As many as 11 foreign tourists from UK and Switzerland visited Jessami village in Ukhrul district, promoting the United Nations World Tourism Organisation, UNWTO’s theme ‘Rethinking Tourism: The Real Experience Lies in the Village’ adopted since 2022 by Jessami Tourism and Wildlife Conservation Board.
The European tourists, who were on a two-day tour to Jessami, got to experience a different taste of tourism at the historic village, stated a release. The visiting team featured renowned WWII historian, Robert Lyman; proprietor Battle of Imphal Tours, Yaiphaba Kangjam and granddaughter of the famous Lt Colonel William Brown, Charlotte, it stated.
It highlighted the scenic landscapes of Jessami village, nestling on a hillock surrounded by lofty mountains on all sides with three rivers namely Thetsii, Lanye and Tizu traversing through Jessami's homeland. It recounted that a global World War II event popularly known as the ‘Battle of Jessami’ took place in the village fought between the 1st Assam Regiment of the Allied Forces and the 31st Division of Japanese soldiers from March 28, 1944, to April 1, 1944.
A small gathering was also organised with the locals at the Jessami War Memorial site on Tuesday, wherein a wreath-laying ceremony was held as a mark of tribute to the fallen heroes followed by a speech from Charlotte and Lyman, it stated. A similar event was also organised in the battlefield site at neighbouring Kharasom village, it added.
The team also visited ‘Jessami Hume’s Pheasant Community Reserve’, created in 2022 spearheaded by the Jessami Village Council with an aim to safeguard the fast-diminishing population of the endangered bird and later explored the sprawling rice field in the Thetsii valley, it stated. It also mentioned that more than ninety tourists including birders, botanists, battlefield tourists and cultural tourists had visited Jessami since September 2022.
