This is in continued from day 2
After not so good experience at Dal Lake and Naddi, our cab took us to “Church of St. John in the wilderness” which is located in Dharamsala on the way to McLeodganj. The establishment is more than 100 years old and was built by the widow of Lord lgin (British Viceroy of India) who died in 1863. The crunch is located in the arms of nature with a much maintained garden and a small graveyard. It is also the last resting ground of Lord lgin.
The Church survived a massive earthquake in 1905 and suffered extensive damage which destroyed the upper portion completely. In 1915 the Church was renovated and a new bell was built by Whitechapel Bell Foundry and was shipped to India. But the weight of the bell was so much that they could fix it on the top and had to fix on the ground near to the Church. The bell was so huge that the attempt to steal it failed. As soon as I walked inside the Church premises I saw the history with very old colourful glasses and the statue of Jesus. There was a small water bowl with holy water at the entrance of the church. I did not take any picture of the interiors of Church because I think it is disrespectful. But again some very intelligent Indian travellers don’t have any respect and do everything to destroy the peace of the place. The Church was also funded by late Bollywood actress Priya Rajvanshi.
As soon as we walked out – nature struck with heavy rains which caused traffic jam for more than two hours. We reached Mcleodganj by lunch time.
Mcleodganj is the home of Dalai Lama and the houses of one of the biggest monasteries. The roads were very narrow and full of traffic, cars are everywhere even on those roads which can only allow one car at a time. There chaos because of the traffic.
The city is famous for its night life but due to time constraint we could not witness it. After lunch we went to the monastery. The monastery also symbolizes the struggle for freedom of Tibet from Chinese. We can see the pictures of those freedom fighters who were killed by the Chinese military while doing peaceful protests. I have never seen such a big monastery. The monastery was two storied which serves for different purpose. The 1
st floor is basically to do prayers and the second was the home to the Idol of Gautam Buddha. The gates of the Monastery are open to everyone who is looking for inner peace. After rotating the prayer bells we continued our journey to our last destination Khanyara.
Khanyara is famous for a huge Shiva temple with a small river in the backyard. The temple premises have many small temples with idols of different Gods. The river was the main attraction; we saw huge rocks inscribed with “OM” and “Ram”. The little cave was also a big attraction of the place. The refreshing cold water felt rejuvenating! We dipped our feet in the river and soaked in the beauty.
Even though it was a temple premises, nothing stopped our Punjabi tourists from drinking beer. It feels very disappointing. Anyway, it was the last stop of our journey and we headed back to our hotel because our bus departure timing was at night.
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| Even they knows where to go" |
