Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn walks towards Nam Phake on Monday. Picture by Rofique Ahmed

Dibrugarh/Guwahati, Feb. 2: The Princess of Thailand today came calling to a village in Dibrugarh district to get a feel of a people, who, researchers and historians believe, are from the same stock as the Thai royalty.

Expectedly, residents of Nam Phake village were left mesmerised by Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn of Thailand, who reached this afternoon in a special army helicopter from Mohanbari airport in Dibrugarh with an official Thai delegation. She has been accorded state guest status.

Led by Cham Thoun — the village headman — she was accorded a traditional and warm welcome by the villagers dressed in their best. Nam Phake village, on the banks of the Buri Dehing near Naharkatia town in Dibrugarh district, is the exclusive home of the Tai Phake community.

The community, which at present has a population of around 2,000, is also found in some parts of Margherita subdivision and some areas of Arunachal Pradesh.

A Magsaysay winner, the princess — on an “exploratory visit” — interacted with the villagers in Tai language. The conversation was mostly related to academics. “I have come here to get a feel of the people who are so much like us and learn more about them. There is nothing official about my visit. I have come here just for an interaction and I am very pleased to find the people here so enthusiastic,” she said.

The princess, a double MA, visited the two schools in the village — the Nam Phake Middle English School and the Tai Phake High School — and handed over books for students and $500 as personal assistance for the upkeep of both schools. “We are really grateful to the princess for her gesture,” said Ngiyot Weingken, the headmaster of the Tai Phake High School.

The princess also visited a couple of houses in the village, one of them belonging to Ai Janda Gohain. “We are so happy that the princess chose to visit us. We are privileged to have a guest from a royal family,” he said.

Sirindhorn stressed the need to strengthen the bond between India and Thailand to foster closer cultural relations.

The royal entourage will be staying at the Jorhat circuit house and the Tocklai guesthouse tonight. “The guests will be a given a taste of local Assamese food and presented a sarai as a symbol of Assamese culture,” Jorhat deputy commissioner L.S. Changson said.

The delegation will visit North East Institute of Science and Technology in Jorhat and spend a night at Kaziranga National Park. On February 4, the delegation will fly to Sivasagar to see the maidams (burial vaults and mounds of the royal families) and other places of interest like Talatal Ghar. They will return to Jorhat where they will meet a Tai Khamyang delegation, a sub-tribe, and fly back to Delhi on a chartered flight.