Guwahati: the goddess temple on the sleeping hill

Gateway to northeastern India, Guwahati overlooks the Brahmaputra River with one of the subcontinent's most venerated tantric temples.

The center, at the foot of the hill where the Kamakhya goddess temple stands, can be comfortably visited by motorized rickshaw.

The Temple of Kamakhya, on a hill dominating the city, remains one of the main tantric Hindu sanctuaries, a pilgrimage site from across the Indian subcontinent.

A few minutes away, the Brahmaputra river, among the world's widest, hosts cruises allowing observation of Ganges river dolphins, an endangered species.

Continuing toward the river island of Umananda, the world's smallest inhabited island on a river, you visit a small temple dedicated to Shiva.

Toward evening, the Fancy Bazaar district animates the trade in tea, produced in the nearby Assam hills' plantations.

The Kamakhya Temple, dedicated to the tantric worship of the mother goddess, hosts a festival every June that draws tens of thousands of pilgrims during the monsoon rain period, considered sacred according to local tradition.

Assam, the region surrounding Guwahati, produces approximately half of all tea cultivated in India, exported to the world since the British colonial era.