A Second Day on Majuli

This was probably a mistake on my part. I walked around yesterday and found my way to one of the satras. And I was somewhat disappointed. I'm not sure what I expected. The way the brochure talks about these places, it sounds as though there is some kind of opportunity to learn about the cultural areas the satras preserve. I guess I was may have been expecting some kind of learning center at Auniati Satra where I could learn more about apsaras and the dances they are famous for. And I found a sleepy-looking monastic spot with nobody really around and nothing happening.

The locals are interesting, but they are just people and not much different from people I met around Jorhat or Tezpur. The culture of the island is similar to other island cultures that I have encountered and overall, I'm kind of bored. I suppose there is plenty of opportunity to get to know people and they are interested in visitors and like to talk to them and get to know them. But that's not much my thing. And I have other priorities.

Yet, I stayed another day. And I went for another walk. And it was much like the walk of yesterday, except I didn't encounter anyone who dragged into their home and offered me tea. I saw many of the same sorts of scenes and scenery. I think I probably should have left today. Or I should have tried to find another of the satras, the mask-making one. Perhaps I would have found some kind of learning center there and might have been more interested. I don't think I will look back and regret that I didn't do that, but I do wonder if it would have turned out better if I had done that.

What I did find today though, was a couple of things that show what they do here. One appears to be a cottage industry of weaving. I would suspect that women do this, as there seems to be fairly defined gender roles, at least in the northeast. I don't know for sure if different houses engage in different parts of the manufacturing process, but I did see one woman making thread, and there were other houses with looms under them.

And another thing that seems to be fairly prevalent on the island is also somewhat amusing. As I found yesterday they live life at a height of about 3 to 5 meters on the island, most likely in an effort to thwart the floods. But when they built their levees, either big vehicles had not yet come to island, or it just required too many resources to make the levees wider and able to accommodate two lanes of traffic. As a result, the roads here are only really one vehicle wide with it being possible to squeeze two vehicles past each other at some points. But...

...sometimes they miscalculate. This must require the efforts of some large number of people to rectify. This was the second time I witnessed this kind of scene in only the couple of days I have been here.

And so now, I will head off the island tomorrow morning and go and see some animals. At least I hope I will be seeing some animals. I may also try to wander around in a tea estate near Kaziranga, but it is time to more into more mainstream India.