Mizoram’s rhododendron season: a hill state’s quiet festival of flowers
When the rhododendrons bloom on Phawngpui, Mizoram's 'blue mountain', the whole state walks.
Each spring, the slopes of Phawngpui — Mizoram’s highest peak, the ‘blue mountain’ — explode into rhododendron bloom, and the state’s quiet flower festival draws walkers from across the hills.
The festival is deliberately modest: no stages, no sponsors, just trails, food stalls and the flowers themselves.
Organisers hope to keep it that way. ‘Some festivals are about the crowd,’ one said. ‘This one is about the colour.’