Jorhat, centre of the world's largest tea industry, also has the Toklai Tea Research Institute and the grandest planter mansion in which celebrities like Edward Vil, Churchill, Lord Wavell, Mountbatten, General Douglas Mac Arthur, General Stiliwell, Prince Philip, Professor Galbraith and Jawarharlal Nehru have all stayed. It is now the Commissioner Upper Assam's office-cum residence. Nearby Majuli, the worid's largest river island, has a 15th century chatra or monastery containing medieval manuscripts, miniature paintings, wall frescoes and musical instruments. Sibsagar was the seat of the Ahom kingdom which lasted from the 13th to the 18th century. Shiv temples set beside enormous rectangular tanks.
Brick palaces with terra cotta friezes and royal vaults resembling Egyptian tombs.
Airy rang ghar pavilions for viewing festivals and elephant fights. Stone bridges, water wheels and irrigation channels that still work. At the spring festival, Mizoram Quaint villages with elongated thatched houses surrounded by rustling coconut and betelnut palms, banana and bamboo groves, lemon and hibiscus trees. Phukhris or ponds full of fish and waterfowl. Shimmering rice fields dotted with white cattle egrets.