Where the Japanese advance stopped — Nagaland's hill capital with the most moving WWII cemetery in Asia and the most extraordinary Hornbill Festival on Earth
Kohima is the capital of Nagaland in northeast India, perched in the Naga Hills at 1,444 metres. It is best known to history as the site of the 1944 Battle of Kohima — a 64-day siege where British and Indian forces halted the Japanese army's westward advance at a tennis court-sized Deputy Commissioner's bungalow compound, a battle often called 'the Stalingrad of the East.' Today it is the cultural capital of the Naga tribes, home to 17 officially recognised tribes with distinct languages, dress, and traditions — the Hornbill Festival (December) brings all 17 together in one of India's most sp…
Kohima was a British administrative centre from 1878 and the site of the most decisive engagement of the Burma Campaign in World War II. The Battle of Kohima (April–June 1944) was fought at extremely close range — sometimes hand-to-hand — on the terraced slopes of Garrison Hill, stopping the Japanese 'U-Go' offensive aimed at cutting Allied supply lines. The Naga people's loyalty to Allied forces was crucial: Naga scouts, porters, and guerrillas risked execution for helping Allied troops behind Japanese lines. After Indian independence, Nagaland became a separate state in 1963 following decad…