The destination is hornbill festival at Kisama Heritage Village but we can't do the whole stretch in just 1 day....so stopover in Dimapur.
I have driven into Nagaland from Myanmar about 3 years ago and know the tough road conditions. We left Dibrugarh quite early but soon hit a traffic jam, not the jam that you usually expect. Being a Sunday, the local market was in full flow on either side of the highway...only in Assam. Vegetables and cattle were being sold and there was lot of chaos but it was quite colourful too....we drove very carefully and slowly and soon we got out on to roads where we could speed up.
First stop was Sivasagar Sivadol. Siva dol (meaning the temple of Lord Shiva) is a group of structures comprising three Hindu temples of Sivadol, Vishnudol (meaning temple of the Lord Vishnu) and Devidol. Dol means temple in the local Assamese language. These are located on the banks of the Sivasagar ("the ocean of the god Shiva") tank, in the heart of Sivasagar in Assam. The tank was constructed between 1731 and 1738 and the temples were built in 1734 by Bar Raja Ambika, queen of Ahom king Swargadeo Siba Singha (1714–1744).
The temple was very beautiful and peaceful.
A brief history of the Ahoms and their capital Sivasagar. The Ahoms migrated from South China in 1228 and they were initially Buddhists though Hinduism came to prevail. It was their capital until the British Raj was established. The Ahoms ruled for 600 years and they defeated the Mughals 17 times in various battles. There is so much to read about history and this part of history was new to me.
Post lunch we hit the road.....ok sorry....the pathway... there were no roads for most part....and we reached our destination by 8pm.
Tomorrow we get to the Hornbill Festival!!
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