Assam

Situated in the far north eastern corner of India in a region largely isolated from the rest of the country, Assam has international borders with Bhutan and Bangladesh. The state was once much larger but following India’s independence in 1947 Assam was broken up to create several smaller ones along ethno-linguistic lines, known as the ‘seven sisters’. (They are all joined to the rest of India only by a 20km wide strip of land called the Siliguri Corridor). 

In the 13th century the area was raided by the Ahoms, a Buddhist people from northern Thailand, who established their capital at Sibsagar and remained in power until the Burmese invaded in the 18th century. The region was later ceded to the British East India Company and the production of tea, for which Assam is now famous, began using local labour to clear the jungles so that there are now 300 tea estates. During World War 2 Assam played a strategic role as an important supply route to China and Burma.

The state is dominated by the Brahmaputra, one of the great rivers of the world, which brings life and occasional disaster to nearby villages and towns when it floods and deposits rich alluvial soil every summer. Travelling along the river is one of the best ways to explore the state. Kaziranga National Park and Manas Wildlife Sanctuary are the last refuges of the Indian one-horned rhinoceros, as well as tiger, leopard and elephant.