no, this is not a Kuki woman, but a tribal woman from Orissa, from an earlier encounter in India, 20 years ago – but it goes to show!
We never even considered going to Bangladesh, what on earth would we be doing there? But opportunist as always, when I received this email announcing a two week trip to Bangladesh, from the same organisation that arranged the highly successful trip to Syria last year, I asked my customary travel partner – on a cold and miserable day in December – what she thought about it. And she said: “why not?”. The itinerary includes some quirky exclaves from Bangladesh inside India, Buddhist temple ruins, a couple of mosques, palaces from the colonial era, a river cruise or two, including to the Sundarbans – the largest mangrove forest in the world, and a Rohingya refugee camp. We finish with the ghost city of Panam and an exploration of the capital, Dhaka. Enough to keep us entertained for two weeks, and – the best of it – utterly not touristic. Or so I imagine.
not sure what the ‘standoff’ is all about, but I found this on the internet, showing the Seven Sisters and the Chicken’s Neck, all of it kind of surrounding Bangladesh
Kukiland, the area where Kuki tribes are living – which includes a part of Myanmar, and also Bangladesh
Well, we finish in Bangladesh, but then it occurred to me that the shortest route out is to the Indian state of Tripura, one of the so-called Seven Sisters – no, not the oil companies, but the seven states of Northeast India. That part of India located between Bangladesh, Bhutan, China and Myanmar. Only connected through what is called the “chicken’s neck” – the 22 km wide Siliguri Corridor squeezed in between Bangladesh and Nepal – with India proper, so to speak. This is Kuki-land! Well, not many people use this term these days, but it refers to some of the dominant hill tribes in the area, which belong to the Kuki-Zo (the Kuki people). They live in almost all of the seven states in NE India, together with other tribal people, to be sure. And lots of other Indians, no doubt. But tribal people, with their own culture, customs, religion, that is interesting, of course!
We have long wanted to visit the Northeast, beginning with when we lived in India 20 years ago, but never managed. At the time, because foreigners needed all kind of difficult-to-obtain permits, on account of continuing unrest in many of those states, from independence movements, as well as border sensitivities, especially with China and Myanmar. And afterwards, because we actually never got close, and it drifted off the radar somewhat.
But being already in Bangladesh, what could be easier than hopping across to Tripura, and from there on to further India states with exciting names as Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland and Meghalaya. In fact the biggest states here are Assam – easy, no permits needed – and Arunachal Pradesh – complicated because of unresolved border disputes with China. All, except for Arunachal Pradesh, easily accessible today, no permits needed, focus is on stimulating tourism.
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