Assam, in the north east of India, is the most advanced and accessible state in the otherwise underdeveloped and isolated region called Northeast India. It is surrounded by all the six northeast states: Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Mizoram, Manipur, Meghalaya and Tripura, as well as by Bhutan and Bangladesh. Its biggest city, Guwahati, is the best base to start journeys into these states.
Assam lies just south of the eastern Himalayas, with the important Brahmaputra River cutting across it. In the northern hilly areas, the population is mainly tribal while the plains contain predominantly non-tribal Hindus. Agriculturally very fertile, with heavy rains between June to September, it is full of rice paddy fields, produces about 15 percent of the world's total output of tea (Assam Tea being a brand name in its own right) and also produces more than half of India's petroleum. Assam is also famous for its silks such as Paat or Muga. However, the rains that make it so fertile also make Assam uncomfortably humid during the summer and rainy seasons.
Guwahati stretches along both sides of the Brahmaputra. Its Kamakhya temple is a very important Mother Goddess shrine for Hindus who visit in thousands from the rest of India. Also important are the Navgraha (9-Planets) temple, the Umananda temple, located on an island, and the ruins of the 10th-c Madan Kamdev temple with erotic carvings, 50 km away. Assamese silk, bamboo and cane products are the best souvenirs to take home from here.
Majuli, the world's largest river-island, is situated in the midst of Brahmaputra in north-east Assam. It is the centre of Assamese Vaishnava culture, with over 15 Vaishnava monasteries, which are treasure houses of Assamese art, music, dance, drama, handicrafts etc. Also in north Assam, towns like Jorhat, Sibsagar or Tezpur, offer typical tea-garden experiences.
The two national parks of Assam Kaziranga and Manas are World Heritage Sites for their biodiversity. The Kaziranga region is home to the extremely endangered animal, the Indian One-Horned Rhinoceros, as also to the rare Hoolock Gibbon and Bengal Florican.
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