Dharmashala, a hill station on the spur of mighty Dhauladhar Range is the district headquarters of Kangra. It is the temporary residence of His Holiness Dalai Lama and so gained international fame and is now popularly referred to as Little Lhasa of India.
I took a bus from Amritsar to Pathankot very early in the morning. Then took a bus to Dharmashala. It was an uneventful journey through the peaks and valleys. I made friends with few fellow backpackers. They were from Germany and Spain. Well, one among them was 65years old lady solo backpacker.
From Dharmashala I took another local shared transport up to McLeod Ganj. It looked like backpackers heaven. Budget hotels, eat-outs, bar-restaurants and the colorful market. I took a hotel after bargaining for a while for Rs.600. It had a good view of Dhauladhars. The internet access was excellent here.
After a brief lunch I started hunting for a shared tour to cover local sightseeing. Unfortunately there is no shared transport available. The tourists have to talk themselves with their hotel-mates and share the expenses. I spoke to few and unfortunately they all were taking it easy and wanted to spend time on the market streets! Well, I thought of exploring on foot. I visited the nearby monasteries, Lakes, temple and a waterfall. I hired a taxi for a day-long excursion next day to Kangra Valley andMasroor.
Dharmashala has a tibetan refugee settlement. Monks wandering around is a common sight. There are few monasteries here. Visit to the temporary exile, the Namgyal Monastery, of His Holiness Dalai Lama was good. Though there are tiny sign-boards of No Photography and No shoes allowed, people were seen taking pictures and the monks were feeling hurt. The museum displays info about the abuse on citizens of Tibet and their religion by the invaders. Does it take too much to respect another person's religious beliefs?
The war memorial for the heroes of Himachal Pradesh in the post-independence era is in a very peaceful place. The garden is good for long walks. The artificial ponds, lush lawn and numerous trees here make this place very attractive to peace-lovers.
The HPCA Stadium is an imposing structure when seen from McLeod Ganj. The pretty stadium has the reputation of being a cricket stadium at highest altitude in the world! Painted in bright colors the stadium makes a good contrast with the mist covered Dhauladhars.
The distance between attractions is not more, just 2 to 4 Km. The problem is the steep gradient. A walk to Dal Lake was funny. In the HPTDC brochure, the distance from McLeod Ganj to Dal Lake is 0.4Km but, in reality it is 4Km. I started walking ... after going about a Km I asked a taxi driver and he said it was 4Km. I thought he was bluffing to get me hire a taxi. I went ahead walking ... Then asked a few local pedestrians ... the girl said its another 10min. Even after 15min I couldn't find the lake. I asked again a monk ... he said another half-an-hour! Then after walking for few more minutes I was there at the sacred lake ... green ... on the way back I was asked by few tired tourists ... how far is the lake? I visited the HPTDC office and told them about the correction to the brochure. Hope they will correct it.
The tourist attraction list includes tea gardens ... but, if you have visited places like Munnar, Rajamalai ... nah! skip it! Don't let the travel agent fool you. Kunal Pathri Temple is a small rock temple surrounded by tea gardens.
Bhagsunag waterfalls is just 2Km walk from McLeod Ganj. It is a beautiful little waterfalls which is over-crowded. People were all around and screaming ... I perched on a high rock and watched people. Nothing was running in my mind ... just watching ...
A honeymoon couple (may be)... the man pulled the wife into the cold water and then he thought it would be nice to have a pic. So he looked around, asked another guy standing at the shore and he walked all the way, gave the camera, went back to the water to pose with his wife. After asking few people to move a bit, posing, they stood smiling, the photographer asked the man ... which is the click button? Now, the man walked all the way back and showed the click button and went back to pose again. All this time his wife was standing in the ice cold water very unhappy about the whole thing but still was trying hard to support her husband! Hope the picture came out well! Travel makes people tolerant and builds stronger relationships :)
Interesting event in Dharmashala was that ... few young activists joined by all foreign-backpackers had organized an event ... litter picking to clean Bhagsunag ... I got an invitation to join at my hotel ... well, I joined. I was anyway walking up to the waterfalls so picked some cookie wrappers on the way :) The tourists threw more plastic bottles and wrappers even after watching the volunteers picking the garbage. Incredible Indians!!
---Excursions-The ancient city Kangra
Kangra, Himachal Pradesh is a historical town which is 18Km from Dharmashala. Once upon a time it was Nagarkot, the rich city founded by Chandravanshi Katoch Rajputs. It was a beautiful fort city of rich temples and vast treasure. Gazni Muhammad invaded the fort, looted the temples and took away the treasure as any other Muslim invader did. The Vajreshwari temple was the oldest and wealthiest temples in northern India. Gazni, and then Tughlaqs destroyed it along with the fort and the town. The temple is rebuilt and is still functioning. It is one of the Shaktipeethas. From Dharmashala I took a day-long excursion to Kangra and Masroor temples.
Kangra Fort is the oldest dated fort in India. It is mentioned in epic Mahabharata as Trigarta Kingdom. Raja Bhimasena, second brother of Pandavas, ruled this place. There is a (almost completely) ruined Lakshmi-Narayan temple in the fort. Audio guide is available for Rs.150. But, students get it for Rs.50 only. It gives all the info about the fort and its history, worth all the Rs.50. Kangra Fort is being inspected to be added in the UNESCO World Heritage Sites list.
Kangra valley is one of its kind. The bridges are fantastic, in a different way! See the bridge in the picture below?
And see the road condition over the bridge ... the wooden and metal planks make noise as the vehicle crosses the bridge!
There were many bridges like this :) It was a great trip ... I bought enough Kangra tea as souvenir and also as gift for my Dad.
---Excursions-Ancient city and temple of Marsoor
It is strange that many who visit Dharmashala do not know about Masroor! What is here? ... 15 rock-cut temples which are built in Indo-Aryan style. The richly carved temples are protected monuments. The temple complex is awaiting the entry into the UNESCO World Heritage Sites list.
There was no shared transport available from McLeaod Ganj to Masroor. I had to hire a private taxi which costed me Rs.2000. Expensive huh? Doesn't sound like typical backpacking trip! Checked in all the travel agencies this was the only one who said Yes to the Masroor trip! Others didn't agree at all! Well, I had specifically asked for a "good" driver ... and specified what "good" means. That is ... no speeding, no talking rubbish, no talking loud (yelling), no cutting my lines, not contradicting my lines, no noisy Bollywood songs. So, next day had a Punjabi Jawaan at my Hotel. The car stereo was playing Jai Mata di in very low volume ... He was trying hard to be "good" :) He used to raise the voice and instantly lower it and be nice! Inside he was definitely ... Yeh! Is Queen Victoria ko uthake bahar phenkdoo ... fun ride huh?
It is the only rock-cut shrine in northern India it seems. Rock-cut temples meaning, the temples carved out of free standing rocks/monoliths. It seems there are only four such temples in India.Ratha in Mamallapuram, Kailasa in Ellora, temple complex in Masroor and Dharmnatha temple in Damnar.
The Temple is dedicated to Lord Rama. The Main shrine has stone images of Lord Rama, Sita Devi and Lakshmana.
These temples are in a remote area away from Kangra and hence were saved from the destruction by Muslim-invaders. But, some damage is caused by 1905 earthquake. Many exquisitely carved panels of these temples are on display in the state museum of Shimla.
A pleasant journey through the sanctuary to a wonderful place!
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Click HERE to read next post on Backpacking India series.
If you want pictures please ask me :)
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Scrapbook- A Travel Blog by Kusum Sanu is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
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