FACIAL TATTOOING Historically famous for their beauty, Apatani women were all too often kidnapped by warriors of the neighbouring Nishi tribes. As a defence , Apatani girls were deliberately defaced. They were given facial tattoos, like graffitied beards scribbled onto living Mona Lisa paintings, and extraordinary nose plugs known as dat fitted into holes cut in their upper nostrils. Some men also have tattoos. Peace with the Nishis in the 1960s meant an end to that brutal practice, but many older women still wear dat. Photography is an understandably sensitive issue, so ask first. Some Apatani women have had cosmetic surgery to remove their tattoos.
Nestled before a curtain of luxuriantly forested foothills, Pasighat, which sits back out on the plains, feels more like Assam than Arunachal Pradesh. The town hosts the interesting Minyong-Adi tribe s Solung Festival (1-5 September). The internet cafe (per hr 60; h7.30am-8pm) is 50m from the Hotel Aane and there s an SBI ATM just along from the sumo stand in the central water chalets malaysia market area.
Trafik BAR (GNB Rd; beers 70; h10am-10pm) This underlit bar has a vast screen for cricket matches or filmi (slang term describing anything to do with Indian movies; in this case, Bollywood music) clips.
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