Heritage, temples & history
Four World Heritage sites, ancient tantric temples and Himalayan monasteries, and battlefields that changed the world — the Northeast's deep past.
World Heritage in the Northeast
Four inscribed sites, and four more on India's tentative list.
Two-thirds of the world's one-horned rhinos, in Brahmaputra grassland.
A tiger reserve on the Bhutan foothills, with golden langur and pygmy hog.
India's only mixed World Heritage site, around the world's third-highest peak.
Charaideo's royal burial mounds — the Northeast's first cultural World Heritage site, inscribed July 2024.
On the tentative list: Majuli river island (Assam) · Namdapha National Park (Arunachal) · Apatani Cultural Landscape, Ziro (Arunachal) · Garo Hills Conservation Area (Meghalaya).
Temples, monasteries & pilgrimage
From India's foremost tantric goddess shrine to the largest monastery in the country.
Kamakhya Temple
Guwahati
The foremost Shakti Pitha and India's great tantric goddess shrine, on Nilachal Hill. The Ambubachi Mela draws lakhs each June.
Tawang Monastery
Tawang
India's largest monastery (1680s) and birthplace of the 6th Dalai Lama, at 10,000 ft below snow peaks.
Tripura Sundari Temple
Udaipur
One of India's 51 Shakti Pithas, a pilgrimage centre since 1501.
Rumtek Monastery
near Gangtok
The grand seat of the Karmapa and the Kagyu Buddhist lineage.
Hajo
near Guwahati
A rare shared shrine: the Hayagriva Madhava temple, sacred to Hindus and Buddhists, and Poa Mecca, an Islamic pilgrimage — on one set of hills.
Majuli satras
Majuli
The neo-Vaishnavite monasteries founded by saint Sankardeva in the 15th century, still living centres of dance, music and mask-making.
Parasuram Kund
Lohit
A Makar Sankranti pilgrimage on the Lohit river where devotees bathe to wash away sin.
Solomon's Temple
Aizawl
A vast white church, a landmark of Mizo Christianity, open to respectful visitors.
Pemayangtse Monastery
Pelling
The premier Nyingma monastery (1705), with a famous seven-tiered wooden model of the Buddhist heavens.
Unakoti
Kailashahar
Colossal 7th–9th century rock-cut images of Shiva and other gods in a forested hillside.
Forts, palaces & battlefields
The Ahom kingdom, the Manikya kings, the Meitei seat and the turning point of 1944.
Sivasagar: Rang Ghar & Talatal Ghar
The capital complex of the 600-year Ahom kingdom that repeatedly repelled the Mughals. Rang Ghar (1746) is Asia's oldest surviving amphitheatre.
Kohima War Cemetery
The memorial to the 1944 Battle of Kohima that turned back the Japanese advance, with the epitaph 'When you go home, tell them of us…'.
Kangla Fort
The seat of the Meitei kings for some 2,000 years, in the heart of Imphal.
INA Memorial, Moirang
Where the Indian National Army first raised the tricolour on Indian soil, 14 April 1944.
Neermahal
A 1930s lake palace rising from Rudrasagar, blending Mughal and Hindu design, reached by boat.
Ujjayanta Palace
The 1901 royal palace of the Manikya kings in Agartala, now the state museum.
Rabdentse ruins
The atmospheric ruins of Sikkim's second capital (1670–1814), on a forested ridge near Pelling.
Ita Fort & Malinithan
A 14th–15th century brick fort that named Itanagar, and the sculpted temple ruins of Malinithan.
Nartiang Monoliths
The largest cluster of Khasi–Jaintia standing stones, some over five centuries old.
Vangchhia
Megalithic menhirs and carved stones, an ASI-protected site sometimes called Mizoram's Stonehenge.