Day 215 of Indian Places giving smiles – the beautiful district of Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh.
After one week of roaming in wilderness, we were happy to get back to the comforts of a normal bedroom with clean western style attached toilets at our hotel at Tawang where we would stay for next 2 nights.
I got up at 4.30 a.m. in the morning to catch a glimpse of the changing colours of the sky over the eastern Himalayan Ranges. We went to the Jaswant Singh Point at an altitude of 14,615 feet from where many other local peaks were visible. But being a foggy morning, everything was covered by the mist and clouds. And we were just 13 kms away from the Chinese border town of Bhumla, which we could not visit because we did not have the relevant passes.
We took a road that winds northwards towards the Pakhang Teng Tso lake. We were mesmerized by the variety of colours and the changing flora and fauna of the mountains. Violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange, red in different shades and hues were splattered by dear majestic nature all around us. The trickling waterfalls, streams, lakes added to the calendar-like, picture postcard scenery of the place. We were truly blessed to witness this natural splendour of the changing colours during this fall season. And I thought that I would have to go abroad to see such an awe-inspiring sight. Our country has almost everything that the rest of the world tries to boast about! I am truly proud to be an Indian!
Shonga Tseir was actually a pasture land of Shok Tsen village,that turned into a lake during the 1971 earthquake. This lake still contains the remnants of dead tree trunks inside its waters. Lake Sangetsar is more popularly known as Madhuri Lake after a dance sequence featuring Madhuri Dixit in the Hindi film Koyla was filmed here in 1996. We ladies got inspired and did our own versions of the Dhak Dhak dance at this Madhuri lake! A walk around this picturesque lake surrounded by colourful hills on all sides felt as if we were abroad or at even in heaven!
At the nearby Tiger’s den Monastery, we interacted with the local volunteers and witnessed how the women easily do their physical work with a baby tied across their backs. I could easily walk around without feeling any weight of the cute baby securely fastened onto my back.
We drove on a steep winding road to see the next monastery that was totally run by female Buddhist monks called Annis. Out of the 38 female monks living there we got to see only 2 of them as the rest were away to attend a religious function elsewhere.
The rest of the day was spent shopping for exclusive Chinese made items at the Tawang market like crockery, artificial jewelry, bags, artefacts, etc.
The small town of Tawang is an important Buddhist centre. We visited the Galden Namgyal Lhatse 17th century monastery founded by a contemporary of the fifth Dalai Lama – monk Mera Lama. It is also the birth place of the sixth Dalai Lama and I saw many small kids dressed up in the red robes running around this place. We were dumbstruck by the imposing 18 ft high statue of a gilded Budddha in the prayer hall. We also visited its museum which is virtually a treasure trove of rare Tibetan culture with a display of ancient cooking items, artifacts, manuscripts, Thangka paintings, etc.
The Tawang Arts and Crafts museum was another place to pick up some more gift items and souvenirs.
Our next visit was to the Tawang War memorial was built in honour of the 2420 brave Indian soldiers who had sacrificed their lives for our country in the 1962 war with China. Being a state that shares borders with 3 countries-Bhutan, China and Burma we saw an endless presence of the Indian army throughout this state of Arunachal Pradesh. Hats off to their daunting presence everywhere around us.
We opted for a relaxed Chinese lunch at the Tawang old market and was thoroughly impressed with the only one female I saw in army uniform – a very beautiful smart looking Kashmiri doctor!
So which Indian place made you smile today?
Please share your experience of Indian places that make you smile!
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