Ziro Valley

The Ziro Valley, on a gentle plateau at about 1,500 metres in the Lower Subansiri district of Arunachal Pradesh, is one of north-east India's most beautiful and culturally fascinating destinations — a patchwork of emerald rice terraces, pine-clad ridges, bamboo groves, and tidy villages that feels worlds away from the high drama of the Himalaya to the north.

• It is the ancestral homeland of the Apatani tribe, renowned for an ingenious and sustainable system of wet-rice terrace cultivation, fed by a network of hand-cut channels, that has supported the valley for centuries with almost no modern machinery — a living agro-ecological tradition so distinctive that the Apatani cultural landscape has been on UNESCO's tentative World Heritage list since 2014.
• The old Apatani villages of Hong, Hari, and Bamin-Michi, with their bamboo houses, sacred groves, and ceremonial platforms, are the cultural heart of the valley; the elder Apatani women are recognisable by the facial tattoos and nose ornaments of a now-discontinued tradition.
• Ziro draws nature lovers to the Talley Valley Wildlife Sanctuary (a pristine forest of silver fir and orchids), the Kile Pakho ridge for valley panoramas, the Meghna Cave Temple, and the pine groves around Dolo Mando.
• Every September, the valley hosts the Ziro Music Festival, one of India's best-loved open-air independent-music gatherings, with bands playing under the pines.
• An Inner Line Permit is required.
• The valley is at its most beautiful in the weeks before harvest, when the terraces turn from emerald to gold and the Apatani villages move to the rhythms of the rice cycle.
• For vegetarian travellers, the Apatani kitchen offers plenty: rice with leafy mountain greens, steamed and stir-fried bamboo shoot, pumpkin and beans, millet, and the fermented bamboo-and-chilli condiment that enlivens every meal.
• The best months are March to October, with the Music Festival in September a particular draw.