Revival of traditional arts, crafts, and textiles on the Silk Road We just returned from 17 spectacular days in Uzbekistan. Read on for high

Market visits to gentle village-to-village walks provide the best interaction with Odisha's rich tribal diversity.

Early one morning on our Kutch Textile Tour, we stumbled serendipitously upon a village with a rich textile tradition. (Actually, all villages in Kutch have a rich textile tradition. It just makes for a great start to my post). Now, this Meghwal village is a favourite with E.Y.H.O. textilers. The landscape here is harsh with a fierce sun and desert scrub for vegetation. With frequent droughts and periodic earthquakes, life is difficult. It’s a wonder its people aren’t cowed b

Softer than soft. In Bumthang Valley, I discovered a textile treasure. Yak wool is typically coarse, but the babies born in early spring hav

Tucked away in India’s “Wild East” is the state of Assam. With wide open spaces, silk weaving, tea plantations, and thriving wildlife reserves, it is surprisingly absent from the tourist radar. That is exactly the sort of place for an E.Y.H.O. tour. For seven days, my husband and I explored Assam. Atop an elephant, we swayed through Kaziranga, home of the rare one-horned rhino. Kaziranga is one of the few success stories in the world of rhino conservation. The rhino populatio

Many centuries ago, two Indian territories fought a long and vicious war. As the dust settled, the new king executed the defeated king. His newly widowed queen feared that the victorious king would also kill her son, the prince. That night, after the sun had set over the blood-soaked earth, the queen summoned her most trusted maid, an Ahir woman named Dhuna Makwani. She begged Dhuna to hide the prince. Dhuna Makwani, who had a son of the same age as the prince, swore an oath