NAGALAND OPENS ITS MORUNGS: 17 TRIBES, 300 EVENTS, ONE SINGLE VILLAGE!
In the far north-east of India, where the hills touch the Burmese border, an entire village is about to become the capital of cultures. From December 1 to 10, 2026, the Naga Heritage Village of Kisama, near Kohima, hosts the 27th edition of the Hornbill Festival — ten days during which the 17 great tribes of Nagaland, and their sub-tribes, gather in one place, each in its traditional house.
For that is the heart of the festival: the morungs. These great houses, once the living and transmission places of each community's young people, line the heritage village of Kisama. For ten days, each one becomes a stage: warrior dances and ancient songs, headdresses of hornbill feathers — the hornbill, the emblem bird that gives the festival its name —, weavings, wood carvings, and the scents of a cuisine unlike any other in India.
Created in 2000 by the Nagaland government to keep this heritage alive “in all its ethnicity, diversity and grandeur”, the Hornbill has grown far beyond Kisama: the preparations announced in October 2026 speak of more than 300 events spread over dozens of venues across the State. People come for each tribe's cultural performances, but also for Naga wrestling, traditional archery, competitions seen nowhere else — the Naga King Chilli contest, among the hottest peppers in the world, or the finest pineapple contest —, crafts, looms and concerts, including the Hornbill Music Festival that makes December nights vibrate.
And the world is starting to look toward Kisama: several countries have expressed interest in the 2026 edition, according to the official preparations chaired by Nagaland's Chief Minister. There is something rare here: a festival born of a will to transmit, which has never renounced its roots — celebration as guardian of cultures, encounter as programme. For a Festival Explorer, it is a land of evidence: from December 1 to 10, it is in Kisama that India will show one of its most singular and joyful faces. The Hornbill Festival's full fact sheet joins our directory today, in the Asia section.
Practical information
Hornbill Festival — 27th edition, December 1 to 10, 2026 (10 days).
Naga Heritage Village, Kisama (about 12 km south of Kohima), Nagaland, India — additional events across the State. Organizer: Government of Nagaland (Tourism and Art & Culture departments).
Tickets: prices not published in the sources consulted (checked October 17, 2026) — ask the organizer.
— Moïse 1er, the Festival Explorer