Discover India - Kinnaur

Heady Kinnaur

Kinnaur can perhaps be Iikened to that delicacy unique to the region - the chilgoza. Like the tasty kernel of the chil pine, it takes some effort getting to it, but the rewards are quite delicious. And again, like the chilgoza, if one is not caref ul while cracking the shell one can lose the fruit, for this is a culturally and environmentally fragile zone.

Close to the border with Tibet, entry to Kinnaur was restricted even for Indian nationals till 1993 and foreigners still have to register themselves.
With barely 77 villages nd no urban. centres, Kinnaur is a sparsely populated area and has barely 10 persons per square kilometre. The old Hindustan-Tibet Road passed through Kinnaur along the high ridges. Then lower down the valley, came the ,national highway'in the 1960s -and this is Kinnaur's lifeline. An undoubted engineering feat, it has long stretches chiselled out of a sheer rock face quite like a tunnel with one wall missing. The drive is an adventure in itself and slogans painted at various p oints remind you to 'Remember God' - or more tongue in cheek, 'Be Gentle on my curves'.
With turbulent torrents, two large rivers race through Kinnaur-the Sutlej and the Spiti. Their presence along the highway is constant and domineering. The valleys are breathtakingly beautiful.

The slopes are covered with thick forests while the basins hold orchards, fields and picturesque hamlets. Kinnaur holds three of the world's grand mountain ranges - the Zanskar, the Greater Himalaya and the Dhauladhar and the famous 4,573 meters high Kin ner Kailash mountain by whose side is the seventy-nine foot vertical rock formation that resembles a Shivalinga and changes colour as the day passes. This is one of the mythical abodes of Lord Shiva. As one advances through the district and cuts past th e Greater Himalaya, the arid landscape - the hallmark of the Trans Himalaya-also arrives. The monsoon rains and their largesse remain south of this impassable barrier. Needless to add, the winters are long and the summers short.
Kinnaur is home to some of lndia's oldest traditions and legends. The Pandava brothers are said to have spent several years of their exile in these tracts - an episode from the epic Mahabharata. Ancient texts have gone to the extent of placing the peopl e of Kinnaur - the Kinners - as halfway between men and gods. The religion is an interesting mix of Hinduism and Buddhism and practically every village has its own special deity.

Practically all of Kinnaur's travel destinations lie along the valleys. Along the highway from Shimla with a suggested overnight stop at Rampur or Sarahan the first of Kinnaur's attractions is Nichar that lies on a side road 16 kilometers off the highway from Sholdang Khad. Here is a thick forest, a variety of wildlife and some interesting architecture.

It is the valley of the Baspa river also called the Sangla valley after the main village - that is perhaps the most beautiful. From the turn off at Karcham to the lofty Chung Sakhago Pass, it is about 95 kiiometers long. And in season, this is an excell ent area for trout fishing.
Sangla village has a couple of hotel and rest houses. Deeper in the valley, near Batseri and at Chitkul, there is excellent tented accommodation through summer and autunm.
A kilometre or so above Sangla village stands the tower like fort of Kamru - silent sentinei that through long centuries has stood guard over all this beauty. Till they moved to Sarahan and later, Rampur, this was the original seat of the rulers of Busha ir. The main gate of Kamru village has an image of the Buddha whose blessings are sought before entering the village.

With all the majesty of the Kinner Kailash in direct vision, Recong Peo is Kinnaur's new district headquarters. It has a,couple of hotels with limited facilities. A few hundred meters higher and 12 kilometers by road is Kalpa, the old headquarters. The rest houses are here as is a seasonal camp. And, for the local flavour, this is a far better place. The villages of Kothi and Chini form a contiguous boundary with Kalpa.

Chini's temples are fascinating and the Narayan-Nagini temple is an exemplary piece of Kinnauri workmanship. At hand is a monastery built a few years back where His Holiness the Dalai Lama conducted a kalchakra ceremony.
Kalpa and Recong Peo can form another stopover, or the base for the region's several treks including the Kinner Kailash parikrama which takes about a week. If driving, it is also wise to fill your tank here, or at Powari on the national highway. There i s no petrol pump after this till Kaza.
Ribba and Nako are not on the main road, but even the car-glued traveller should make a diversion. These are two of Kinnaur's most captivating villages. Surrounded by orchards and vineyards, Ribba also has the distinction of brewing the best local liquo rs - ghantt, angurior chuli. With a lake in its middle, Nako's houses seem half buried in the ground and the lake waters often seep in. They are also said to be responsible for washing away a large stretch of highway below Yanghthang. Nako is the base for the trek to the peak of Purjul and the monastery of Tashigang, where the image is said to grow hair!
Along the highway, Chango is the last village of the district and in its monsoon-free aridity, grows the finest apples of the area.

The Sutlej's side valleys, like the Ropa, the Wangpo or the Nesang, offer a variety of adventurous excursions or treks along paths that sometimes resemble E.C.G. graphs. The track of the old Hindustan-Tibet road makes an easy and interesting trek.
And almost for everyday of the year, Kinnaurhasa festival- there are all of 360! Perhaps the most appropriate one is Fuliaich when, towards the end of autumn,the villagers go out to gather the last wild flowers and pile them in through summer and autumn. the village square before offering them to the local deity.
With increasing communication, the steady break-down of geographical isolation and a spate of hydel projects, Kinnaur is steadily changing. But for the moment-if kinners were taken to be halfway between men and gods the tracts they inhabit may well be ca lled half way between earth and heaven.

GETTING THERE
By Road
Access is by road from Shimla.
The best time to visit is May to October.