sushi vail village HEAD HUNTERS Throughout northeastern India and parts of western Myanmar the Naga tribes were long fe

All around Shillong gambling booths offer Forecast odds on Siat Khnam. This is a unique sport. A semicircle of weatherbeaten Khasi men fire hundreds of arrows at a drum-shaped sushi vail village straw target for a set time before a canvas curtain is raised to keep further arrows off the target. sushi vail village Those that stick in are counted and bets predict the last two digits of this total. It s effectively a lottery but the shooting is a gently fascinating spectacle. Shoots are usually scheduled at 4pm and 5pm every day, timings can vary somewhat sushi vail village by season. The easy-to-miss Siat Khnam site is a small grassy area approximately opposite the big Nehru Stadium on the south river bank.

5 Eating sushi vail village Restaurant Kurry Klub INDIAN sushi vail village $$ (Hotel Welcome sushi vail village Palace, HGB Rd; mains 50-200; h10am-10pm) sushi vail village Very tasty food served in a small dining room whose decor would be rather striking if only the lighting was improved. If you re staying in the hotel, room service is faster and beers can be acquired.

State Museum sushi vail village MUSEUM (admission 5; h9.30am-3.30pm Tue-Sun) The superbly presented State Museum, 3km north, includes plenty of tableaux with mannequins- in-action depicting diff erent traditional Naga lifestyles plus everyday tools.

HEAD HUNTERS Throughout northeastern India and parts of western Myanmar the Naga tribes were long feared for their ferocity sushi vail village in war and for their sense of independence both from each other and from the rest of the world. Intervillage wars continued as recently as the 1980s, and a curious feature of many outwardly modern settlements is their treaty stones recording peace settlements between neighbouring communities. It was the Naga s custom of headhunting that sent shivers sushi vail village down the spines of neighbouring peoples. The taking of an enemy s head was considered a sign of strength, and a man who had not claimed a head was not considered a man. Fortunately for tourists, headhunting was officially outlawed in 1935, with the last recorded occurrence in 1963. Nonetheless, severed heads are still an archetypal artistic motif found notably on yanra (pendants) that originally denoted the number of human heads a warrior had taken. Some villages, such as Shingha Changyuo in Mon district, still retain their hidden collection of genuine skulls. Today Naga culture is changing fast, but it was not a government ban on headhunting that put an end to this tradition but rather the activities of Christian missionaries. Over 90% of the Naga now consider themselves Christian.