India
Ziro Valley
Fish swim between rice stalks in a pine-ringed valley farmed by the Apatani for centuries.
The Apatani women are the last to carry the old markings — bamboo nose plugs and dark facial tattoos that once signalled identity and beauty. The tradition fades with the elders. In the valley below, rice paddies flood between pine-covered hills, and fish swim between the stalks.
Ziro Valley, in Arunachal Pradesh, is the Apatani homeland. Their wet-rice system — fish reared inside the flooded paddies — has run for centuries and now sits on UNESCO's tentative list. The valley lies near 1,500 metres in a ring of gentle pine hills, and each September the Ziro Festival of Music fills a field with indie acts and indigenous pride.
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Solo
Take an Apatani homestay, walk the paddy bunds at dawn, and accept every cup of apong with both hands.
Couple
Cycle between the villages through the rice-and-fish fields, pine hills closing the horizon.
Friends
Come for September's music festival and stay two days longer than the line-up.
- The elder women's tattoos and nose plugs are the last of a marking tradition that ends with them.
- Fish swim between the rice stalks — aquaculture and agriculture braided in one field.
- Ziro's music festival draws international acts to a muddy field days from anywhere.
- Homestays pour bamboo-fermented rice beer and smoke their meat over the kitchen fire.
Pikey pila — the sharp bamboo-shoot pickle — defines the Apatani table.
Apong, rice beer fermented in bamboo, pours sweet and deceptively strong at the homestays.
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