Specialist Journeys · Konyak Country
Mon district, in the far north-east of Nagaland on the Myanmar border, is the heartland of the Konyak Nagas — the warrior tribe whose tattooed elders are the last living generation of practising headhunters. Longwa village famously sits on the international border, with the Angh's longhouse split between India and Myanmar. Our Mon journeys are private, deeply pre-arranged and accompanied throughout by Konyak-speaking field guides.
The headhunting was outlawed in 1960 but the generation that practised it is still alive — barely. Facial tattoos earned through warfare, brass-head necklaces marking lives taken, hornbill-feather headdresses, hand-forged daos and the morung as the centre of village life are all still daily reality in the most remote villages.
Longwa's Angh — the hereditary chief — rules villages on both sides of the India–Myanmar border. His longhouse straddles the line: his bed in India, his kitchen in Myanmar. We sit with the Angh, are introduced to his wives and warriors and spend a night in the village.
Longwa, Shangnyu (home to a 400-year-old wood-carved morung), Hongphoi, Chui (the Anghpang headquarters of the largest Konyak chiefdom) and the Aoling festival heartland villages of Tangnyu and Mopong. Two to three nights minimum across two villages — anything less is extraction.
Konyak New Year, less commercial than Hornbill, held in the home villages rather than a festival ground. Three days of warrior dance, log-drum performances, pork feasting and rice-beer hospitality. We have run private Aoling departures for over a decade — see our journal piece on Aoling at Tangnyu.
Mon is eleven hours by road from Dibrugarh through Sonari and Naginimora. Foreign nationals register on entry to Nagaland; Indian travellers need an ILP. Plan a minimum of three nights in Mon district, ideally combined with Kohima, Khonoma and the Hornbill Festival.
From the Field Journal
