Page 125 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - India

HIM A CHAL PR ADESH  123

4 Sapni
Sapni village has Tips for Drivers
a tower temple Key Length: 90 km (56 miles).
that contains Getting around: The tour begins
some of the Tour route at Kafour village. The steep road
finest examples Road is rough and winding, and is best
of wooden River negotiated with a 4-wheel drive.
sculpture Sangla and Chitkul villages offer
in Kinnaur. places to stay and eat, as well as
a few shops with basic provisions.
Wangar Gad
6 Sangla
Urni The largest among the
Rekong Peo villages that dot the
Baspa Valley, Sangla
Melam Khad has some beautiful
walks to offer.

Rokti Khad Baspa 7 Chitkul

Shaune Garang The tour ends at the
village of Chitkul, just
5 Kamroo before the pastures of
The tower of the Kamroo Narayan Temple the Upper Baspa Valley.
commands a picturesque view of the valley. The valley’s blue poppy
Fields and orchards slope down to the Baspa was admired by the
on one side of the river, while on the other explorer Marco Pallis
side, thick forests rise up to pasturelands. in 1933.

little township on the right last stretch of its course, the scholar Rinchen Zangpo,
bank of the Satluj river, with Baspa river ambles along a revered in Tibetan Buddhism
some shops and adequate wooded valley past serene as the Lotsawa (Translator),
transport connections. About villages. Stupendous gneiss who initiated the mammoth
13 km (8 miles) higher up on faces and forests of deodar, task of translating Indian texts
the same mountain is Kalpa, pine and birch reaching up into Tibetan. He was also the
the old headquarters. With its to long swards of pasture and main force behind a great
panoramic view of the Kinner snow-covered peaks surround temple-building movement
Kailash Range, Kalpa is a must the valley. Every village in this and supposedly built 108
in any Kinnaur itinerary. The valley, from Sangla to Chitkul, monasteries in one night.
choice of walks include one offers glorious walks and a Nako, 100 km (62 miles) from
to the upland pastures through choice of festivals to celebrate Rekong Peo, has a small lake
deodar and chilgoza pine with the local people. and is close to Reo Purgyal,
(Pinus gerardiana) forests. There Buddhism holds sway the highest peak in Himachal
are remarkably built wood- and- throughout Upper Kinnaur. Pradesh at 6,816 m (22,362 ft).
stone temples that are capped Fluttering prayer
by slate roofs in the area. flags and mud-
About 20 km (12 miles) from walled Buddhist
Rekong Peo, the Baspa river temples with clay
joins the Satluj at its left bank. images and wall
The beauty of the Sangla paintings dot the
Valley (or Baspa Valley) has region, reflecting
been extolled both in local its proximity to
legend and by visitors over Tibet. Many
the years, and the region lends temples are
itself to a lovely trip by road. credited to the
Apart from a furious rush in its 11th-century Young Buddhist monks in a monastery, Kinnaur

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