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Places

Places to visit, grouped by type.

Temples & Sacred Sites

The temples, monasteries and shrines of the valley, where ritual, devotion and architecture meet.

A long colonnade of yellow square pillars at Auniati Sattra receding to a bright vanishing point, a single distant figure walking down the shaded walkway
Place

Auniati Sattra

Founded under the Ahom king Jayadhwaj Singha, a wealthy and powerful sattra known for its Paalnaam liturgy, apsara dance, and great festival gatherings.

The red-painted octagonal Siva temple at Basistha, its ribbed polygonal sikhara crowned by a gold finial, framed by trees against a blue sky
Place

Basistha Temple

Mythologically associated with sage Vasistha. The present stone temple was built by Ahom king Rajeswar Singha in 1764 in a wooded gorge where three streams meet.

A long illustrated manuscript leaf with rows of Assamese script and painted miniatures of figures and animals within red floral borders, held open for view
Place

Bengenaati Sattra

An early-seventeenth-century sattra holding a remarkable treasury of antiquities, including possessions of Ahom royalty and rare manuscripts.

A long pitched-roof sattra building with green roof reflected in a still pond at golden hour, framed by trees, no people
Place

Dakhinpat Sattra

One of Majuli's great sattras, founded by Banamalidev under Ahom patronage and known across Assam for its grand Raas Mahotsav.

The low tin-roofed prayer hall of Garamur Sattra set among tall trees across a swept earthen courtyard on Majuli
Place

Garamur Sattra

One of Majuli's four principal royal sattras, a centre of Raas and of a notable collection of antique weapons and ceremonial objects.

A brass plate of lit oil lamps, marigolds on leaves, and burning incense, an offering during a festival celebration at Hajo
Place

Hajo

Hayagriva Madhava temple, Powa Mecca and Buddhist associations make Hajo a rare confluence of pilgrimage.

The stone Hayagriva Madhava temple at Hajo, its curved tower carved with relief panels beside the adjoining hall
Place

Hayagriva Madhava Temple

The stone temple on Manikut hill at Hajo, one of the region's oldest Vaishnava shrines, and held by some Buddhist traditions to mark the site of the Buddha's nirvana.

The Kamakhya temple complex lit at night: a cream-and-gold mandapa with a red-banded base in front, dark stone beehive shikharas of the sanctum and subsidiary shrines rising behind, stone steps descending at left
Place

Kamakhya Temple

One of the oldest and most revered Shakti peethas, perched above Guwahati on the Nilachal hill, drawing pilgrims from across the subcontinent.

Whitewashed prayer-hall facade of the Uttar Kamalabari Sattra on Majuli, with an Assamese inscription in the gable, a central doorway and a painted emblem
Place

Kamalabari Sattra

A sattra long regarded as Majuli's centre of culture and learning, and through its Uttar Kamalabari branch the foremost custodian of sattriya dance.

The brick-red ribbed beehive dome of the Navagraha temple rising above the green slope of Chitrasal hill, with smaller shrines beside it
Place

Navagraha Temple

A Saiva-Sakta temple of the nine celestial bodies on Chitrachal hill, long held to be the seat of astronomy that gave Guwahati its old name, Pragjyotishpura.

Large blue ten-headed Ravana mukha mask crowned with smaller faces, standing among unpainted clay masks in the Samaguri workshop on Majuli
Place

Samaguri Sattra

The sattra that has kept alive mukha-shilpa, the bamboo-and-clay mask-making for bhaona theatre, now carried to galleries and stages well beyond the island.

The towering red-ochre brick spire of the Sivadol at Sivasagar glowing in late-afternoon golden light against a deep blue sky, framed by a tall palm
Place

Sivasagar Sivadol

Built by queen Ambika under Siva Singha. Stands beside Vishnudol and Devidol on the south bank of the great Sivasagar tank.

Aerial view of the white-domed Umananda Siva temple and its red-roofed shrines on the wooded Peacock Island, the Brahmaputra surrounding it
Place

Umananda Temple

On Peacock Island in the Brahmaputra opposite Guwahati. The shrine was raised by Ahom king Gadadhar Singha in 1694, on a site of much older Saiva worship.

Waterfalls & Natural Wonders

Waterfalls, hill pools, lagoons and river islands: the valley's landscapes beyond the parks.

A large brightly painted effigy of Garuda with a crowned eagle head and outstretched green-and-red wings, raised under a festival canopy at Auniati Sattra
Place

Majuli

Vaishnavite monastic culture founded by Srimanta Sankardev in the 16th century. Mask-making, satriya dance, an ecology that shifts with every flood.

Places · Storied Assam