Mizoram

The everyday Mizo stew of leafy greens, bamboo shoot and other vegetables boiled with a little soda, mild and lightly salted.

Pork smoked over the kitchen fire until dry, then cooked with chillies, ginger and greens.

A simple Mizo dish of boiled pork cooked with mustard greens (antam), ginger and chilli.

A thick, comforting dish of rice cooked with chicken or pork until soft, seasoned with ginger and salt.

Sweet fritters of mashed ripe banana and rice flour, fried until crisp outside and soft inside.

Seasonal vegetables steamed or boiled with little or no oil and eaten with a fiery chilli chutney.

Soybeans boiled and fermented in leaves until sticky and pungent, then cooked with chillies and ginger.

A popular street snack of thin rice porridge topped with fish sauce, crisp fried bits, coriander, spring onion and pepper.

Soft cakes of steamed sticky rice, pounded and shaped by hand, eaten with tea or on festive days.

A fiery pounded chutney of roasted Mizo chillies, ginger, onion and salt that goes with every meal.

River fish simmered with greens, bamboo shoot, ginger and chilli in a light, clear broth.

Tender bamboo shoots stir-fried with garlic, chilli and greens, from Mizoram’s vast bamboo forests.

The best-known Mizo dance, in which women step nimbly in and out of long bamboo poles that men clap together in rhythm.

The 'dance of the guests', performed by men at the old Mizo feast of merit called Khuangchawi.

A lively dance of celebration in which dancers respond to songs (chheih hla) sung by a seated circle.

A dignified dance of the Mara and Lai (Pawi) peoples of southern Mizoram, once performed to mark victory over enemies or in a hunt.

Mizoram's spring festival, held after the forest is cleared for jhum (shifting) cultivation. Its best-known dance is Cheraw, danced between moving bamboo poles.

Mizoram’s capital, a city of houses stacked along steep ridges, with views across green hills and valleys.

A national park around Phawngpui, the highest peak in Mizoram, with forests, grassy slopes, orchids and rhododendrons.

Mizoram’s largest protected area, a reserve of thick tropical forest on the western border with Bangladesh.

A tall, two-tier waterfall in thick forest near Thenzawl, among the highest falls in Mizoram.

The largest natural lake in Mizoram, set among forests in the far south.

A border town above a wide valley of paddy fields, often called the rice bowl of Mizoram.