Majuli sits in the middle of the Brahmaputra in Assam, and it is the largest river island in the world. It is also shrinking. A century ago it covered well over 1,200 square kilometres. Today the figure is closer to 350, and each monsoon the river takes a little more.
You reach it by ferry from Nimati Ghat near Jorhat. The crossing takes about an hour and sets the tone for everything after it: slow, wide, unhurried.
What is actually there. Majuli is the centre of Assamese Vaishnavite culture. Its satras — monastic centres founded from the fifteenth century onwards — are still living institutions, not museums. Monks at Kamalabari and Auniati perform sattriya dance and mask-making that has been passed down for five hundred years. The mask workshops at Samaguri Satra are worth the trip on their own.
Beyond the satras there are Mishing tribal villages on stilts, potters working without a wheel, and in winter, migratory birds in serious numbers.
When to go. November to March. The monsoon makes the crossing difficult and the island itself harder to move around.
How to stay. Bamboo cottages and homestays, mostly near Garamur and Kamalabari. Expect simple. That is the point.
Go before the river decides otherwise.
