Singpho Eco-Lodge

• Location: Inthong, Ketetong, Margherita, Assam.
• Email: singhphoecolodge@gmail.com
• Mobile: +91 9854438896

For the last 20 years, in researching Tribal Languages of Upper Assam and parts of Arunachal Pradesh, I have had the opportunity to stay in tribal villages, to learn the language and learn about the culture and everyday life of village people from many different communities.

These different tribal communities include Tai Aiton, Tai Phake and Tai Khamyang, where Tai language is still spoken and also the Tai Ahom, where unfortunately the Tai language mother tongue has been lost but Tai language lives on in ritual. Then there are the Singpho villages in Upper Assam and the Turung villages, where Singpho language is spoken, in Jorhat and Golaghat. More recently I have had the chance to stay in various Tangsa (Naga) villages from many subtribes, particularly Tonglum, Hakhun, Kimsing, Mossang, Ronrang, Moklum, Longri, Langching, Ponthai, Maitai and Ngaimong.

The Singpho village of Ing Thong, near to Margherita, is a small settlement of just two houses in the middle of a large tea garden. Once upon a time the village must have been larger, because Ing Thong is a Burmese word meaning ‘1000 houses’, but now there are just two. Ing Thong is a special village, though, with two really special tourist attractions – the Singpho Eco Lodge and a wild Horlock’s Gibbon called Kalaya.

When I first went there in 2003, thanks to the generous help of the late Ramjan Ali, I stayed in the house of the local community leader, Mr. Bhupeswar Ningda. In the morning, while waking up, I heard this extraordinary noise. I did not know what it was, but soon a gibbon appeared, a female aged about 30, who is like a family member in this household, and comes to the edge of the house. She is called Kalaya and has been carefully looked after for many years.

In the years that followed, the entrepreneurial family of Ningda, and their son-in-law, Mr. Manje La Singpho, constructed a tourist lodge, the Singpho Eco Lodge. Built in traditional style, up from the ground, made of bamboo with a thatched roof, the Eco Lodge is a gorgeous place to stay for tourists, visitors and researchers like me alike. I was honoured to be the first foreign guest at the lodge, and really appreciate the wonderful food that they make their, traditional Singpho dishes using all manner of local forest vegetables – mostly boiled, and with plenty of chilli but not too many spices. My favourite is bamboo shoot and banana flower, truly delicious!

Traditionally Singpho people take their meal around sunset or a little later and sleep reasonably early, and they also wake early. In the winter season, which is when I usually go there, at around 6 AM people will sit around the fire – maybe outside in the rising sun – to take a warm cup of tea, or, if you are lucky, some rice cooked in a bamboo tube, or some yams cooked in the fire. 

At night, in the Singpho villages, I have enjoyed the telling of stories, stories about the origin of Singpho people or about the life of the Lord Buddha, in whom the Singpho people place great faith and whose teaching they follow. My bonus point as a linguistic......

After all my advice; if you want to have a long term 'Escape Holiday' in Assam and ready to live with a warm heart traditional family out of the hustle and bustle of Assam's unhealthy modernization cum urbanization.....NO DOUBT ONE OF THE BEST OPTION IS TO RESERVE THIS LODGE FOR YOU!

By Stephane Moorey

Photography by Stephane Moorey