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02/04/2007: "Tourists with military escort visit remote Naga festivals AFP"

Tourists with military escort visit remote Naga festivals AFP
LAHA, Myanmar (AFP) - High in the mountains of northwestern Myanmar, tribes of former headhunters dress themselves in tiger fangs and bear claws to celebrate their new year after the mid-January harvest.
The members of the Naga tribes living in Myanmar are among the most isolated people in the world. But for a handful of intrepid travellers, their villages have become an alluring if unlikely tourist attraction.
The 100,000 Nagas in Myanmar have little contact with the outside world, and even with the 1.2 million Nagas living across the border in India.
Myanmar's government only opened up to the outside world two decades ago, and until a few years ago, this region was completely off-limits to foreigners because of rebel movements and lack of transportation.
But over the last 10 years, the Nagas have begun using their new year ceremony to receive small groups of well-heeled tourists who are willing to pay hundreds of dollars a night to sleep in a dirt-floored hut for the chance to have an authentic tribal experience.
This year some 45 tourists, mostly from Western countries, made the trek to the village of Lahe where hundreds of Nagas donned their traditional finery for a two-day ceremony ringing in their new year.
Known historically for their tattoos and their tradition of headhunting, the Naga warriors at the ceremony don't exactly look like welcoming hosts.
For the Nagas, this is the only time of year when their 49 clans -- which sometimes speak completely different languages -- gather to celebrate together. Some younger Nagas have studied in India and use English to communicate between clans.
The warriors drape themselves in the fangs, claws and skins of their trophies, with headdresses made of fur and adorned with the long feathers of hornbills, while women and children in handmade red cloth parade nearby.
They raise a pole at the centre of a field near a ceremonial hall built to hold a feast. At night they light a bonfire to give thanks for the just-ended harvest.
-- Stepping back in time, for a price --
The spectacle is like witnessing a Top of Form
National Geographic special, which tourism officials say is why travellers are willing to spend thousands of dollars to join the event.
"We are definitely seeing travellers looking not just for new experiences, but for the real thing," said John Koldowski, a spokesman for the Pacific-Asia Travel Association in Bangkok.
"These people are really searching for something that hasn't been spoiled," he said, not just in Nagaland but in small communities around Asia.
Truly remote locales like the Naga villages in Myanmar attract only a trickle of tourists, said Win Tin, managing director of the Journey Nature and Culture Exploration travel agency in Yangon.
His agency provides a trip from Yangon for about 1,300 dollars to join the festival, including the journey by plane, boat and jeep to the ceremonial site.
The price tag is expensive because transportation and communication is so difficult, Win Tin said. Some of the money goes directly to the Nagas, which has helped them make small improvements in their living standards, he adds.
"If we look overall, the Naga new year festival is not only good for their tribe, but also good as a source of business," he says.
"Their lifestyle has changed a little as more visitors go there. In the past they didn't wear clothes and they had little sanitation. Now they have more awareness of their health.
"But I don't want this festival to become part of mass tourism, because I don't want it to have any negative impact on their tribe, nature and culture," he adds.
Any travel in military-controlled Myanmar is controversial because democracy activists fear the tourist money will end up in the hands of the ruling generals.
Myanmar's detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has urged foreigners not to visit her country until the military relinquishes power.
PATA's Koldowski says high costs are one way that countries can protect the culture of isolated communities like the Nagas, noting that the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan imposes steep visa fees for the same reason.
-- An arduous journey into disputed territory --
This kind of journey is not for the faint-hearted.
Getting to Lahe requires a flight to the town of Hkamti -- the Naga's biggest settlement -- then a three-hour trip upriver on a fishing boat, followed by a six-hour drive in a military four-by-four vehicle
Although Myanmar has signed ceasefire deals with many of the rebels over the last decade, insurgents still roam these mountains, including Naga fighters battling for their own state in neighbouring India.
Indian authorities believe a dozen different separatists operate from rear bases in Myanmar, and have urged the military junta ruling the country to crack down on their activities along the 1,600-kilometre (1,000-mile) border.
Myanmar rarely reveals the details of any of its campaigns against the scores of ethnic minorities around the country, but the Naga rebel leaders in India say the fighting has escalated since the junta launched a new crackdown in late December.
Some of the clashes last month took place in Hkmati district, which hosts the airport that tourists used to visit the new year festival, according to the S.S. Khaplang faction of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN-K) in India.
The insurgents are fighting for a "Greater Nagaland" that would unite the 1.2 million Nagas in India, but which has been strongly opposed by the surrounding states that would stand to lose territory.
India and the rebels have held more than 50 rounds of talks since 1997 to end one of South Asia's longest-running insurgencies that has claimed around 25,000 lives since independence in 1947.
Within Myanmar, the Naga unrest is relatively minor compared with the bloody campaigns the military has waged against other ethnic minorities, including the Karen and Shan on the Thai border.
Most of the ethnic rebels have signed ceasefires with the junta, and the government only opened up the Naga region after reaching deals with larger ethnic groups in that part of the country.
Myanmar only allows tourists to visit two Naga villages because of safety concerns, and soldiers escort the travellers along the entire route, Win Tin says.
But foreign countries including the United States, Britain and Australia have urged their nationals to avoid travelling on the Indian side of the border as violence has flared in recent weeks.
That didn't prompt any cancellations for the trip in Myanmar, Win Tin said, as visitors do come prepared for a tough trip to see something few outsiders have witnessed.
"You can see theatre, dance and culture and so forth in the capital of any country, but this is one subgroup that is real," Koldowski says.