Tea, Tulips, and Tranquillity
The Hidden Gems of Palampur.
Home is a concept I think about often when I travel. Not deliberately, but it comes to me with the wind, either when I’m “feeling at home” somewhere or with someone, or when I’m longing for it. Over the last few years, it has so happened that I have visited a handful of places over and over again, making them feel like home. Goa. Bir. Pondicherry. Spontaneous trips. Familiar places. Yet something new to discover and experience every time.
Last month, I was at the Lodge at Wah in Palampur for a few days. This is the same cosy homestay located in the Wah Tea Estate (about which I wrote in issue #13 of my newsletter). I won a free stay through an Instagram giveaway offered by Shivya Nath, one of my favourite travel bloggers, and what better time to go than the onset of spring! Although I spent just a night on my last trip, it instantly felt like home due to the warmth of the hosts. This time too, it felt like homecoming.
Tea Time is Me Time
I’m a green tea lover. Not coffee, not masala chai, just simple green tea (and it’s got nothing to do with weight loss goals). I like the taste, I like how my body feels when I drink it, and most importantly, I like the act of making my tea and sipping it slowly.
The Lodge is part of an expansive tea estate, one of the oldest and biggest ones in Kangra valley, and much of my weekend was spent drinking freshly-brewed green tea, walking through the gorgeous tea gardens, catching glimpses of the snow-clad Dhauladhars, and just being. It reminded me of Thich Nhat Hanh’s words about drinking tea:
“Tea is an act complete in its simplicity.
When I drink tea, there is only me and the tea.
The rest of the world dissolves.
There are no worries about the future.
No dwelling on past mistakes.
Tea is simple: loose-leaf tea, hot pure water, a cup.
I inhale the scent, tiny delicate pieces of the tea floating above the cup.
I drink the tea, the essence of the leaves becoming a part of me.
I am informed by the tea, changed.
This is the act of life, in one pure moment, and in this act the truth of the world suddenly becomes revealed: all the complexity, pain, drama of life is a pretense, invented in our minds for no good purpose.
There is only the tea, and me, converging.”― Thich Nhat Hanh
When I wasn’t loitering around, I was eating warm raisin scones at the Wah Tea Room, a quaint eatery next to the tea factory. Overlooking the tea gardens, it makes for a picturesque and inspiring place to sip tea, grab a bite, write, and enjoy the view.
Hello Tulips
Visiting Palampur in early March meant that the days were chilly but the sun still came out – a respite coming from cold and gloomy Delhi. Bonus: I’d arrived just in time to catch Palampur’s Tulip Festival!
Planted by CSIR- Institute of Himalayan Bioresource Technology in Palampur, Himachal Pradesh’s first Tulip Garden featured 50,000 bulbs this year, an increase from 45,000 bulbs last year! With the Dhauladhars as backdrop and purplish-grey clouds looming above, the garden, with six varieties of tulips, including Purple Flag, Pink Ardour, Escape, Ile de France, Royal Virgin, and Strong Gold, looked straight out of a movie scene. I hadn’t been to a tulip garden before but knew of the ones in Kashmir, Istanbul, and Amsterdam. Delhi has started planting bulbs in some parts of the city too. But being surrounded by colourful tulips swaying to the breeze in such a tranquil setting was a beautiful and unexpected experience.
On the Potter’s Wheel
Palampur’s Andretta Village is a well-known artist’s village and potters’ paradise. It was established in the 1920s by an Irish theatre artiste and environmentalist, Norah Richards, and attracts artists, potters, and enthusiasts from the world over for pottery courses, exhibitions, and workshops.
I couldn’t explore the village at leisure as it was raining that day and I had limited time, but spent a few hours trying my hand at pottery at Otsu Pottery Studio. Run by Lipok Esther, a lovely artist from Nagaland who has now settled in Palampur and teaches pottery at her dreamy home studio that overlooks rice fields and mountains. I have done pottery workshops before (I wrote about the one at Dharamkot Studio in issue #12) but given I don’t have the equipment to practise at home, I’m generally terrible at it. However, by now I have outgrown the idea of needing to be good at everything I do. It’s ok to do things for fun, for the experience of it, without needing to excel at it. I like the cool sensation of wet clay, using all my upper body strength to “centre” it, moulding an object - a bowl, a vase, a plate - and then watching it break – it’s all very exhilarating and therapeutic. So I spent the afternoon with Lipok, listening to Bob Dylan, watching the rain play hide-and-seek with the sun, and revisiting the basics of pottery.
An Afternoon at Cliffy’s
After the pottery session, I proceeded to Cliffy’s cafe that serves homemade bakes and South Indian dishes. Since it was raining, there was no outdoor seating, so I stepped inside and spent a few hours drinking my favourite honey-ginger-lemon tea, eating keema spaghetti, and reading ‘The New Saints: From Broken Hearts to Spiritual Warriors’ by Lama Rod Owens, a fascinating book that had me hooked. I was surprised how quickly time passed by at Cliffy’s – I eventually got up when I had to leave for my next stop, but I could’ve spent many more hours there and still gone back the next day.
Meditating with the Nuns
What I was most excited about that weekend was a visit to the Dongyu Gatsal Ling Nunnery. I’ve been interested in Buddhism for over a decade and I lap up every chance I get to explore and understand it better, especially the nuances of various traditions. I have spent time with Buddhist monks in India and South East Asia, but one of my pet peeves has been how patriarchal even these institutions are. As a woman, I don’t have the same avenues as men if I wish to ordain as a monk or simply spend time at Buddhist monasteries. Nunneries are few, and the ones that allow visitors even fewer. So I was delighted to hear about the DGL Nunnery in Palampur.
The DGL Nunnery was founded by Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo, a British woman who became a Tibetan Buddhist nun after spending 12 years in solitary isolation in a cave in the Karakoram mountains. She founded the Nunnery to give young nuns of the Drukpa Kagyu lineage the opportunity to realise their intellectual and spiritual potential after centuries of neglect, and to reinstate at the nunnery the Togdenma (yogini) tradition. Over 100 nuns of varying ages and hailing from different regions of the Himalayas currently live and study there. Their days are filled with meditation, prayer, classes, debating, and everyday errands.
Visitors are allowed to attend the evening prayer where the nuns chant and play ritual instruments like the hand-drum and bell. It is a truly peaceful experience, and to be able to spend an hour or two in their company – meditating, observing, soaking it all in – was special. I wish I could spend more time at the nunnery, perhaps even meet Jetsunma, but I had to park that for another time.
Unexplored Gems
Another experience that had to be left out this time was a visit to the Masrur Rock Temple. Underrated and unexplored, it is a unique monolithic structure that has 15 rock-cut temples carved and built in the Indo-Aryan style. The complex dates back to the 8th century, and despite visiting Palampur and surrounding areas so many times over the years, this was the first time I had heard about it from my hosts at Wah! It is apparently similar to the Hindu temples in Elephanta caves, Angkor Wat, and Mahabalipuram, and looks stunning in photos.
The common perception about Palampur as a travel destination is that there’s not much to do and see. Half a day is enough, go to Mcleodganj or Bir instead, most people will say. But the trick to discovering hidden gems is to hang around long enough, ask local people what fascinates them, and let time, situations, and people do their thing. I spent three days in Palampur and yet have so much left to see. I don’t know when I will go back next, but I’m already looking forward to it!
Great post, and thank you!
Please let the records show I am not going to ask ila to post more often. Please let the records also show that if she takes such a lovely (albeit short) trip and writes about it like this, the wait is worth it. Let the records also show that the picture of bulbs/flowers with angry clouds in the background is so good it made me look for an umbrella nearby.
Please also let the records show that I do not want to know if she could somehow manage to capture any sound of this place? The calm of the nunnery, the sitting and watching the world go by at the cafe and so much more - I am sure there was some background music to these places, just like there is a background music to all your posts, especially this - of calm, of regrouping and of a blessed existence.
Let the records show, Let the records show, Life is best, when lived slow.