Lower Dibang Valley Idu Mishmi Orchid Craft Arunachal Heritage

Lower Dibang Valley district in eastern Arunachal Pradesh is the territory of the Idu Mishmi people — one of Arunachal's smallest tribal groups with unique animist traditions in which tigers are considered ancestral kin and killing tigers is strictly taboo, resulting in one of the highest tiger densities in Northeast India in the Dibang Wildlife Sanctuary. The Idu Mishmi weave distinctive cane-and-bamboo craft (hats, baskets, furniture) and produce mithun (gayal, Bos frontalis) as wealth-animal and ritual sacrifice. Roing town (the district HQ) is the gateway for the Mehao Wildlife Sanctuary — an extraordinarily biodiverse area with over 500 bird species, rare orchids, and the red panda at high altitudes.