These photos were taken earlier in February near Miao in the eastern part of India’s Arunachal Pradesh. The Burmese border is not that far away (see this official map to get a sense of the geography). The river that stars in these shots is the Dehing. It starts high in the mountains and, as the huge riverbed makes clear, in the wet season it can flow fast and furious.
I have put these photos up online because Arunachal Pradesh and, in particular, its easternmost parts are rarely visited. The current restrictions on access to these places may not continue forever and there is always a real possibility that there will be greater opportunities for travel and research in the future. With that in mind I hope these snaps give New Mandala readers a bit more of a feel for this part of Southeast Asia’s borderlands.
- The Dehing River from above.
- The Dehing River with its wide flood plain and riverbed stretching off into the distance.
- Some fishermen making a living in the rapids.
- At this time of year the small parts of the river’s braid can be crossed by a sturdy vehicle.
- Just like this.
- However, there is still a deep and wide channel that even the toughest 4×4 can’t take on.
- Confidence (noun): Loading a four-wheel drive on these two small boats.
- With a push…
…and a pull…we were on our way…
- Readers who are familiar with the tradition of summer-time punting at my home institution, Oxford, will know what I was thinking when the boatmasters pulled out their long poles: “There is no way they can punt a four-wheel drive across this river”.
- But they did. We made it, and then made it back across the river too. In truth, there was not a moment when the two boats were even slightly shaky. The skill of the boatmasters was clear at all times.
- The Dehing River (arthouse).
- The Dehing River at sunset in the winter-time.
I hope readers have found some of these pictures interesting or useful. There will be more details on the recent Manau festival held in Arunachal Pradesh in future posts.
5 responses so far ↓
1 Teth // Feb 27, 2008 at 10:01 pm
Thats a really beautiful setting, now. Being in a urbanized country I just realized how much I yearn for the quiet, rural atmosphere of places without a mobile phone signal like the one you’re in.
Thanks for sharing.
P.S. I assume there are no mobile phone signals where you are…
2 Grasshopper // Feb 27, 2008 at 11:59 pm
- Stating the obvious (phrase): Quality entry Nicholas, thanks.
3 Land of Snarls // Feb 28, 2008 at 4:08 am
Nich, Dog bless you for the pix! You must do more of this sort of thing. It puts the more serious stuff of, in your case, reporting on the menau, into perspective. It tells us more about the reporter & the journey, so IMHO it is relevant.
I’ve always liked the additional stuff that social scientists sometimes produce, talking about the experience of fieldwork. When I was young I used to read stuff like Margaret Meade’s ‘Letters from the Field, and ‘ Elenor Smith Bowen’s ‘Return to Laughter,’ for example. ESB is better known as Laura Bohannon, whose field was the Tiv of Nigeria. Her essay ‘Shakespeare in the Bush’ ( http://www.cc.gatech.edu/home/idris/Essays/Shakes_in_Bush.htm) , in which she sets out to demonstrate that Shakespeare is universally intelligible by telling a group of Tiv men the story of Hamlet, is a classic. It ranks with Clifford Geertz’s ‘Deep Play: Notes on a Balinese cockfight’ (www.si.umich.edu/~rfrost/courses/MatCult/content/Geertz.pdf ).
(I’d no idea these 2 were available on the web. I googled them to get publication details, and came up with the complete pieces.)
The photos of punting across the river remind me of a trip I had in 1979 from the mountains in Sth Sumatra to Padang in W.Sumatra. It was the rainy season, & the highway was unsurfaced most of the way, so we spent a lot of time digging the small bus out of bogs, and waiting at 2 major river crossings for a makeshift punt (similar to yours, but much bigger) to take us across, because the bridges had been swept away. The journey took 4 days, instead of the expected 22 hours, but there was still lots of real jungle then, & some Minangkabau guys led me into it one morning with exaggerated ‘hush’ gestures, & I saw my first Orang Hutans in the wild. Magic!
4 Nicholas Farrelly // Feb 29, 2008 at 8:47 am
Thanks for all of your feedback,
Hopefully I can put together more posts of this type over the coming weeks. We will see what happens.
And, as for mobile phone reception, Teth, the valley where these pictures were taken has only the most erratic service. It is one of those places where it seems like if you stand on the right hillock, with your back to the sun, a cricket on your shoulder, and a strong breeze from the north-west then, maybe, just maybe, you will get a couple of bars of signal. And then maybe only long enough for you to say, “Hi Mum, I’m…”
Best wishes to all,
Nich
5 pranav // Mar 3, 2009 at 5:01 pm
thank you so much for providing photos of miao, if u have any more photos of the route from lekhapani to miao then do send it to me
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