Hornbill Festival
Nagaland's tribes gather at Kisama for ten days of dance, music, craft and food each December.
The Hornbill Festival was started by the Government of Nagaland to bring the state’s tribes together in one place, at one time of year. Each of Nagaland’s recognised tribes keeps its own festival calendar tied to sowing and harvest; Hornbill was conceived as a single gathering where all of them are represented, and where visitors can see them without travelling to sixteen separate districts.
It is held at the Naga Heritage Village at Kisama, a purpose-built site a short drive from Kohima. The ground is laid out as a ring of morungs — traditional bachelors’ dormitories — one for each tribe, built and maintained in that tribe’s own architectural style. Inside each, the community hosts: food, rice beer, textiles, carving, and elders who will explain what you are looking at.
The programme runs to folk performances, log-drum pulling, indigenous games and wrestling, craft stalls and a night market in Kohima itself. The festival takes its name from the great hornbill, a bird that recurs across Naga folklore and in the feather ornamentation of ceremonial dress.
Kohima sits at around 1,500 metres and December nights are cold. Accommodation in the town books out well ahead of the festival, and Nagaland has historically required domestic visitors to carry an Inner Line Permit — check the current rules before you travel.