East Siang Adi Tribe Apong Rice Beer Brahmaputra Arunachal Pradesh

East Siang district in central Arunachal Pradesh on the Brahmaputra (Siang river) gorge is the homeland of the Adi tribal people — one of Arunachal's largest tribes — whose Gallong, Minyong, and Padam sub-groups produce Apong (millet/rice beer) as the central social and ritual beverage, woven donyi-poloist textiles, and practice semi-nomadic agriculture (shifting cultivation and settled paddy). Pasighat, the district headquarters, is Arunachal's oldest town (1911 British administrative post). The Siang gorge — where the Yarlung Tsangpo from Tibet emerges as the Dihang before becoming the Brahmaputra — is one of the world's deepest river gorges and a proposed hydropower mega-project site. The district grows orange, ginger, and large cardamom as cash crops.