Hi Everybody!
Am coming back after a long holiday and some busy times...
Where did I go?
Tawang
Gifted with natures beautiful sceneries..
I would like share with you my trip experience through few glimpses...
We flew to Tezpur in Assam and from there moved into Arunachal and ahead towards Tawang by road.
Gradually we left the plains behind and started ascending the winding roads of the mountains. There are many waterfalls on the way. Everywhere you look is a mountain clad in green. After four hours drive you reach the Tenga valley and another half an hour to Mountain top township of Bomdila. Many people halt here for the day and start again in the morning.
Here we visited the Chilipam Monastery on yet another mountain top.
The monastery campus is beautiful, giving you a view of surrounding mountains covered with forests and patches of scattered civilization with step cultivation. The monastery is built in Buddhist art form with intricately carved designs painted rich colors and gold paint.
This is the flag pole in front of the monastery.
This is main door of the monastery with intricately carved and richly painted wooden frame. The door itself is solid wood painted in red and covered with gold painted metal with fine beaten in designs. You just have to stand in front and absorb the delicate patterns of flowers and vines..
As I said next day we started towards Tawang. Look at the beauty of nature. It just leaves you mesmerized.
We halted near Jaswant Garh for visit to the war memorial dedicated to soldiers of The 1962 War. Here is bunker from that time. The memorial is dedicated to soldier RFN Jaswant Singh Rawat who along with two other held the fort and meted heavy casualty over the invading Chinese army for three days in a way that Chinese thought a huge army was guarding this front.
Already it had started to get chilly and we had put on our sweaters. We climbed up further along the steep mountain ranges. At places we were surrounded by clouds with very poor visibility. Then after about 21 kms we saw the gate to Sela Pass.
13,700 ft altitude. Freezing wind and a breath taking scenery.
We halted here for a while. just amazing feel. Calm..
Surrounded by the snow peaked mountains was this picturesque lake, The Sela lake.
The lake looks different every time you visit Sela Pass with changing looks with the day, clouds and seasons.
Next was twisting turning descent to beatiful Nuranong valley covered with moss, small shrubs full with yellow flowers and pine trees. The drive along the gushing mountain rivulet was very refreshing.
After further more driving we saw glimpse of Tawang on a distant mountain top.
Then Tawang, here we are...
Here is the world's second largest monastery and India's largest monastery.
The monastery shines with golden roofs in the sun..
On the way to the monastery we saw this huge metal Buddha statue built by a national awarded artist.
Very close to the statue is a small enclosure with statues and writings on Buddha's life.
The Monastery campus has the main prayer hall, the old hall, many small prayer rooms, school, museum dormitories for student monks, library, auditorium, residence for monks and other offices . First we visited the museum with many artifacts from the region, Buddhist scriptures and pictures.
The Monastery is adorned with wall to wall murals. Outside is concrete structure but inside has the old time wooden pillars, beams and floor. Beautiful tapestries and inscriptions hang here and there. And right in front amongst all these is the Magestic and huge statue of Buddha.
Could not resist taking pic of these rooster in courtyard of the Monastery.
In the background you can see part of the huge prayer flag pole, which can be seen from far and wide..
Aarotrika and Adhrit are standing next to the long row of prayer wheel inside the Monastery campus.
This is a large prayer wheel just near the gate of the monastery campus.
In the evening we went to visit The Tawang War Memorial built in shape of a Chorten, where everyday a monk comes to light lamp and change holy water and pray for the souls of those departed while protecting land and boundaries of our country.
We also saw a light and sound show on the 1962 war.
Next morning after an early breakfast we started a steep drive up towards Y-junction. the mountain roads were steep and very twisting. There was a lake called PTSO (Pangkang Teng So) lake just along the left side of road, but, due to cloud we just could not see it. And on our way back we viewed this serene kidney shaped lake.
It had snowed a week back and soon snow was seen on the sides of the road. We took a small halt. The kids had a great time playing in the snow.
By the time you reach Y-junction, hardly any civilians are seen, the road is unmetalled and rocky. Here you feel respect for the army who live in difficult condition to guard the boundaries of our country and keep us safe. Y-juction itself is at nearly 15000ft hieght.
Further up at about 16000ft is the Bum-la pass and the border of India and China.
We moved further along the difficult roads towards Shungetsar or Madhuri lake at 12,467ft. Why Madhuri? Well famous Indian movie actress had come to this place with her co-star Shahrukh Khan for shooting a song "Tanhayi-tanhayi..." from the movie "Koyela".
The lake itself was believed to be made due to an earthquake in 1950. The stumps of trees in between the lake are witness to this fact.
The lake was placid with crystal clear water, you could see the pebbles clearly at the bottom. Saw a couple of golden ducks which fly in from China here.
We had hot Momo and Chole-bhature while enjoying the cold weather, catered by Army canteen here. The place is beautifully maintained by them.
(Just a few days back in the plains we were sweating in heat of summers and here we are wearing sweater and jackets and scarves. What fun..)
We came back the same way. Oh! There is Teesri Udasi Gurudwara near Y-junction almost halfway up a straight steep mountain, probably in a cave.
We saw Ptso lake on the way back.
Next day we roamed around locally in Tawang and on the way back saw Jung falls, one of the highest falls in Arunachal.We came back visiting Jaswant Garh, Naranong valley, Sela Pass, Dirang valley and Bomdila.
Kids had been very good through out the long journey. We took a small refreshment stop near Dirang in a small resort on the sides of Dirang river. Here you see kids trying to feed the rabbits some grass.
We rested for a day in Tezpur, visited the banks of Brahmaputra. Well had already seen Tezpur in our last visit, when we went to Kaziranga (visit here
TRAVELOGUE: KAZIRANGA AND GUWAHATI).
Vacation over. We came back home refreshed with nature's blessings in Tawang, Arunachal.
