Apatani tribe, pine forests, and a legendary music festival in Arunachal Pradesh
Ziro Valley in Arunachal Pradesh is a high-altitude (1,500m) valley of paddy fields and pine forests, home to the Apatani tribal people — known for their sophisticated wet-rice cultivation system (a UNESCO Intangible Heritage candidate), their nose plugs (tapin) worn by older women, and a unique tradition of facial tattooing. The Ziro Music Festival, held every September, has become one of India's best independent music events — four days of indie, folk, and experimental music in an open-air pine forest setting. A restricted area permit is required for non-Indian nationals.
The Apatani people of Ziro have practiced an unusually sophisticated agricultural system for centuries — flooding paddy fields and cultivating fish simultaneously, creating a closed-loop food system requiring no pesticides or synthetic inputs. This system, called 'Apatani cultural landscape', is on UNESCO's Tentative World Heritage List. The practice of noseplugging (black wooden discs inserted into the nostrils) in older Apatani women is said to have originated as a means to make women less attractive to raiding tribes, though the practice is now maintained as cultural identity by elderly wo…