Certainly the highlight of any trip to the Chin State is the chance to experience authentic hill tribe culture little-changed from decades past. Living in scattered, far-flung villages, the Chin peoples are friendly and warm, a welcome contrast to their jungle home.
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Go on a three-hour hike to far-flung Kyardor village, home to the remote Munn Chin tribe. Participate in the Lun Yu festival, where giant stones are pulled by locals in a contest of strength, and cows and pigs are sacrificed for a huge feast. Enjoy the huge celebration, where abundant rice wine and dancing make for a most memorable evening.
Meet the Chin people, visit their homes, and learn about their lives. The Chin women are famed for their tattooed faces, a tradition that began in order to avoid being chosen as concubines by the Burmese kings. Stay overnight in Mindat at a basic but comfortable guesthouse.
Drive by 4WD vehicle to Aye village (two hours) or trek on foot (four hours) through many traditional Munn Chin tribal villages, a beautiful area often covered in rhododendrons. Meet many local families, and talk with people who have seldom, if ever, spoken to foreigners. Dine with a local family and some of their friends, and stay the night with them in a local Munn Chin house.
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With Remote Lands you'll travel with people who have made Asia the solitary focus of their own lifelong adventure. As our guest, you'll discover Asia on a journey that is completely, authentically your own, adapted from our own remarkable experiences and adventures over the years.
With Remote Lands you'll travel with people who have made Asia the solitary focus of their own lifelong adventure. As our guest, in the continent that our north American founders Catherine and Jay have adored and explored for decades, you'll discover Asia on a journey that is completely, authentically your own, adapted from our own remarkable experiences and adventures over the years.
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Remote Lands
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In the remote hills of the Chin State, tribes of tattooed women inhabit the villages, and as the area becomes more and more connected to the rest of Myanmar, local traditions are dying out
The Chin tribe of Myanmar, which live near the Bangladesh border not far from Mrauk U, are a people who wear facial tattoos. I journeyed to this corner of Asia to seek out the answers of why exactly do they undergo the process of getting such tattoos, which might seem extreme in Western culture.
Thanks to the relatively recent arrival of urbanisation, most Asian countries are home to huge areas that are pretty much untouched by the modern world, places where life goes on much as it has for centuries…
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