McLeodganj is the easiest place to live in - so it was time to step out of the comfort zone, loop down the winding roads from our deodar covered ridge and see what the rest of Himachal Pradesh has to offer.
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| The solid walls of Kangra Fort |
At 7.30 am one recent hazy morning, we jumped into the Suzuki Maruti taxi with our friend Sachin and his mate Sonny behind the wheel (and a spare battery in the passenger foot well) and headed down the Kangra Valley, following the Beas River.
First stop was the stone pile of Kangra Fort, defensively perched high on a 100 metre arrete between two rivers and only accessible across a narrow tongue of land, and even then only by crossing a defensive ditch and passing for 200 metres under a crenelated curtain wall pierced by arrow slits.
Captured and recaptured several times by Muslim armies over 600 years from 1009, the fort was permanently taken by the troops of Moghul emperor Jahangir in 1622 after a 14-month siege. But even so, all Jahangir could do was garrison the fort; the remainder of the surrounding valley remained in the hands of the Khotok princes, whose family still live locally and hold the royal title of Kangra.
After push-starting the Maruti down hill (Sonny came to the fort with us rather than putting in the new battery), we checked out the local private museum of the Khotok princes and were enthralled and appalled by the opulent trappings of their life while their subjects were living in medieval squalor. But dropping my modern democratic sensibilities, I can see the attraction of solid silver beds, cloth of gold howdah cushions, and gold bullion on your sari fringe.
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| Musrur temple complex: carved from a sandstone hill |
Executing a hill start thanks to the new battery, the Maruti took us to the 8th century Musrur temple - dedicated to Lord Shiva and carved out of the living sandstone hilltop. The compact but impressive complex of Bodhgaya style temples is carved peaked stone domes decorated with smiling amorous deities, acanthus curls, diamonds and lozenges. However, the gods in the temple sanctuary are disconcertingly primeval and raw: three ancient black barely shaped lumps of stone adorned with red and gold. They exude ancient power at odds with the neat dancing deities outside.
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| The primitive gods of Musrur |
The Maruti’s final destination that day was Maharana Pratap Sagar, a lake designated as Ramsar wetland and therefore internationally significant for migratory birds. The lake is 40 km long and 10 km wide; it was created in the 1970s for hydro power.
Despite the help of local ornithologist Mr Mukesh, the lake that day was not great natural history experience, even allowing for the fact that we were a couple of weeks early for the big migration flocks. Up to half the world’s population of bar-headed geese rely on Pong Dam - its unfortunate alternative name - to survive the winter.
The lake had receded to its reduced autumn size and the mud plains all around the edge where the exhausted and hungry birds will gather to feed and rest over the coldest months were being grazed by cattle and horses churning up the mud, trampling the edges and fouling the water.
What were the many fishing boats catching? The water was thick with green algae because of the high nutrient levels from the stock excretions.
The haze from the burned-off crops in the Punjab made the lake atmospheric and strange.
It was a pensive group who headed back to the Maruti as the sun set.
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| Beautiful reflections but dreadful water quality management: horses and Ramsar designation don't mix |
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