On Thursday 20 November over 40 Members and guests of the Society enjoyed wine and cheese in Monte Estoril before a fascinating talk by Carol Mason on her recent travels to NE India. The talk was divided into three parts: Nagaland, the Battle of Kohima and Assam.
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The Naga tribe on the border with Burma (Myanmar) were head-hunters until as recently as the 1960s. Carol described the landscape of Nagaland, where she went on a trek in the mountains, its people and their traditions and history. We were shown slides of their craftwork and of the colourful annual Hornbill Festival, with video clips of the dances and local sports. The Nagas are predominantly Christian, resulting from the proselytizing by American missionaries in the late 19th century, and Carol played a clip of the beautiful singing of choruses by the Naga in a Baptist church.
Kohima, the capital of Nagaland, is the site of one of the greatest battles in history. It took place in 1944 and turned the tide of the Burma Campaign against the Japanese, who were forced to retreat and eventually surrendered the following year. Fittingly, 2025 marks the 80th Anniversary of VJ Day - Victory over Japan. We were shown period photographs of the British Corps Commander, General ‘Bill’ Slim and of the Japanese Commander Generall Mutaguchi, who launched the Japanese 15th Army from Burma against the British and Indian Army forces of the 4th Corps at nearby Imphal. The heroic Anglo-Indian troops fought for two weeks at nearby Kohima against nearly ten times as many Japanese, repulsing a staggering 25 attacks until reinforcements arrived, with fighting taking place from either side of the District Commissioner’s tennis court, which has been preserved to this day.
The neighbouring state of Assam is forever associated with tea, but Carol also shared her experiences of some other very interesting and different aspects of this remote corner of the Indian subcontinent, including links to Portugal, such as the introduction of chili peppers and pineapples from Brazil. In Assam, Carol visited the renowned Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve, where she saw Asiatic elephants, the elusive Bengal tiger and one-horned rhinos, one of which was famously gifted by the Portuguese discoverers to King D. Manuel I in 1514 and immortalized in the Tower of Belém. To end her fascinating trip, Carol travelled by boat along the massive Brahmaputra river and she shared photos of the majestic scenery and sunsets and recount how she was fortunate enough to have had fleeting sightings of the rare Ganges river dolphin.
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After the talk 15 participants repaired to the nearby ‘Adega do Monte’ restaurant for dinner.
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