Footprints of the Cultural Linkages of the Past: North East India and Southeast Asia

The North East region of India is known as the melting pot of different ancient cultures. The wave of migration in the remote past took place from Southeast Asia and from the Tibetan plateau to the region as the communities might have found the region pleasing with habitational qualities. Though North East India and Southeast Asia are two different regions in the eastern part of India but are physically contiguous landmasses if we forget the boundary restrictions for a moment. Still there is not much of cultural anthropological literatures on the ancient linkages on the various communities of the two regions. A good bit of socio-cultural and socio-religious similarities are observed among a few of the communities even today. The Sangken festival as observed among the Khamtis of Arunachal Pradesh is also the fiesta among a few communities in Thailand and Myanmar and is observed almost in the same time of the year with the Khamtis. It is just an example. The present attempt is just to provide under one single title the history of migration and the present socio-cultural socio-economic as well as socio-religious life of most of the communities of North East that have made the region their own since antiquity.