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My Voyage Travel Brochure

301, Ansal PlazaG.S. Road Guwahati

CONTENTSAbout Us

MapIntroduction

CultureArts and Crafts

WildlifeDestinations

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ABOUT US Dear Guests,

Thank you very much for making us India’s Best Outbound Tour Operator for the year 2011 – ’12. With your continuous support and our non-stop hard work, these awards will keep coming. The greatest award and reward for the ‘My Voyage’ family is when you find every tour with us the mostenjoyable. Your satisfaction and happiness is our aim and objective. This is what we strive to accomplish and our 99 percent success ratio endorses our e�orts. Since its inception, My Voyagehas been innovative in various ways. So do make the most of our large bouquet of tours on o�er, which cater to all sections of society, to di�erent budgets, tastes and requirements. Simply select the tour of your choice and make your new year truly memorable... with My Voyage!

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ASSAM DISTRICTS MAP

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INTRODUCTIONAssam is synonymous with unspoiled natural beauty, teeming wildlife, immaculate tea gardens and warm, beautiful people. It’s strategic location in the northeast of India, and it’s accessibility from the rest of the country makes it the gateway to the northeastern states.

It shares borders with Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur, Tripura, Mizoram and West Bengal: and has National Highways leading to their capital cities. Assam also shares international borders with Bhutan and Bangladesh. The Brahmaputra Valley is an alluvial plain about 724 kms in length and 81 kms in breadth. It is enclosed on the north by the mighty Himalayas, south by the Garo, Khasi, Jaintia and Naga Hills. The Brahmaputra, the lifeline of the valley which shares it's name, floods the nearby land with fertile silt everyeyar to ensure a rich harvest.

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CULTURE

ATTIRE CUISINES

The culture of Assam is traditionally a hybrid one, developed due tocultural assimilationof di�erent ethno-cultural groups under various politico-economic systems in di�erent

periods of history. The roots of the culture go back to almost two thousand years whenthe first cultural assimilation took place with Austroasiatic and Tibeto-Burman as the

major components. With reference from the great epics Mahabharata and on the basisof the local folk lore it is also hypothised that there was probably a strong kingdom

of these mixed population (of Austroasiatic and Tibeto-Burman origin) in the era before Jesus Christ, which led to an early assimilation at a greater scale. Typical naming

of the rivers and spatial distribution of related ethno-cultural groups also support that.

WILDLIFE TEA GARDENSTEMPLESBUDDHISM

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ATTIRES

The mekhela chadar, is a two piece garment with a skirt or lower garment called the mekhela and a pleated upper garment called the chadar. Traditionally made either in Muga or Pat silk, it has now adapted itself to a large variety of weaves.Bihu dancers wearMuga mekhelas with red, floral motifs while Assamese brides wear pat mekhelas withanother piece of cloth below the chadar called the riha.

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CUISINES

Assam's staple diet is rice with interestingly cooked fish and meat dishes. Many varieties of rice are produced and variously prepared here like Cheera (flattened rice),

muri(pu�ed rice), akhoi (parched paddy grain), pithguri (pound rice),sandoh guri (fried, pound rice), komal saul and bora saul. Fish curry is another staple of the region

which is prepared as a sour dish called machor tenga.

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WILDLIFE

Assam is home to over 180 species of mammals, including rare and endangered specieslike the great Indian one-horned rhinoceros, the royal Bengal tiger, the golden langur and hoolock gibbon, and a spectacular range of avifauna. Assam's most famous parks areKaziranga and Manas. Both were conferred Worl Heritage Status in 1985.

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TEA GARDENS

Tea is the agriculture-based industries, tea occupies an important place in Assam.The plants used to grow naturally in the Upper Brahmaputra valley. Robert Bruce, an

o�icial of the British empire, who is credited with the discovery of tea in Assam in 1823, gave publicity of the existence of the plant, the leaves of which were boiled to

prepare the tea.

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TEMPLES

Nestled in the Brahmaputra valley this state has Tantrik Shaktism, Shivaism and laer Vaishnavism flourishing in its laps. From time to time people from di�erent races, religion and culture have migrated to this place. Major Temples are:

Kamakhya TempleUmananda Temple, Basisthashram Mahabhairab TempleMadan Kamdev

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BUDDHISM

Known as a bustling seat of ancient Tantrism and one of the few remaining places in India that still prides itself in preserving the practices of the occult, very few outside

of Assam would know that many centuries ago, Assam was a hotbed of Buddhism too.Most traces of the great Mahayana Buddhism are now erased frommodern Assam,what

remains are just some relics, legends and historical analyses.

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DESTINATIONS Assam has enjoyed a reputation for unspoiled natural beauty, substantial biodiversity, teaplantations, and friendly people. The Brahmaputra, the lifeline of the valley which shares its name, floods the nearby land with fertile silt every year to ensure a rich harvest. It is bound on either side by marshy land covered with thick jungle grass, interspersed with patches of rice fields and terraced tea gardens. There is little to interrupt the vast panorama except the occasional lone hillock. Only in the south of the valley is the even horizon brokenby the hills of Karbi Anglong. Further south are the North Cachar Hills.

Located here, amid orchards is Assam's only hill station, Haflong. The southern part of Assam is the Barak Valley, this region hosts untouched natural beauty. Green is the dominant colour of the state, with an impressive 35% forest cover and thousands of hectares under tea cultivation. Assam has five national parks including the World Heritage Sites of Kaziranga and Manas, and 20 Wildlife and Bird Sanctuaries.

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GUWAHATI

To the spiritually oriented, Guwahati is home to the goddess Kamakhya; to history bu�s, it stands on the very spot where the brave people of this great land thwarted the mighty Mughal army in the battle of Saraighat in 1671; to the inhabitant, it is the child that has

been, over the years, nurtured, fulfilled and at times, even admonished by the mighty Brahmaputra.

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SUALKUCHI

Nestled in the Brahmaputra valley this state has Tantrik Shaktism, Shivaism and laer Vaishnavism flourishing in its laps. From time to time people from di�erent races, religion and culture have migrated to this place. Major Temples are:

Kamakhya TempleUmananda Temple, Basisthashram Mahabhairab TempleMadan Kamdev

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MAJULI

Majuli, the largest riverine island in the world, nestles in the lap of the mightly Brahmaputra. This is where the 15th century saint and fountain head of Assamese

culture, Sankardeva, first established a Satra or neo-Vaishnavite monastery, born of insightful discourses with his spiritual successor, Madhabdeva.

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CONTACT

The Voyage The Travel Guide

301, Ansal PlazaG.S. Road Guwahati

voyage@gmail.com

+91-9954704300

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