About Assam: ASSAM is a miniature India, a varitable melting pot of diverse races, creeds, cultures and religions making it an anthropologist's delight. Many of the principal races of the world migrated to this region in course of time. But due to its geo-political remoteness, the rest of world know very little of Assam. It is in this state the famous game reserve at Kaziranga is located, where people from the world over come to meet the celebrated one-horned India rhinoceros. Manas is another such location famous for the last bastions of the Golden Languor (now on the verge of extinction). Its tea, of course, is very famous all over the world. The mighty Brahmaputra, the holy temple of Kamakhya, oil fields etc. are few images conjured up whenever Assam is mentioned. Culturally Assamese Bihu and Satriya dances are a part of great Indian national heritage. This state, along with Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Nagaland, Mizoram,Meghalaya and Tripura; with which it has close cultural and other affinities; forms the eastern most sector of india, having borders with Myanmar and Bangladesh. Its physical geography is one of the most fascinating in the country, with its extremely rich landscape, endless tracts of dense green forests, its blue mountains, lush grassy plains, and its deep, wide, rapid rivers. Nature is wild and virgin here. Its beauty has a pristine freshness unmatched elsewhere. The monsoon forests are among the world's richest sources of interesting flora and fauna. Its vegetation is composed of trees and plants which represent all climatic zones from tropical to temperate. The orchids and lilies are of the most enchanting hues. Its wild life includes elephant, tiger, wild buffalo and rhinoceros.

In such a magnificent setting dwell people whose dress makes a most interesting study for students of design. It is interesting because there are so many tribal groups and subgroups inhabiting the state, that a number of distinctive costumes appear. Because of the great diversity of the dresses of the numerous tribes of Assam, it is possible only to note the colorful features of some principal tribes. There is one ensemble that can be called the traditional costume of the Assamese women. It is known as the "mekhala and chadar". The dresses of most Assamese women, whichever tribe they may belong to, can be called variations of the mekhala and chadar.

Geographically Assam is a shadow of its former self. It has been reduced to one third of its original size in thirty years of time. There are different opinions on the origin of the name "Assam". Some say that Assam is called so because of its unequal terrain - that is hills interspersed with valleys. They rely on a similar-sounding Assamese word "Axom" meaning unequal. This explanation appears to be far fetched. A more acceptable version is that Assam is only the anglicised version of 'Asom' - which was the name the Ahoms gave to the country, when they conquered it.