Himalayan India

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Wednesday 11 June

Very wet when we left Dharamsala at 9am but it dried up fairly soon & we made a worthwhile detour from Baijnaith to Sherabling Monastery as recommended by Jane Perkins. We followed a small road through farmland & then up through woods to the top of the hill where we were met by a row of 108 very bright white chortens. The temple itself was beautiful with lots of inticate wood carving often out of a single piece of wood & then brightly painted. Inside was very colourful with many beautiful Thangkas. There were rows of desks for the monks many with bells or horns to play music during the ceremonies.

We travelled on past farmers working on their terraced fields, smoothing out the mud with an oxen drawn wooden tool, getting ready to plant rice.

We stopped in Mandi for lunch before following the Beas River along the valley. It was a narrow valley with steep sides in part with many trees with pastures in between with cows, sheep & goats.

Eventually we reached Manali about 6pm. It seemed a very busy town especially in the centre with lots of tourists & shops. We are staying at Manu Allaya which is up the hill on the east side of Manali so we get good views of the mountains behind Manali town from our balcony.


Thursday 12 June

We drove to Naggar, a nice village south of Manali, to visit The International Roerich Memorial Trust. There was a fine old house that was Nikolai Roerich's home which had a display of his & his son's paintings downstairs & upstairs we peered through the windows from the balcony to view their living quarters.

We struggled up the hill to see the Himalayan Folk & Art Museum which had a display of local costumes & artifacts.

We strolled down the hill, past two ladies walking up the hill shepherding some cows & at the same time as walkinf they were knitting colourful socks. We enjoyied the views of the valley, orchards & farmland before we had to start climbing again. This time it was even harder as we had to climb up uneven steps & rough track through beautiful woodland until we eventually reached the Murlidhar Krishna Temple which was set high up on a ridge above Naggar. We received a good welcome, enjoyed the great views & saw inside the quaint old temple said to be 5000 years old.

We walked back down past the pagoda style Tripura Sundari Devi Temple & on to Naggar Castle which has recently been renovated & become a hotel. It has nice wood carvings around the windows & a pretty courtyard with a big tree in the middle & suoer views over the valley. There was also a small Jagtipath Temple in the grounds which contained a stone slab said to have been carried there by wild bees.

In the late afternoon we ventured out again to have a look round the centre of Manali, the shops & the Dhungri (or Hadimba) Temple which was erected in 1553 in the centre of a magnificant forrest of hugh trees. The Temple is a 4 storied wooden building with wood carvings. It is popular with visitors & all around were people selling things or offering rides on very smartly brushed white or black yaks or offering to let you take their photo with big, very fluffy white rabbits - all for a price of course,

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