A Little Tibet in South India

Bylakuppe is a small Tibetan settlement in Karnataka, about 200kms from Bangalore. The settlement houses Tibetan refugees who were driven out of their homeland due to Chinese invasions in the 1960’s. The refugees have now settled down here, and made the place a mirror image of their Himalayan homeland. I visited this place on a grey rainy day, and for a while you would think that you’ve actually reached the Tibetan plateau in the distant Himalayas! The Buddhist monasteries outlined against the dark cloudy skies makes you forget that you’re actually in Southern India.

Entry to the main hall of the Namdroling Monastery

The most famous monastery here is the Namdroling Monastery, which is also known as "Golden Temple". The name probably comes from the gold-plated statues of Buddha’s inside.

Statues of Buddha (center), Guru Rimpoche (left), Buddha Amitabha (right)

A lion guards the entrance to the main hall

This place is wonderful, and quite worth a visit. Outside the temple complex on the narrow road leading up to the temple, there are small restaurants selling traditional Tibetan food.

Tibetan food

Rock Concert in Whitefield

Yesterday I attended a live concert by Parikrama in Whitefield. Here’s a video I shot using my N8.

 

These guys are good with their music, although the mixing was a tad off in the concert. It was all going fine, until a Bollywood-Pop singer called "KK" came in and spoiled the show!

Fatehpur-Sikri

The twin sites of Fatehpur-Sikri lie just on the outskirts of Agra, and while visiting Agra to see the Taj Mahal, most tourists stop here to see Akbar's palace and Salim Chisti's tomb. Akbar, as the 16th century emperor of the Indian subcontinent, needs no introduction. Salim Chisti was a sufi saint, who lived as a hermit in the hills of Sikri. 
Before 1569, Akbar had no heir to his throne. Akbar's first three children - a daughter Fatima, and twin sons, Hussain and Hassan - died in infancy. Akbar, a very worried and heir-less emperor then approached Salim Chisti, in the hope that divine intervention could help him with his heir troubles. It is said that he even moved his pregnant wife to Sikri, so that she would be in blessed surroundings when the child came. 
All this paid off, and a son was born to Akbar in 1569, and named "Salim" after the saint. Salim would later become famous as Jahangir, but that's a different story.
Akbar now started considering Sikri a lucky place for him. He decided to move his capital from Agra to Sikri, and started building a royal city around Salim Chisti's hermitage. This new city was named Fatehpur or "victory city". Two years later, in 1571, Akbar moved to this new city with his family and courtiers. Red sandstone was the building material that was available at that time, and you can see the entire complex in Fatehpur is made of this material. 

Wonders of the World : Great Wall of China

Back in November 2004, I was posted on-site in Beijing working for a telecommunications company. Since I was assigned at the Beijing office for a good three months, I had a lot of weekends to explore Beijing. While I visited places like "Forbidden City" and "Temple of Heaven" on my own, I opted for a guided tour for the Great Wall. The Hotel (China World Hotel) could organize a English-speaking guide. The tour took us first to the Ming Tombs, and then the Badaling section of the Great Wall.

Bactrian camel at the Great Wall

View of the Wall.

A French co-tourist volunteered to take my picture. Merci, Monsieur !

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Wonders of the World - The Taj on a foggy winter morning

    I visited Agra in January of 2009. The only thing on our to-do list was to visit the Taj Mahal, but we drove down from Jaipur and reached Agra after 5PM, and by that time the Taj premises were closed. So we settled for a quick visit of Agra fort. Interestingly, from the ramparts of this fort, the Taj can be seen across the dry bed of the Yamuna river. So my first ever view of the Taj was from Agra fort's Diwan'e'khaas!


    The next morning, I was off to see the Taj. Apparently, you cannot just drive in, park your car and see the Taj. The UP Govt. has made sure that tourists have a tough time, while the local transportation business can fleece us. The car park is about 3 kms from the Taj gates, and you have the option of riding a horse drawn "tonga" or a auto-rickshaw down to the gate. Whichever mode of transport you choose, you will land up paying a ridiculously high amount to the tonga or auto driver! Then you are greeted with a long queue, with an impatient hawildar trying to manage the queue. Only after passing through these ordeals are you deemed worthy of a glimpse of the Taj. And here is what the first glimpse is... a kind of little "Buland Darwaza" leading to the Taj Mahal proper.

    Enter through these gates, and you are greeted by a Tourism department counter that asks you to hand over any video cameras that you may have. Apparently, the Taj Mahal is allergic to video cameras, so you cannot take them close to the monument! So after completing the formalities of depositing your camcorder for safe-keeping, you are finally allowed to gaze upon Shah Jahan's famous creation.

After spending a while marvelling at the structure, I was  greeted with the remarkable phenomenon of the sun rising over the Taj. Once you see this, all the trouble of haggling with the auto driver & standing in the queue is forgotten. It's a site worth seeing. Check out these pics below!