Kohima
(2001 pop. 79,000). The capital of Nagaland State in northeastern India, Kohima was built by the British in the nineteenth century. It was the point of farthest Japanese advance into British India during World War II. Spread across a wide mountain ridge at an elevation of 1,495 meters, Kohima formed a pass through which the Japanese hoped to reach the plains of India. A war memorial, immaculate gardens, and a cemetery with twelve hundred bronze epitaphs dominate the town and commemorate the Allies who fell during the three-month Battle of Kohima, which ended in April 1944 after claiming over ten thousand lives.
Above Kohima, the old village Bara Basti—once an impregnable stronghold—boasts a wooden gate adorned with a scimitar of horns of buffalo to greet the visitor as a commemoration of the bravery of the Angami Nagas, one of the sixteen Naga tribes. A complex system of bamboo water pipes irrigates terraces growing twenty types of rice. The state museum is known for its log drum, woodcarvings, Naga jewelry, and figures displaying costumes and lifestyles of the Naga tribes, with their common love of music, dance, and pageantry.
Further Reading
Hutton, J. H. (1921, 1969) The Angami Nagas with Some Notes on Neighbouring Tribes. Mumbai (Bombay), India: Oxford University Press.
This is the complete article, containing 207 words
(approx. 1 page at 300 words per page).
