Imphal, Manipur Moonrise & Moonset Times

Imphal, the capital of Manipur cradled in a broad oval valley surrounded by blue-green mountain ranges, enjoys a unique geography where the moon appears to rise from behind a near-perfect ring of hills before flooding the flat valley floor with its light. Today's moonrise is at 19:55 and moonset at 05:32. From the Kangla Fort, the ancient seat of Manipur's kings at the city's centre, the moon clears the eastern ridgeline and its amber glow sweeps across the moat's dark water, illuminating the sacred Kangla Sha dragon sculptures at the gates and casting the old citadel's brick walls in a warm, tawny light.

Loktak Lake, the largest freshwater lake in northeast India, lies thirty kilometres south of Imphal and becomes an otherworldly moonscape when the full moon illuminates its floating phumdis, circular masses of vegetation and soil that drift across the surface like dark islands on a silver sea. The Keibul Lamjao National Park, the world's only floating national park within Loktak, shelters the endangered Sangai deer, which can sometimes be spotted by moonlight picking their way across the phumdis on their specially adapted feet. During the dry season from November to March, the valley's atmosphere clears and the surrounding Naga and Chin hills stand out as sharp, dark silhouettes against the moonlit sky, while the Imphal River threading through the city catches the light in its shallow, pebbly stretches.

Knowing moonrise and moonset times helps boatmen on Loktak Lake plan evening excursions to the phumdis for moonlit photography, assists the Meitei communities in observing Lai Haraoba and other festivals tied to the traditional lunar calendar, and guides trekkers on the Imphal-Moreh road in timing rest stops for moonlit views of the Burma Hills on the eastern horizon. Imphal's enclosed valley geography amplifies the moon's effect, containing its light within the bowl of hills and reflecting it off lake and river surfaces until the entire landscape seems to glow from within.