 India's northeast is a distant region surrounded by Tibet, Myanmar, Bangladesh and Bhutan. The entire area is linked to the rest of the country by a narrow land corridor known as the chicken's neck, barely 20 kilometers wide at its narrowest. There are seven states here, Arunachalpadesh, Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura, Mizoram, Manipur and Nagaland. Its fertile soil is watered by great rivers like the Brahmaputra and Lohit, fed by Himalayan snow and monsoon rain. The Brahmaputra divides the northeast and its influences felt across valley and hill. The Brahmaputra is a life force. It dominates Assam. Today's Guwahati, the commercial capital of the region, sprawls along both banks of the Brahmaputra. The ancient kingdom of Manipur is among the smaller states of the northeast with a population of about 2 million. Its name literally means the land of gems and has been referred to in historical accounts as Mekli, Kasai and Katha. The war of swordplay, a light body leaps and swerves, his figure and weapon cleaving the air. This is Thangta, one of Manipur's ancient martial arts. Tripura is another ancient kingdom that some historians say is the same land that finds mention in the Mahabharata, the great epic of love, war, deceit and divine power. The older traditions are to be seen in the massive rock cuts of Unakoti in the north of Tripura, which are said to be at least 900 years old and date to the Kachari era. Mizo Rum is one of the youngest states of India. It was born in 1986 and has a population of about 700,000. The Mizos are part of the Kukichin community, which lives on either side of the India-Mianmar border. Nagaland was formerly inaugurated as India's 16th state in 1963 and has borders with Myanmar, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam and Manipur. There are 16 major tribes and numerous sub-tribes. Meghalaya, a bud of the clouds, land of mist, rain and waterfalls. Arunachal Pradesh is perhaps the most diverse and spectacular of all seven states. This is the land of the rising sun as it sprawls over more than 80,000 square kilometers, making it the largest state of the northeast.