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Monday, June 26, 2000
A trip to Mcleodganj
Ambika Bhatt

Ambika Bhatt is an English Literature Grad student from Delhi university. She is fond of writing, poetry and travel.

In Love With The Himalayas

Lonely mountain roads lined on both sides with buttercups and daisies. Snow covered peaks that glow in the last light of the setting sun. Friendly faces smiling up at you. Tranquility that's only a lonely walk in the mountains away. Bright clear night skies seen through the lacy leaves of the tall deodars.

There's a very small town 10 kms. from Dharmshala called Mcleodganj. Dalai Lama settled here after his flight across the Himalayas following the Chinese invasion of Tibet in 1959. With him came around a thousand Tibetans and settled in this small town in the Himalayas. Bringing with them their culture and their friendly hospitality. The monks in their bright maroon and orange dresses add colour to the serene mountainous scenery of the town. There is only one main market place lined with shops of Tibetan silver jewellery, handicrafts and restaurants. The flower children once flocked here in great numbers, they are less evident now but the town is a big favourite with foreigners because of the strong Buddhist culture that this town emanates.


I have been to a lot of hill-stations in the Himalayas but only one place would always stand out distinctly in my mind, and that is Mcleodganj. The town has a character of its own. The friendly Tibetans make the experience an especially enjoyable one. Even the dogs and the monkeys there are friendly. Could have something to do with the mountain breezes!

After giving my MA Final exams I needed to spend some time alone and think about what to do with my life next. I found answers in the mountains. They have answers for everyone if we only search hard enough. Every day I used to go alone to the town and walk around in the market place and sometimes take a small by-lane and discover some pretty mountain road. It's heaven for someone who loves birds and wildflowers. Every crag has a small bunch of ferns or wildflowers to adorn it. Nature is indulgent here. Every leaf, every pebble seems to have some kind of benign influence over them. As if there is a reigning deity for every flower, every leaf, every pebble. One can just sit on the stairs of some shop and look at the children playing and the people walking by. The whole town feels like one protected piece of land where anyone is free to go anywhere. It feels very homely and very safe. The mountains seem to watch over you when you walk there.

There are lots of very clean and inexpensive restaurants there with lovely Tibetan food and a very wide variety of teas. My favourite was their traditional Masala Tea and Mint Tea. One day stands out in my remembrance. I was out alone and it began raining, after a while there was also a hailstorm, I could not return to my hotel so stood inside a shop. The two women who owned the shop gave me a chair to sit and I did. Watching the rain and listening to the young Tibetan boys and girls trying to sing Hindi songs! Even the adults there have a way of laughing that's very childish. They laugh with full abandon. They look like they were not taught to restrain their emotions, they are so close to nature. Even in their characteristics, purely elemental. After a while I went and stood in a Buddhist temple with prayer wheels. Breathing in the cold wind and listening to the symphony of the rain and the hail on the tin roofs. The rain refused to stop so I ran to a restaurant across the road and had hot mint tea. The music of the Himachal natives filling in the ambience. Their music is made of pipes and flutes and high pitched sweet voices. As if they want to compete with the speed of the wind when it hits the mountains and rustles the leaves of the tall deodars.

There are small houses jutting out of the mountains with pots of geraniums on their windows. Every where you go there are smiling faces and sounds of children playing. In the parks for children youngsters come with the guitars and practice music. There is a particular lane in the market place where there are music shops, they play their Buddhist chants which used to make me feel like I am floating down the streets!

There are certain days when the Dalai Lama passes through the town. That day everyone lines the streets, they sit outside the shops and wait, they greet him with a white silk scarf. The Namgyal Monastery is where the monks and nuns gain their training and attend the prayer services. The prayer service in the evening with their pipes, drums and conches is fascinating.

If one's fond of trekking there is a branch of the Indian Mountaineering Institute in Mcleodganj. One can enroll there and go for a trek in the Himalayas. I went for a one-day trek, while I was there, to their base camp called Trund. Its perfectly safe to trek up with a guide from the Institute. The mountains are beautiful. The trek is also not very tough, one just has to want to do it! It's a heavily frequented trekking track by foreigners and trekking groups.

One kilometer uphill from Mcleodganj is Dharmkot where there is the famous Vippassana meditation center. Dharmkot is a very small village but around the meditation center one finds people from other cities and lots of foreigners. An Irish school teacher I met there told me that the place where he is living may be simple but the scenery around him is not! It's a paradise for birdwatchers, almost all Himalayan birds can be found here.

I would never be able to exactly explain what it is about Mcleodganj that attracts so many foreigners and people looking for a quiet week to spend in the mountains. But I do know that if I ever I want to go anywhere again to find some peace of mind I would only think of one place.

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