to Kohima, at about 1,400 metres. You register with the local foreigners office on arrival.

The evening is free.

Note on the Nagaland permit

Foreign nationals need a Protected Area Permit for Nagaland and must register with the district foreigners office within 24 hours. BizareXpedition handles both.

Experience of the Day

• Descent from the Khasi Hills

• Flight to Nagaland

• Climb to Kohima

Food

Recommended: Dinner at your hotel.

Must-Try: Smoked pork with bamboo shoot.

Activities to Do

• Drive, flight and transfer

Route: Kohima market and cooperatives, Kisama Heritage Village (about 12 km), Kohima War Cemetery

Each Naga tribe has its own shawls, and the patterns once showed a man's rank and deeds. The shawls are woven by women on the loin loom, a back-strap loom tied to a post, which limits the width of each panel. Wider shawls are made by joining panels.

Visit Kohima's weaving cooperatives and the market, then the Naga Heritage Village at Kisama, where each tribe has its own traditional house. The Hornbill Festival is held here from 1 to 10 December.

End at the Kohima War Cemetery. In 1944 the Japanese advance into India was stopped here after weeks of close fighting.

Note on the War Cemetery

The cemetery is a place of remembrance. Keep voices low and stay on paths.

Experience of the Day

• Naga shawls on the loin loom

• Kisama Heritage Village

• Kohima War Cemetery

Food

Recommended: Lunch at a Naga restaurant in Kohima.

Must-Try: Galho, a Naga rice porridge, and axone, fermented soybean.

Shopping

Tribal shawls, beadwork and cane baskets from cooperatives in Kohima.

Activities to Do

• Cooperative visits

• Heritage village

• Cemetery visit

Route: Kohima to Chizami in Phek district, about 88 km, 3 hours each way

Chizami is a Chakhesang Naga village in the hills south-east of Kohima. Chizami Weaves began in 2008 as a livelihood project for women weavers, and it now works with weavers across the village and nearby.

Spend the day with the weavers. See the loin loom close up, learn how patterns are set up, and buy scarves, shawls and home textiles made in the village.

The Human Story

In many Naga villages weaving was a skill every girl learned at home. Chizami's project helped women earn from it while keeping the patterns of their own tribe.

Experience of the Day

• Drive through the Naga Hills

• Loin-loom weaving demonstration

• Buying from the weavers

Food

Recommended: Lunch with a family in the village, arranged through the weavers.

Must-Try: Chakhesang rice and smoked meat with local greens.

Activities to Do

• Village walk

• Weaving session

• Buying time

Route: Kohima to Dimapur, Golaghat and Jorhat, about 220 km, 6 to 7 hours

Drop from the Naga Hills to the Assam plain and drive north-east through tea country to Jorhat, a tea town close to the Brahmaputra. The Luxury and Ultra-Luxury tiers stay at Thengal Manor, a planter family's heritage bungalow.

Experience of the Day

• Descent from the Naga Hills

• Assam tea gardens

• Heritage bungalow evening

Food

Recommended: Dinner at your hotel.

Must-Try: Khar, an Assamese dish made with an alkaline extract from dried banana peel.

Activities to Do

• Transfer

• Tea-garden views

Route: Jorhat to Nimati Ghat, ferry to Majuli, and back

Majuli is a large river island in the Brahmaputra and the centre of Assam's Vaishnavite satras, monasteries founded from the 1500s onwards.

At Samaguri Satra, craftsmen make the masks used in religious drama from bamboo, clay and cloth. At Salmora, potters shape clay by hand without a wheel. In the Mising villages, women weave bright striped cloth on looms under their stilted houses. Catch the last ferry back to Jorhat.

Note on the ferry

Ferry times depend on the season and the river. BizareXpedition plans the day around the last ferry back.

Experience of the Day

• Mask-making at Samaguri Satra

• Hand pottery at Salmora

• Mising weaving village

Food

Recommended: Lunch on the island, often a Mising meal.

Must-Try: Apong, the Mising rice beer, if you want to try it.

Shopping

Satra masks, Mising textiles and small pottery pieces.

Activities to Do

• Ferry crossing

• Workshop and village visits

Route: Hotel to Jorhat airport, about 10 km

Transfer to Jorhat airport for your onward flight.

Experience of the Day

• Last tea-garden morning

• Airport drop

Food

Recommended: Breakfast at your hotel.

Must-Try: A last cup of Assam tea.

Activities to Do

• Airport transfer