ITANAGAR, Feb 4: Deputy CM Chowna Mein invited tourists from abroad, including the Southeast Asian countries, to visit and enjoy the pristine beauty of nature and the vast cultural diversities of Arunachal Pradesh.
Highlighting the state’s tourism potential during an interaction with a research team from Thailand recently, Mein said, “Arunachal is a unique example of ‘unity in diversity’.
“Ours is a dynamic state with numerous tribes and sub-tribes that have their own distinct identities, cultures and dialects living together for ages. Despite the challenges faced with the advent of modernity, every community is zealously preserving their age-old cultural heritage,” Mein told the visiting team.
The research team from Thailand-based Mahidol University’ Research Institute for Languages and Cultures
of Asia recently visited the Golden Pagoda at Tengapani. The team, headed by Dr Kanopporn Wonggarasin, is currently in Arunachal Pradesh to study the tribal culture of the state.
The Golden Pagoda, also known as ‘Kongmu-kham’ in the Tai Khamti language and built in 2010 at the initiative of the DCM to promote spiritual tourism, is becoming one of the major tourist destinations in the eastern part of Arunachal.
As per the official record, more than 1 lakh tourists – both domestic and foreign – annually visit the Golden Pagoda, with an average of 7000 visitors during peak season weekends.
Forty percent of the foreign tourists are from South East Asian countries, a majority of whom are from Thailand and Myanmar. They form 80 percent of the international tourists, which is mainly due to their cultural and religions similarity with the Tai-Khamti people of Namsai district.
The huge annual turnover of tourists at the Golden Pagoda proves that the spiritual tourism can be a way forward to boost tourism industry in Arunachal Pradesh, besides ecotourism, adventure tourism, cultural tourism, etc.
Similar tourist inflow can also be seen in Lohit district during the Parashuram Kund Mela.
Pilgrims who often come to Namsai also visit Tezu and Roing, the district headquarters of Lohit and Lower Dibang Valley district, respectively, and Mayudia to see and enjoy the snowcapped mountains there. (DCMO)
