About Dharamsala: Dharamsala is the district headquarters of Kangra of Indian State, Himachal Pradesh. A place which means “spiritual dwelling”. This place has a major role in Indian history during various periods. From the earliest times until the British Raj, Dharamsala and its surrounding area was ruled by Katoch Dynasty of Kangra. The Katoch Dynasty is said to be the oldest serving Royal Family in the world.
During mid-1800 century, Dharamsala has witnessed the transformation of Gurkha regiment.
In the year, 1959, when The Tibetan settlement of Dharamsala began in 1959, when His Holiness, the Dalai Lama had to flee Tibet and then Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru allowed him and his followers to settle in McLeod Ganj (in Upper Dharamsala), a former colonial British summer picnic spot. There they established the government-in-exile in 1960.
Now, several thousand Tibetan exiles have now settled in the area, and most live in and around McLeod Ganj in Upper Dharamsala, where they have built monasteries, temples and schools. McLeod Ganj is sometimes known as 'Little Lhasa ", after the Tibetan capital city, or 'Dhasa' (a compound of 'Dharamsala' and 'Lhasa'). It has become an important tourist destination with many hotels and restaurants, leading to growth in tourism and commerce.
Dharamsala is the winter capital of Himachal Pradesh. The Legislative Assembly is at Sidhbari, near the Chinmaya Tapovan Ashram, and the winter sessions of the Government are held there.
The newest attraction of Dharamsala is Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium. This stadium is situated at the height altitude in India and has the most beautiful background. This stadium is the home stadium for the Kings X1 Punjab and Himachal Pradesh Cricket team for Ranji.

Duration of the Trip: We had a trip of 8 days and 8 nights from Bangalore and we had visited Manali - Rohtang Pass – Keylong - Naggar - Manikaran – Dharamsala. However, Dharamsala can be covered within 2 days and 2 nights including the travel time from Manali/Delhi.

Transportation: As I have already mentioned, we travelled to Dharamsala from Naggar visiting Manikaran en route at a cost of Rs 4500/-. For coming back, we took a local bus from Dharamsala bus stop to Pathankot and from there we boarded Jammu Mail to reach New Delhi.
But this is not the common route taken by most of the visitors. There are direct volvo busses available from Delhi /Chandigarh /Manali which drop at the lower Dharamsala. They cost around 1500/- and same applies for coming back to Delhi /Chandigarh/ Manali. For local sight-seeing, we used local cabs. I will provide the details as and where I the situation will arrive. :)

Details of the trip
Night 1: We reached Dharamsala at around 11 pm. Ideally it doesn’t take such a long time to reach Dharamsala, but our cab had a flat tire on the way and the driver had no jack to change the tier. It was difficult to get help from other travelling car as well as they were rare at that hilly road and late night. So we had to wait for almost 2 hours when a car came and helped us. There was no proper restaurant on the way as well or might have been closed at that time. This led us to starve whole night.
We had already booked a room at Hotel Kunal. From our past experiences with HPTDC hotels, we had expected a better service. This is the WORST hotel I had ever stayed. First, we thought of taking the room of Rs 1000/- but the room was dingy and filthy with torn up bedcover. Then we opt for room of tariff 1400/-. This room was also stinking terribly and was not at all maintained. But it was the best room Hotel Kunal could offer us and as it was 12:00 at night, quite late for searching any other option than taking that room. Other than bad smell, the locks in any of the door were not proper and commode was broken. Hotel Staffs were using the vacant room next to our room and watching television in full volume which was really disturbing. After that somewhere around 2:00 am, someone started nailing something which felt like someone was breaking our head. Behaviour of stuffs was also very rude. I had spent entire night till 4 am, searching better hotels on internet and finally went to sleep at 5 am when the generous hotel stuffs switched off the television and stopped nailing.
In the meanwhile I booked a room for two of us in Snow Crest Inn in Naddi, a small village in upper Dharamasala, from ezeecloud.
Day 1: We woke up at around 6:30 in the morning and had cold and tasteless breakfast. But due to the starving from last night, we had no other option than eating that. We went out to check around for travel agencies as we had lost all the trust from The Kunal and didn’t wanted to take any further risk by taking any service from them.
We went to Ramdip Travel Agency, near Dharamsala bus stop. The first thing, one will notice as soon as they enter the office of Ramdip Travel Agency is the photos of the owner clicked with all the top most Indian and International cricketers. The owner claimed he arranges transport for all the matched organized at Dharamsala Cricket stadium. Well, which Indian won’t be clean bold by this, so did we!!:)
We hired a Tata Indica at Rs 1400/- which will show us around couple of places in Dharamsala and Kangra and will drop at Hotel Snow Crest Inn finally.
We checked out from Hotel Kunal and headed for sight-seeing. There are many famous Devi temples around Dharamsala but Ramdip suggested us not to go all the temples as those places are very crowded and we will end up spending our entire day in queues. The places we visited were,
Mata Brajeshwari Devi Temple, located in the old Kangra Township, is said to have been built over the charred breasts of Sati. This shrine, once renowned for its great wealth, has been plundered relentlessly over the ages. The first of the plunderers was Mahmud of Ghazni, who looted it in 1009. A mosque was built on the ruins and a garrison was left behind. 35 years later, the local king regained its possession. The shrine was repaired and a replica of the idol was enshrined. The temple was filled with gold, silver and diamonds only to be ransacked again in 1360 by Firoz Tughlaq. Later Emperor Akbar visited the shrine with his Dewan, Todar Mal and restored it to its former grandeur.

Mata Brajeshwari Devi Temple

Lions inside the temple

Throne of Devi

Actual murthi of goddess | picture courtesy Google Search

This place will show you all the different colours of Hinduism. One can witness tolis of devotee’s carrying chunri, bells tided in a big bamboo to show their respect, people tying small chunris in the Holi tree as a request to Mata for fulfilling their prayers. We also witnessed a lady who was shaking her head vigorously. Upon enquiring to the local people, we learnt that Mata has come inside the lady so she is behaving this way. However, we were not allowed to take picture of the same.

Tolis of Mata

Tolis of Mata

Wish Tree

On the way out of the temple, one can find many colourful stalls who sell almost everything starting from Devis murthy to chunris to puja samagris and many more.


It’s better to leave your footwear in the vehicle before you go to the temple. As your footwear has to be left unattended outside the temple and there are high changes of them getting damaged or misplaced. I experience this personally!!:(
Kangra Fort was built by the royal Rajput family of Kangra (the Katoch dynasty), which traces its origins to the ancient Trigarta Kingdom, mentioned in the Mahabharata epic. It is the largest fort in the Himalayas and probably the oldest dated fort in India.
The location of the fort is such that it is inaccessible from three sides. This fort is a witness of the majestic architecture of India however in a ruined form.

Main Entrance of the Fort

Stairs leading to different part of the Fort

Manjhi and Banganga Rivers

Sahi Angan of Fort

Stone Craved Temple inside Fort

More stairs inside fort

Architecture inside Fort

View of the Fort of ticket counter

Entry fee of Kangra Fort is Rs. 5/- per head. Also, an audio guide device is available at the ticket counter with a cost of Rs 100/- which is refundable upon returning the device. Once should must take the device to know more details about the fort. The dramatic storytelling with suitable background music took us to the period of Kutch and we could almost visualize everything on our mind and it was a moment of Goosebumps to imagine myself standing in the same place from where once the oldest Royal family ruled. Rs 100/- is a very cheap price we paid for that priceless experience.
Chamunda Temple is situated around 10 km west Palampur, on the Baner river. As per the saying, among the local people,
Around 400 years ago the king and a Brahmin priest prayed to Devi for permission to move the temple to some easily accessible location. Devi appeared to the priest in a dream giving her consent. She directed him to dig in a certain spot and an ancient idol would be found and that idol should be installed in the temple and worshipped as Her form.
The king sent out men to bring the idol. Although they were able to locate it but were not able to lift it. Again Devi appeared to the priest in a dream. She explained that the men could not lift the holy relic because they considered it an ordinary stone. She instructed him to get up early in the morning, take a bath, wear fresh clothes and go to the place in a respectful manner. He did as he was told and found that he could easily lift what a large group of men could not. He told the people that it was the power of the Goddess that brought the idol to the temple.
The temple now depicts scenes from the Devi Mahatmya, Ramayan and Mahabharata. The Devi's image is flanked by the images of Hanuman and Bhairo on either side.
Taking picture in not allowed in the temple. Also, because of the crowd our driver suggested us to leave camera, mobile and other expensive items inside the car.
Gyuto Karmapa Temple situated in the town Sidhbari, is the residence of 17th Karmapa. This place defines the meaning of serenity, peace or heaven. This place is part of Gyuto Tantric University.

Gyuto Karmapa Temple

Water kept in different bowls.. As part of some ritual

Inside the temple

Residence of the students

Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium, the most beautiful and colourful (cute, as girls define everything as :) ) International Cricket stadium in India. Before visiting Dharamsala, I knew only two things about Dharamsala, Hs Holiness Dalai Lama and the cricket stadium. I was ecstatic to visit this place. All the informative details are already mentioned about this place, so I will not bore my readers by saying the same details again.

Does it need any caption??

Norbulingka Institute founded in 1988 by Kelsang and Kim Yeshi at Sidhpur, is dedicated to the preservation of the Tibetan culture in its literary and artistic forms. The institute is named after Norbulingka, the traditional summer residence of the Dalai Lamas, in Lhasa, Tibet. It reconciles the traditional creatively and respectfully with the modern, and seeks to create an international awareness of Tibetan values and their expression in art and literature.


Walk through the traditional Tibetan gateway to the Norbulingka and enter a world apart from the hustle and bustle outside. Making use of the existing rocks, trees, flowing water and the terracing of the land, we have created a semblance of a Japanese garden around the Institute buildings, where nature flourishes and tranquillity prevails.


The Institute also has the two-storeyed 'Seat of Happiness Temple', Deden Tsuglakhang built in 1985 .The Deden Tsuglagkhang is an elegant stone structure built on traditional Tibetan lines. Its principal focus is a 14 ft gilded copper statue of the Buddha Sakyamuni statue, that was made by the Norbulingka Sculpture Studio, which is surrounded by elaborate paintings and murals executed by our Thangka Painters. This temple also in houses a huge library of Tibetan books.

14ft Buddha Statue

Thangka Painting

Library

The Losel Doll Museum inside the institute houses a unique collection of 150 costumed dolls depicting the regional, official and monastic costumes of Tibet. These were created by a group of artistic monks from Drepung Loseling Monastery that has been re-established in South India.

Dolls in the Losel museum

Dolls in the Losel museum

Dolls in the Losel museum

One can buy dolls to keep as token of memory from this place.
Least important information for the visitors of this place is – this is one of the places where the song “Sadda Haq” of bollywood movie “Rockstar” was shot (Well, this is the most important info for a bollywood bluff and die hard Ranbir Kapoor fan like me :)).
With this, it was time to get back to hotel as we were exhausted because of the sleepless night and day long hoping. We reached Hotel Snow Crest Inn around 6:00 pm. In contrary to Hotel Kunal, Snow Crest was a home away home.
The rooms were clean, staffs were helpful and friendly and food was just finger-licking and will remind you about your mom-made food. After a tiring day, it was an awesome place to relax.
Day 2: After having our breakfast, we hired a cab with the help of our hotel owner at a cost of Rs 800/- to visit rest of the places in Dharamsala. The places we visited were
St. John in the Wilderness is an Anglican church dedicated to John the Baptist built in 1852, at Forsyth Gunj. Set amidst deodar forest, and built in neo-Gothic architecture, the church is known for its Belgian stained-glass windows donated by Lady Elgin, wife of Lord Elgin.
Its churchyard is the final resting place of Lord Elgin, who served as Governor General of the Province of Canada, who oversaw the Creation of Responsible Government in Canada, and later, while in China, ordered the complete destruction of the Old Summer Palace. He became Governor-General & Viceroy of India in 1861 during the British Raj, though he soon died at Dharamsala on November 20, 1863, and was buried there.

St. John Church

Graveyard of Lord Elgin

Bhagsunag Temple, of god Shiva situated around 2 km from McLeod Ganj Bazaar. Constructed by 1 GR by around 1800 century and then worshipped majorly by 14 Gukha platoon villages in Dharamsala.

Bhagsu Nag Temple

Inside the Temple

Very next to Bhagsunag temple is a water fall, one of the major tourist attraction spot in Dharamsala.
Bhagsu
Dal Lake is spread in an area of 1 km and is bounded by rhododendrons, deodars, and junipers forest. Annually, a fair is held at the Kali Temple near the Lake. There is another temple close to the lake that is dedicated to sage Durvasa. Dal Lake is 2km walk westwards from McLeod Ganj bazaar.

Dal Lake

Hearing the name Dal Lake, if you are expecting a lake like famous Dal lake of Kashmir, let me set your expectation correct, it doesn’t stand anywhere near to that.
Situated just above the town of Dharamsala, Tsuglagkhang Temple or Dalai Lama Complex is the official home of the 14th Dalai Lama. The complex houses the Photang (Dalai Lama's residence), Tibet Museum, Tsuglagkhang Temple, and Namgyal Gompa.
Tsuglagkhang is the premier attraction for visitors to McLeod Ganj as well as a pilgrimage site for Tibetan exiles. Pilgrims come to do a circuit around the complex, spinning the prayer wheels as they walk.
One must pass through a quick security screening and bag check to enter parts of the complex; cameras and phones are not permitted. Cigarettes and lighters will be kept at security until you exit.
Well, the above was info about Tsuglagkhang. But personally, I was very disappointed after visiting this place. I have visited many monasteries since childhood, and a have developed a major fondness about monasteries, Buddhism and Dalai Lama. This is because of the open environment they have like a bright and clean place, no restrictions on taking photographs, no restrictions on doing or not doing things inside the temple, which we normally don’t see in most of the Hindu Temples (I am a Hindu and with no intention of hurting any Hindu Sentiment); But being the biggest monastery in India, Tsuglagkhang, lack in all the sections. This place is congested with minimum lights and opens air, with lots of does and don’ts, led me to a major disappointment.
We came out of the temple and had veg momos, some ladies selling out side. Don’t even try!!! It’s horrible :(.
After visiting Tsuglagkhang, we headed towards McLeod Ganj Market, the best place for shopping in my entire trip. We bought many items for gifting friends and family like Buddha sculpture, handmade dairies, junk jewellery and a small prayer wheel for our car.

Junk Jewellery and statues

Solar Prayer Wheel for car

We had a plan to visit Kunal Pathari, a rock temple near Dharamsala but it started raining heavily so we dropped the plan and decided to have our lunch in the market before heading back to hotel. We took our lunch in a small restaurant near the junction of market (most probably ‘Hotel Lhasa & Restaurant’, don’t remember the name exactly but remember the location) with momos, fried rice, chilli chicken and Tibetian Tea. One must try the Tibetian Tea while in McLeod Ganj. It’s delicious.

The restaurant was at the left extreme corner next to city Travel | picture courtsy Google Image

In the evening we decided to take a walk in the nearby area.
Naddi has a awesome view point which was just at a walking distance from our hotel and a famous Gunna Mata Temple. We visited them.

View from Naddi

View from Naddi

view of Naddi from Snow Crest Inn

After a random walk, we decided to come back to hotel and take rest. It was also time to pack bags :(
Day 3: This was the last day of trip and time to go back… We took a cab and went down to Dharamsala bus stop after having our breakfast in Snow Crest Inn. From Dharamsala, we took local bus and to reach Pathankot Railways Station. From there we took train and next morning we were at Old Delhi and by afternoon we were at Namma Bengaluru!!!

Glimpse of Dharamsala Stadium from top

Note: While visiting any of the above places there are few things which needs to be kept in mind
            • Drivers have a tendency to skip places that were told by the travel agencies or hotel owners. So before leaving, make sure to note down the places, you will be visiting and are paying for.
            • Rain is very frequent in these areas. So carry umbrella during all seasons. Also, temperature can fluctuate during any season; make sure to carry ample amount woollens.

Disclaimer: We went for this trip in August’2013. So the rates and timing might have changed by the time. Please check with hotel and travel agents about current timings and rates. I tried to provide as much as details is possible for the trip. For any further clarification please feel free to contact me dutshilpi@gmail.com.