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McLeod
Gunj
By Mehru Jaffer
The minute Murghan realized that he was named after
one of Lord Shiva's sons, he stopped to feel at home in his village on the shores of
Kanyakumari. The Himalayas descended down to haunt him and he craved to
crawl up to the heights of Kailash, the mythical abode of Shiva.
Just a little satiated now from all the wandering around the bosom and slopes of Himachal
Pradesh, Murghan has made Dharamkot his home for the moment.
Busy at a mountain side restaurant perched against the emerald green view of the Kangra Valley below, and the
snow white peaks of the Dhauladhar range above, the 24 year old South Indian serves as a dark beauty spot on
the fair face of the Himalayas. Besides he musters up the most delectable pancakes
ever eaten on this side of the magic mountain and remains only one of the colourful characters to dwell
in Dharamkot. It is said that 90 percent of the back packers who
stop by in Dharamkot are from Israel. Unlike Murghan it is not always dharma that attracts so many
youngsters to this Himalayan village but the supreme surroundings available at an extremely affordable
price.
"We are paid a handsome salary by the army in Israel. But after our training and before starting regular
work we want to take a break," said Mat who is
traveling with a group from Israel, many of whom are tired of the on-going war back home. Now they cannot
have enough of the peace and quiet of the majestic mountains here.
The first residents of Dharamkot say that they had also fled those who tried to forcefully convert them
about half a millennium ago. The semi nomadic Gaddi people trace the name of their community to the times
when they became custodians of the seat (gaddi) of Shiva. It is these people who keep the spirit of Shiva alive
here in the red flags that constantly contrast with
the greenery around. The flags are spotted flying everywhere from the top of countless temples dedicated
either to Shiva, Durga or the Naga. Descendant of Rajputs, the Gaddis escaped the plains
of Rajasthan to hide on the slopes of the outer Himalayan range of the Dhauladhar under the cover of
tall, dark and very handsome pine trees. Those who remained in the mountains began to rear sheep and
goats and traveled over high passes to seek greener pastures in the summer. Those who made a home in the
valley became farmers, their devastatingly good looks inspiring an entire school, of the Kangra miniature
paintings.
Ajay Singh traces the presence of his family in the KangraValley village of Teara to seven generations.
His ancestors came from the Mankot area of Jaipur and had at one stage owned 60 villages here. That was
then. Today Singh is happy to continue living at Glenmore Cottage, the family house bought half a
century ago from the British in the thicket of Deodar trees. During the monsoons it is not rare to find
Singh hidden behind a smoke of mist that is allowed to constantly float in through half open windows and seen
dancing its way to the rest of the house either in tune to the bhajans of Pandit Jasraj or to the simple
song of the thrush outside. To this existing pastoral paraphernalia Singh has
added three more single room cottages and two compact apartments which he rents out to the likes of Richard
Gere, Hollywood star of Pretty Woman and one of Dalai Lama's most celebrated devotees.
In fact the sleepy settlement of Dharamkot started to wake up only after the arrival of the Dalai Lama of
Tibet to upper Dharamsala, or McLeod Gunj, two
kilometers down the road. By the 1950s McLeod Gunj, named after Sir Donald Friel McLeod,
lieutenant-governor of Punjab a hundred years before,
was reduced to a ghost town. After partition a considerable number of people had left for the newly
created Pakistan in 1947.
Nauzer Nowrojee, owner of the only general store in McLeod Gunj sat twiddling his thumb without a customer
in years when news of the dramatic flight from the Chinese of the Dalai Lama reached him. The master
commerce man and uncle to Rohinton Mistry, famous author of A Fine Balance, got very excited.
In 1960 the Dalai Lama was temporarily camped in Mussorrie along with an entourage of 80,000 Tibetans
including members of his family, teachers and close advisors and Nowrojee promptly invited the Tibetans to
live in McLeod Gunj instead. This way the late Nowrojee saw the home his ancestors had founded in
1860 reincarnated before his very eyes into a bustling
bazaar once more.
However the Tibetans, traffic and tourists have also added to the troubles of this place that is approached
only after a drive past chopped up trees often piled up higher than the mountains and many a naked river
bed shamelessly disrobed of its very water. But it continues to be called Little Lhasa, the only home
that many a Tibetan born in the last four decades knows.
Today the maroon robed monks are found all over the lush, green mountainside inspiring the locals to
nickname them red ants. Over the years the area has also become an attractive destination for the most
profound of Buddhist teachings with institutions like the Tushita Meditation Center running different
courses throughout the year. Unlike most other hill stations that offer endless opportunities to eat,
drink and be merry the environs around Dharamsala also provide an opportunity to feed the soul.
There are huts where lessons in Yoga, Reiki and Tai Chi are readily available and many a lost soul is seen
in constant search of that ultimate but elusive
teacher. It is at the time of the Tibetan new year that falls around every February when the Dalai Lama
himself gives discourses here that Dharamsala awakes up wide, really, living up to its age old name as a
shelter for pilgrims from around the world.
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