Travel India: Kashmir Cottage in Dharamsala

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Kashmir Cottage, contrary to what the name suggests, is located not in Kashmir but at the end of a sleepy road turning left off the main thoroughfare connecting McLeod Ganj, or Molo Ganj as it is known to the local Tibetan population, and the main town of Dharamsala in Himachal Pradesh.

Kashmir Cottage

The road branching off to the cottage is narrow and winding; with thick vegetation on both sides and nearer to the cottage you are met by signs of ‘Slow Down Children Playing’, ‘Mind the Flowers’ and ‘No Horn’. The relevance of these signs, urging one to be sober in general, becomes apparent when one realizes the claim to fame of the Kashmir Cottage – this used to be the residence of the 14^th Dalai Lama’s mother, Dekyi Tsering. Now, it is owned and run as a guest house by the Dalai Lama’s sister-in-law, Rinchen Khando Choegyal and the youngest of his 4 brothers – Tenzin Choegyal, himself a revered Rinpoche of the Tibetans, and fondly known as TC by the locals.

The entire cottage complex is very peaceful, apart from the objections of TC’s dog to guests returning late in the night, as I sheepishly experienced once, and to some unidentified occurrences early in the mornings, which a bleary-eyed guest complained about at breakfast one day. It is the ideal getaway for people wishing to go on the ‘do nothing’ or ‘be by myself’ vacations because in case you get tired of doing nothing or being by yourself, which often ends up being the case, you can find plenty of things to do in and around the place.

Until then, you can spend the days waking up late, lingering over breakfast, lounging in the lawns and enjoying the sun, fresh mountain air and gorgeous views of the Kangra valley, with the two house cats for company. If you find yourself craving company of the non-feline kind, you can saunter into the large, airy and very clean kitchen and chat with the gaggle of Tibetan and Ladakhi women who take care of guests at the cottage. They’re shy but persistence pays off and you’ll have a friend by the time you leave the place. You feel well looked after in their hands, especially when on retiring to your room at night you find a hot water bottle tucked away in your bed, toasting it in anticipation of your arrival. Not to mention well fed; the meals that the kitchen dishes out, especially samples of the local Tibetan cuisine, are delicious and on the favourable side of the thin line that divides momos and thukpa that are ‘not quite there’ from ‘so good’.

The cottage hosts some interesting guests as well, all of whom seem to have become patrons of the place through word of mouth since the Kashmir Cottage hardly advertises itself, which is just as well considering it is not the typical holiday hotel where you can land up with a noisy family or bunch of friends in tow. There is nothing proclaiming the expectation of a certain level of sense and sensibility from the guests but something about the place just draws these out of you. A good idea of the kind of frequent travelers to the Kashmir Cottage includes a couple of scholars working on a translation of the Tibetan epic Kesar, due to be published shortly; and a group of film makers working on a documentary on the Dalai Lama. So if you’re not the shy type, you can look forward to some interesting conversations over meal times in the dining room.

Dining Room and Library

Also in the dining room, lining its walls, is the in-house library. Built mostly with the help of contributions from previous guests, it has a reasonably good selection of books and magazines, including some old editions of the Readers’ Digest and National Geographic. “Birds of Kangra” by Jan Besten proved to be a very useful reference point for me since the cottage premises allow spectacular sightings of some of the most beautiful birds known to the Kangra valley. The Yellow Billed Blue Magpie, the Great Barbet and the Blue-throated Barbet are regular visitors and I was even rewarded one day by a sighting of the beautiful Kalij Pheasant, near the water tanks close to the staff quarters, as I sauntered up the wrought iron staircase to my room.

Great Barbet

After a day well lazed around the cottage, if you are ready for some action in the evening, you can hike up to the main bazaar of McLeod Ganj, through a short-cut off the road to the left, just outside the gates of the cottage. The trail is rock strewn and moderately steep but is the best way to get to the bazaar because you’re spared the honking and the exhaust fumes that you would encounter on the less steep main road. You might find a lama or two ambling up along the trail too, or some Kangri villagers collecting firewood and you could stop for a good-natured touristy chat in grammatically incorrect Hindi reserved by most of us for such occasions, while you get your breath back.

Lamas on way to bazaar

At the end of the climb and the beginning of the bazaar, the trail meets a road which is actually a part of the Kora or circumambulation measuring 2.5 km in length, around the Dalai Lama’s residence complex and the Namgyal monastery. Apparently there is a similar Kora around the Potala Palace in Lhasa, and going around these is an exercise in faith, literally, for the Tibetans.

The McLeod Ganj bazaar is small, most of it situated along one broad road lined with stalls selling trinkets, apparel, Tibetan film and music CDs and chhurpi which is delicious dried cheese but is an acquired taste. This road forks out into two narrow parallel roads at a busy chowk and between them, these three roads hold everything you would expect in a regular hill station bazaar experience. Thanks to globalization even within the country, everywhere you go from Kerala to Goa to Simla, the bazaars peddle the same wares – Kashmiri stoles, costume jewellery, and fake branded apparel, harem pants and brass souvenirs in all shapes and sizes. My interest in bazaars, however, always centers on food and Norling Café which I visited thrice in the space of five days, is recommended for Tibetan food which gave stiff competition to the kitchen run by the friendly neighborhood women in the Kashmir Cottage.

Though a walk to the McLeod Ganj Bazaar from the Kashmir Cottage is not more than twenty minutes on foot by the short-cut, you also have the option of calling in a taxi to take you there for as little as hundred rupees. The cottage staff normally calls in a local Kangri driver by the name of Ravi who lives nearby and is quite an amusement when he points out the “chhoti chhoti mounty” near which the Triund peak is located or tells you about how “strick” his community of Radhasoamis is, while simultaneously veering on the edges of very narrow roads and giving you near heart attacks. But he knows his way around and will get you everywhere alright. He also has a younger brother who is a certified mountaineering guide and if you are visiting in the summers, his brother would be more than happy to take you to Triund, a popular one day trekking destination.

Ravi is often called into service by the Kashmir Cottage, sometimes even for the owners themselves. As such, he is familiar with both TC and Rinchen Khando and holds them in high esteem – him for his sunny disposition and her for the work that she has been doing for the Tibetan community in exile for the past many years. TC is known to have a great sense of humour and is reminiscent of the Dalai Lama himself in his demeanor, right from how he talks, to how he laughs and even in the way he looks. But in other ways he is very different from his older brother – a reincarnate lama himself, he renounced monkhood when he was old enough to think for himself and though still referred to and respected as ‘Rinpoche’ by the Tibetans, he prefers to live a life outside of the system. Both he and his wife are wary of being seen as benefitting from being relatives of the Dalai Lama and if you don’t know it already, nothing in their conduct will reveal that they are related to him.

Dolma Ling Nunnery

Rinchen Khando is President of the Tibetan Nuns Project which provides support and education to more than 700 nuns in northern India; many of whom arrived in McLeod Ganj tired, hungry and destitute after a long, arduous journey across the Himalayas, some of them prostrating all the way through, in reverence for the Dalai Lama whom they followed across the border into India. The Project supports two nunneries, the Dolma Ling and the Shugsep, and invites sponsorships of Rs.1500 a month to take care of the daily needs of the nuns as well as larger sums for funding other requirements. The Dolma Ling nunnery also houses 4 sets of guest rooms where interested people can go and spend a few quiet days and even accompany the nuns in their daily routine of praying, studying and helping out with nunnery work, if they feel so inclined. An especially interesting activity to watch is the debating sessions of the nuns wherein they take turns asking and answering questions, accompanied by overly exaggerated hand and foot gesticulation, as a means of understanding and assimilating what they have studied and learned as part of their religious education. Guests can also just sit back and enjoy the serenity and beauty of the area where the nunnery is located; in a quiet village near Dharamsala, close to the Norbulingka Institute with gorgeous views of the snow capped Dhauladhar range, which provide a breath taking background of white to beautiful, terraced mustard fields.

View from Dolma Ling Nunnery

Between the Kashmir Cottage and the guest rooms at the Dolma Ling nunnery, solace seeking visitors to McLeod Ganj are spoiled for choice. While the Kashmir Cottage is of course the preferred base if you are a beginner in the world of mindful traveling, the nunnery may be an excellent idea for those who’ve been there, done that and are in the pursuit of more atypical travel.

If you go:

Getting There
All details for travel to Dharamsala and McLeod Ganj from New Delhi can be found on this link: http://www.snow-crest-inn-dharamsala.com/getting-to-dharamsala.html

Kashmir Cottage
Kharadanda Road,
Dharamsala – 176215
HP,India
Phone: +91-1892-224929
Email: [email protected]
Cell: +91 9418967322

Dolma Ling Nunnery
P.O. Sidhpur
Dist. Kangra – 176057,
HP, India
Phone: +91-1892-246419
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.tnp.org

Bio:

An avid traveler, reader and culture enthusiast, Harsimran has a special love for the high Himalayas of northern India especially Ladakh and Kashmir and has a passion for working with grass roots organizations and charitable giving foundations. Harsimran spent most of 2007 volunteering as a primary school teacher in a Ladakhi village and personally fundraised donations that ultimately provided the school with computers and educational resources. That same year, Kaur worked as a freelance observer for Pratham, an NGO with the vision to ensure that every child receives a proper education. Harsimran has also worked as a guide and program leader with an experiential education organization with summer outdoor programs for youths and teens in India.

She currently runs her own adventure travel company by the name of Be Outdoors which organises adventure trips including trekking, mountain biking, rafting, motorbike safaris, voluntourism etc. in the Himalayan regions of Himachal Pradesh, Uttaranchal, Ladakh and the North Eastern states of India.

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