Have you ever been to Pasighat? Pasighat, the name of a tiny town and East Siang district headquarters in Arunachal Pradesh is one of must see spot for millions of domestic and foreign tourists. Situated amid the lush green trees, the township remains calm at an altitude of 155 metres above main sea level which was set up in 1911 A.D. That too to help the natives to come down to the plains of Assam to do business.
Armed with this ample evidence, the local tribal people of the area claim that they were the first natives of the entire state who came to the national mainstream. Still they call the East Siang district Arunachal Pradesh’s gateway.
The life line of the district and its people is none but the river Siang. The mighty river starts taking a quiet turn in Pasighat before entering Assam.
The beautiful town covers an area of 4005 sq.kms with a population figure of only 23,000. Earlier Pasighat was a safe abode of Dibu-Marang people before the arrival of the Adi people. These people came to settle here from different hills sides and found it nice to reside.
According to a few scholars, the hills town was named Pasighat after the first expedition of Noel Williamson. Thus, the word 'Pasighat' originates from the word 'PASI', a sub-tribe of Adi. Some others claim that Williamson he met a person (Komli) of Regon clan who was rafting a country boat on the river Siang River. He told the Britisher that his name was Komli Regon who belonged to Pasi near the river yard and later Komli Regon was named as Komlighat and that means as Pasighat. For the air tourists, the nearest airport is Lilabari in Lakhimpur apart from Mohanbari in Dibrugarh district. The tourists can take a ferry across the river Brahmaputra to Oiramghat which is a few km away from Pasighat. But the journey by ferry is not suggested during the rainy season when the mighty river would overflow. The town is also connected with bus, taxi and sumo services from Guwahati, Itanagar and Lakhimpur.
