Kangra Fort and Dharamsala (Dharmashala) - India
Driving towards Dharamsala, we stopped at Kangra Fort. The Fort was built on top of a hill at the confluence of two rivers. Inside the fort were the remains of Jain and Brahman Temples dating to around the 9th century AD. Both Temples had square chambers lavishly decorated with carvings...View image. ...View image
The Fort was enclosed with a high rampart and walls covering an area of two miles. I couldn't enjoy the Fort to its fullest because all the paths leading up to and around were cobblestone, laden with moss and slippery as all get out due to all the rain during the night. It's difficult to enjoy a place while concentrating on taking teeny, tiny steps and saying "oops" every two seconds. But it was beautiful.
On a different subject: Most of the schools in India require students to wear uniforms, and each school has a different color uniform including hair ribbons for their braids. The girls usually carried their books in plastic bags and the boys in backpacks. Each morning's ride had masses of school children walking along the roads, in their different colored uniforms...a sea of pink...or blue...or white with red hair ribbons.
On towards Dharamsala, through the hills, winding along a decrepit road that looked like one more good rain was going cause a landslide and wash it away. This one-lane "highway" had buses, motorcycles, other vehicles, cows and dogs (that just lie in the middle or the street and refuse to move), people walking on both sides.
And, of course, everyone passes, curve or no curve...and then there was the fog! Driving in India is always exciting.
Dharamsala town itself is primarily filled with government buildings set on a hill wooded with oak and pine trees. There were also supposed to be snowcapped mountains on all three sides of the town but who could see them in the fog.
All the action was up on McLeod Ganj (named after David McLeod who was the Lieutenant Governor of Punjab) strung out on a ridge. "Ganj" is the Hindi word for "market." An earthquake did level McLeod Ganj in 1905 but it was rebuilt. McLeod Ganj is the headquarters of the Tibetan Government in Exile and residence of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama
We stayed about six miles out of town, too far away from all the action in my estimation, but then you have to weigh the prospect of staying directly in very noisy and dusty McLeod. There was no happy medium.
More Dharamsala and McLeod.....
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