जगहें

KanglaविरासतImphal West

The old walled seat of Meitei rule on the bank of the Imphal river, with moats, ceremonial platforms, ponds and the pair of Kangla Sha — the white dragon-lion figures that guard it. It is the ritual and historical centre of the valley and is open to visitors.

सबसे अच्छा समय: October–March.

Ima KeithelशहरीImphal West

Three market halls at the centre of Imphal in which every one of several thousand stalls is held by a woman. Vegetables, fish and ngari in one, textiles and household goods in another. Stalls pass between generations, the traders are addressed as ima, and the arrangement has functioned for well over a century.

सबसे अच्छा समय: Morning, any day.

Loktak Lakeप्रकृतिBishnupur

The largest freshwater lake in the Northeast, and the only one whose surface is partly solid. Phumdi mats support fishing settlements, floating huts and cut rings of reed, and the lake supplies the valley's fish, its reed craft and its water. A barrage built downstream in the 1980s for hydropower holds the level far steadier than it once was, which has changed how the phumdi behave.

सबसे अच्छा समय: November–March.

Keibul Lamjao National Parkवन्यजीवBishnupur

The only floating national park in the world — about 40 km² of phumdi, and the last wild habitat of the sangai. The deer walks on a surface that gives under it, which produced the springing gait it is named for. The population was believed extinct in 1951 and a small group was found alive two years later.

सबसे अच्छा समय: November–March.

MoirangविरासतBishnupur

The lakeside town of the Khamba-Thoibi epic and of the Thangjing shrine, and the source of the Moirang Phee weave. Its Lai Haraoba is among the most fully observed in the valley.

Shri Govindajee Templeतीर्थImphal East

The Vaishnav temple beside the old palace complex, with twin gilded domes and a large open hall built for Sankirtana and Raas. Raas is performed here on the appointed full moons, and the building's plan is designed around a form of worship that is danced.

AndroविरासतImphal East

A fringe village of the Chakpa community known for hand-built pottery, for its old ritual site and for a cultural complex documenting the valley's pre-Vaishnav practice. The pottery is made without a wheel and fired in the open.

KhongjomविरासतThoubal

A hillock east of Imphal with a memorial to the fighting of 1891, and the site referred to in the ballad form that carries its name. A memorial day is observed here each April.

SekmaiविरासतImphal West

A village on the north-western fringe long identified with distilled rice liquor, and with its own weaving. The name functions in the valley as a designation of origin in its own right.

Kainaतीर्थImphal East

A wooded hillock held to be the site of the eighteenth-century dream in which the king was directed to carve the image of Govindajee from a jackfruit tree — the origin account of the valley's Vaishnav institution and of the Raas that came with it.

Loukoipat and the valley wetlandsप्रकृतिImphal East and Thoubal

Shallow lakes and marsh remnants scattered across the floor, the surviving fragments of the much larger water body the valley once was. They carry migratory waterfowl from November.

सबसे अच्छा समय: November–February.

Mapal KangjeibungशहरीImphal West

An open ground in the centre of Imphal used for Sagol Kangjei, and described locally as the oldest polo ground still in use anywhere. Matches are played on Manipuri ponies, which stand about twelve hands.

Manipur State MuseumविरासतImphal West

The valley's collection of textiles, ritual objects, pena and other instruments, manuscripts in Meitei Mayek and the royal boats. The most efficient single introduction to everything else in this file.