[booobooo]

If you are in search of a peaceful religious place for this holiday, then Dharamshala is the place to go for…! Lofty snow peaks, deep gorges, flower bedecked meadows, lush green valleys, fast flowing rivers, enchanting mountain lakes, beautiful temples and monasteries steeped in time, Dharamshala has it all. It has every thing for a perfect holiday and is full of life and peace. This town in Himachal Pradesh is popularly known as the Scotland of India. Its one of the major Buddhist centers in India lies and lies in Kangra valley of Himachal Pradesh. The headquarters of His Holiness the Dalai Lama is also here.

Dharamshala is perched on the high slopes in the upper reaches of Kangra Valley. The place is covered with long deodar forests and overlooked by the Dhauladhar Himalayan ranges. One of the most beautiful hill resorts of North India, Dharamsala is often described as queen of the hills. Situated at a distance of 9 km down of McLeodganj, the city of Dharamsala is divided into two distinct and widely separated sections, Upper and Lower Dharamsala, which differ almost a thousand meters in height. McLeod Ganj, or Upper Dharamsala, is the residence of Tenzin Gyatso- The current Dalai Lama. A substantial community of Tibetan exiles resides in town.

Today Dharamsala is considered as one of the famous tourists’ destinations in the world, famous for its beautiful mountain ranges, temples, lakes and monastery. Dharamsala attracts large number of tourists from entire world. Known for its pristine beauty, Dharamsala is a main hill station in the Kangra Valley - a fertile, undulating valley, lying between the gentle Shivalik hills and the foothills of the mighty Dhauladhars, noted for the beauty of its scenery. Lush terraces, wooded hills, tea gardens and sparkling streams are in plenty in the range.

Other than monasteries, Dharamsala is also the centre for Tibetan culture which adds attraction to the town. The Kangra museum gives an overview of the rich past of the region and on the other hand there are institutes that have been established to preserve the Tibetan art, cultures and traditions.

Since 1959 the residence of the exiled Dalai Lama has been at a place named Mcleodganj in Himalayan India. The town started out as a hill station in the days of the British Raj and takes its name from David McLeod, Lieutenant Governor of Punjab. The climate was refreshing and cool, a welcome change of pace from the 100+ °F days here in the desert of Delhi. I came up to take an Iyengar Yoga course, which I really enjoyed.



It was a very interesting time to be in Mcleodganj because of the issues surrounding the Olympic torch. Every Tibetan was carefully following the events as they unfolded; there were varying opinions as to how good this was for their cause. Overall, I found the Tibetan community to be fascinating. Despite the suffering that these people have born and the oppression they face, I think they maintain a sense of deep happiness. I think this happiness originates from two places. One, there is a natural sense of ease that comes with Tibetan Buddhism. Two, and maybe more importantly, they seem to find joy simply by living and existing. It reminded of my time in the Middle East. Both Israelis and Palestinians are living through a perpetual conflict and, at some points, an out and out war. Still, for different reasons, each one of those parties enjoys a deep sense of meaning in their lives.



First we went to Dal Lake; not so good. It was all muddy and we decided to head on, climbing up in the hills till we came to a point called Neddi's point. It was all mist and clouds over there, and the air felt nice.



We walked around a bit, and then headed off to Mcleodganj. First off we reached this ancient Church called Church of St. John's in the Wilderness, established in a Gothic style in 1852, and in need of repairs. The settings within its set of trees was incredible, and the whole area around it was oh-so-green. We stayed for some time, put some money in the box for donations for repairs, and then headed on.



We reached Bhagsunath temple next, and it was a nice temple, with a plaque bearing the fact that it was the ceremonial temple for the First Gorkha Rifles until they moved out of Dharamshala.

Then we had a choice; it was getting around 5 PM and we could either head off to the falls or to the Dalai Temple (closes at 6 PM). I took the command decision of where to go with the approval of my spouse ), and off we went to the Temple. It was so serene and beautiful, and we could see normally boisterous children also piping down a bit. There were a set of monks meditating, and a dog sleeping right next to them. The conservationist in me was thrilled to see the solar water heating apparatus in the temple. We did not get a chance to see the Dalai Lama since he was not in the location at that point of time.



After spending time over there, we headed in a steep path downhill (thanks to the knowledge of our taxi driver), and visited a Devi's temple in the valley below (and there was almost nobody there except for a couple of locals); we rounded off the first day by visiting the war memorial, setup to honor the armed forces.

Given that we had covered McLeodganj on the first day, the objective was to cover the lower parts of the Kangra Valley and Palampur (and eventually there were a fair number of places that we covered, some good, and for some we wondered why they were there on the tourist map). As usual, there was the discussion about the taxi fares, and eventually we settled (when I say settled, it means that we accepted the quoted rate) on a rate of Rs. 1300 for taking us around.

After a quick breakfast, we got into the taxi for what seemed like a long day ahead of us. The journey was through a hilly road, but nothing too steep nor too rough. The drive was through a beautiful environment, given that the rain had made the whole countryside full of greenery. You just have to look at a photograph to appreciate how green a hill and the valley can be. After a short drive, we reached the first location on our day journey.



We reached a place called The Norbulingka Institute, a center that is dedicated to the preservation of Tibetean culture. Due to Chinese domination of Tibet and the moving of more mainland Chinese into Tibet, there is a fear that the culture of Tibet is being lost. And hence the institute. It is a very beautiful place, with lots of greenery and silence inside. There is a guest house, a doll house, a Buddhist temple and learning place, and a shop that sells Tibetean products.



After spending a fair amount of time in the institute, we moved to the next location in our journey, which was the Chamunda Devi temple. One of the Jwalapeeths, the temple is very famous and gets a large number of disciplines on a daily basis, and many more on auspicious periods. There is a stream flowing just next to the temple, and it is considered holy to take a bath in this stream as well. The shrine also has a beautiful statue of Hanuman and Lord Ram. The temple is located around 20 KM from the town of Kangra.

Once we were done with paying our respects to the deity, we decided to move on, and moved towards the town of Palampur. Palampur is a moderately large town, but somehow we did not find much there to see, except for some tea gardens enroute. We stopped to buy some locally packaged tea right next to one tea garden.

Some distance from Palampur is the Taragarh Heritage hotel, a wonderfully well kept heritage hotel. It is located in a large property, with a wonderful setting of trees and silence. There were a number of foreign tourists over there; additionally, to one side of the compound, there is an historic heritage building that was locked when we went; but we had learnt that it was well maintained.

Next, after some more travel, we reached the ancient Shiva temple of Baijnath. This is a beautiful temple made our of rock, and supposedly first built in the 15th century. It is pretty well maintained now, and is actually a functioning temple, with people coming there to offer prayers; it also has a priest in attendance who does the customary things that are done in a temple. The whole complex comprises of the temple building surrounded by a green area. The surrounding area is essentially full of shops, but you can get a bite to eat if you are hungry.



Where else to go ? There is a park that is built to honor the soldiers who laid down their lives in India's various wars, and is good to spend some time over there. The last place that we went to was an art gallery that houses prints and paintings by Shobha Singh. The actual gallery is not very big, being one big room of a house where his relatives live; you can actually purchase reprints over there for a couple of thousand. If you are an art lover, then you should really visit this place.

After this visit, we had to leave back to the resort as it started raining, and it took us more than an hour in the rain (which was not very hard), but enough that our driver wanted to get back to the safety of the hotel. One advantage of driving in these locations was that none of the roads were steep or winding.

McLeodganj:

Glenmoore Cottages (Colonial & Valley Facing)
Tel. 01892 221010
www.glenmoorcottages.com
@ 750.00

Hotel Green
Bhagsu Road
Tel. 01892 221200/88/90
www.greenhotel.biz
@ 350.00

Hotel Shivalik
Near Surya Resorts
Tel. 01892 221326
@ 500.00

Eateries

Nick’s Italian Kitchen: Pasta & Bakes
Snow Lion: Lemon Curd Cake
Dharamkot’s Pizzeria (2 Kms. From McLeodganj): Pizzas
Hotel Tibet: Tibetan & Chinese

Road : National Highway No.1 connects Dharamsala to Pathankot and Jalandhar. From Pathankot the drive takes about three hours. Dharamsala is also well connected by road to other places in Himachal Pradesh. Apart from this there are three main routes to Dharamsala: Delhi - Chandigarh - Dharamsala (510 km), Shimla -Manali - Palampur - Dharamsala Route (130 km) and Pathankot - Gaggal - Palampur route (105 km). From Delhi and Shimla luxury buses ply to Dharamshala.

[hiambuj]

What a contribution Boo boo.. you are really a good find for BCMT... your travelogues are full with tons of information... you indeed have a very different style of travelogues.. Its pretty informative & urges one to run to the destination at the first chance...

thanks for sharing...

[booobooo]

Thank You Ambuj...Your Words Mean A Lot To Me As You Love To Travel & read It Too.

I Can Answer Any Query pertaining To Himachal Pradesh if Anyone Has Any...

[anupmathur]

Wunderba!!

Comes straight from the heart!

[booobooo]

I Was Actually Waiting For your Comment...

Hope You Like The Format & The Contents.

It's More Like An AIO For Any Wanna Going traveller With A First hand Account.

[KurtRules]

Very Informative, interesting and unique....nicely put in words.....well done!!

[booobooo]

Thank You Kurt...Maybe Some day We can Do Something Together...

[KurtRules]

Thank You Kurt...Maybe Some day We can Do Something Together...

Ahem.....Do something together!!!!!!.... I hope you are referring in context travelling only!!

[booobooo]

We Can Do A To Y & Leave The Z...

[hiambuj]

Ahem.....Do something together!!!!!!.... I hope you are referring in context travelling only!!

& I wanted to ask you about your signature line Vaibhav which says "Its not about the kind of bike you own, its about what you do with it!"
Now what else can be done with bike. ???