Storied Assam

Stories

Every kind of story Assam tells, from its history and its myths to the lives that shaped it, the traditions families keep, and the journeys through its land. Each one stands on its own, runs through real people, places and moments, and opens a door to every one of them.

Chronicles

Narrative history: the kingdoms, wars, lives and reforms that made and unmade the valley over two thousand years.

Woven in a Night

The Ahom wars

An Ahom noblewoman could not weave her husband the armour-cloth that was held to make a warrior unkillable. When he fell, she armed a band of women and rode to the war herself.

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The Vrindavani Vastra

The Assamese awakening

A saint set twelve weavers to weave the whole life of Krishna into one vast silk. It vanished over the Himalayas, was cut up by monks who could not read it, and ended scattered across the world's museums.

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The Night of Saraighat

The Ahom wars

A dying general, a wavering fleet, and the river that kept Assam free of the Mughals.

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How the Ahoms Buried a King

The Ahom court and its fall

By night the Ahom kings were carried to Charaideo and laid in great earthen mounds with their goods, and sometimes the living, in the moidam burials now on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

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Field Notes

Place, nature and short research: the valley's land and sanctuaries as they are met and felt.

The River That Made Assam

The wild Brahmaputra and the land

Assam is the land the Brahmaputra made. Follow the great river from a Tibetan glacier to a modern monsoon, and the whole valley assembles around you.

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