Mahim & the Kerala Group's Journey to the Hornbill Festival

Guwahati — The First Evening

The journey began in Guwahati, on the banks of the Brahmaputra. That first evening the group boarded a river cruise as the light softened over the water. On the deck, a small troupe of Assamese artists performed traditional Bihu and Sattriya dances — the men in gamosas and the women in mekhela chador — a warm, easy introduction to the culture the group had come east to meet.

A Heritage Stop in Assam

Before turning east toward the wildlife country, the group made a stop at an old temple ruin in the Assam plains — carved sandstone domes half-swallowed by the grass, the kind of quiet site the Brahmaputra valley is full of. It made for the trip's first proper group photograph, everyone standing shoulder to shoulder before the long road ahead.

Kaziranga — Morning Safari

By the third morning they were inside Kaziranga National Park, standing in an open jeep as the mist lifted off the grasslands. The one-horned rhino is what most visitors come here to see; the group watched from the jeep and, when the light was right, from the road itself — quietly, without asking the driver to chase anything.

Crossing into Nagaland

From Kaziranga they drove east to Dimapur, and the following morning the road began to climb. The group stopped at the ceremonial Nagaland Entry Gate — the tall stone arch reading Welcome to the Hills of Nagaland, flanked by carved wooden warriors — for the photograph everyone stops for. From there it was a slow, winding drive up into the Angami country.

Khonoma — The Green Village

Before Kohima, the group turned off the main road toward Khonoma Village — the Angami settlement known for terraced fields and its old warrior clans. In the morning light, in front of a wooden house whose gable carried the crossed mithun horns of a Naga morung, the whole group stopped for a portrait. The mountains sat behind them in a thin band of cloud.

The Guide

The group was led through Nagaland by a local guide from the Angami hills. This photograph — Mahim, the Kerala group's leader, sitting beside her — became one of the quieter frames of the whole trip: two people who had spent a week planning routes, kitchens and morung visits, resting for a moment in the sun before the next drive. Mahim's steady leadership and the local guide's knowledge together made the journey work.

Kisama — A Full Day at the Hornbill Festival

The fifth day was the one everyone had come for: a full day at the Hornbill Festival at Kisama Heritage Village. The morungs of the seventeen major Naga tribes lined the slope above the arena; below, warrior processions moved across the ground in waves — feathers, spears, log-drum calls, deep unison singing. The whole group posed on the arena floor as a row of Konyak warriors in red-and-black feathered headdresses sat on the concrete stands behind them.

The Konyak Elders

Later in the afternoon, on the same stand, the local guide sat down among a row of Konyak elders in full ceremonial dress — red shawls, boar-tusk collars, wide-brimmed feather crowns. The men were, as they often are between sets, entirely at ease: a few cracked jokes, a few looked straight into the camera, a few looked past it into the hills. This is the photograph that most captures a real Kisama afternoon — not the crowds, but the quiet rows on the stone stands.

With the Chakhesang Women

On the same stand, one of the younger travellers from the Kerala group sat down between two Chakhesang women in bright red wraparound skirts and heavy white bead necklaces. Behind them, a full row of men in red-and-black shawls and tall feathered headdresses waited for their next call to the arena. Moments like this — a shared bench, a shared photograph — are the reason the group came all the way from Kerala.

On the Arena Floor

Down on the turf, one of the travellers stood for a portrait with four young Chakhesang warriors — carved wooden crowns, boar-tusk collars, dark body paint tracing lines across their chests. This is what most first-time visitors remember about Kisama: not the crowds or the stalls, but the quiet minute after a performance when a warrior turns, smiles, and stands still for a photograph.

With the Konyak Elders

Higher up on the stands, one of the senior travellers sat down between two Konyak elders — the tall black-fur headdress on one side, the dark striped shawl and heavy ivory armband on the other. The Konyak, the tribe of the former headhunters of the north, are the presence most photographs of the Hornbill Festival end up circling back to; here they are up close, at rest between performances.

The Group Portrait, Arena Floor

Before leaving the arena, a smaller group from the Kerala party gathered on the turf with five warriors in feathered crowns for the trip's other keepsake photograph. Warriors and travellers standing shoulder to shoulder — the empty stone tiers of Kisama rising behind them, the winter sun high overhead — a picture that will sit on a mantelpiece back in Kerala long after the trip is over.

Back to Guwahati

The next morning the group left Kohima and made the long drive back down through Dimapur to Guwahati, where the trip had begun. Seven days — one river cruise, one safari, one village, one festival — and a group photograph inside the arena that will keep the trip alive long after everyone has flown home to Kerala.