Assam, the mystic land of tea
We
landed in Guwahati, the majestic gateway city to the North-East and capital
of the state of Assam. The magic land Assam is a verdant land of the eternal
blue hills, a treasure of flora and fauna, a mystic land of tea, the home of
one horned rhino"uni-corn", together with a numbers of fairs and
festivals.
The word Assam is derived from the Sanskrit word "Asom" meaning
'peerless'. The ancient history refers to Assam as Pragjyotishpur, until in
1228, the Ahoms from North Thailand invaded this land and established a
kingdom, which came to be known as Assam. So here I was glad to know about
the Thai connection with Irene smiling.
The irresistible tourist attraction of Assam lies in her immense green
stillness, the lush green forest, and the bewildering variety of wildlife.
How to Get there
Gateway to North-East India is the City of Guwahati. To get There
By Air: LGB International Airport is conveniently connected to all
major cities of India. With daily three flights to Delhi and five to Kolkata
and weekly flight to Bangkok with connecting flights to rest of the world.
By Train: Guwahati Railway station is the Hub all Train services. It
is connected to rest of India with convenient train connections.
By Road: Guwahati is connected with all other state capitals of
North-East India through a network of government and private luxury buses,
which are perhaps the best in the country.
Population
Total Population of Assam is 26 million.
People and Culture
The
society in Assam is not just a conglomeration of diverse racial and cultural
elements but a composite whole arising out of the integration and synthesis
of all of them. Indeed, Assam has been a curious melting pot into which have
gone the Aryan and non-Aryan, the tribal and the non-tribal, the indigenous
and the exotic, making for a delightful fare with wonderful mixed flavor.
The majority of the population in the plains is made up of Hindus, speaking
the Aryan Assamese language. But the Aryan racial strain is prominent only
in the upper castes, most of the other other castes are of the Mongoloid
stock.
The Satras (seat of the religious head Satradhikar) and Namghars (house of
names or Prayer hall) plays an important role in the life of an average
Assamese and have acted as religious as well as cultural institutions.
Majority of the tribal groups belong to the Tibeto-Burmese family. The
colourful people of Assam consist of Bodo-Kacharis, Rabha & Hajongs,
Tiwas (lalung), Misings, Sonowal Kacharis, Deuris, Karbis, Dimasa Kacharis,
Rengma Naga, Zemi Naga, Kukis and the Hmars.
In Assam, the line between the tribal and
the non-tribal is pretty thin and the so-called non-tribal Assamese Hindu
society retains many elements, which are patently 'tribal' by orthodox Hindu
standards. Castes are not strictly occupation linked, and caste based
disabilities are very few.
More than 40 percent of Assam's population is thought to be of migrant
origin. During the six hundred years of ruling, the Ahom Dynasty managed to
keep the kingdom, independent from Mughal, the Muslim invaders of India
before the British, as well as other invaders though Mughal attacked Assam
seventeen times. During this era, the Assamese society was exogenous. The
British entered Assam in 1824 as tea planters, which was the starting point
of the destruction of Ahom Dynasty.
The fairs and festivals in this sparsely populated state are
essentially an opportunity for people from far and wide to converge and see
the culture of the land.
