BHARAT DARSHAN: EXPLORING THE UNEXPLORED: HIMALAYAS: THE UNTOUCHED PARADISE-Kalpa (Episode-12)

In this show of our documentary travelogue on Steemit, "Bharat Darshan: exploring the unexplored", Sukhnidhey Films (www.sukhnidhey.com), takes you to the highest mountains in the world, the Himalayas.

Continuing our journey from our last stop, Chitkul we now continue "climbing" higher and higher onto the Himalayas, exploring the most unexplored places along the way. The roads have become increasingly dangerous, as is evident from the presence of "Human Traffic Signals" in this part of the world.

We spot these human traffic signals sitting near the roads where there are sharp hair pin bends and blind turns. With red flags in their hands, the signal cars to stop when there's another vehicle approaching from the other side (And which is not visible at all due to the sharp turns). Its a very noble profession indeed, since absence of such guidance at such heights can lead to a lot of disastrous accidents.

The roads at places are full of sharp stones and logged with water flowing down from the mountains. Navigating such points is a crucial part of the extremely beautiful, but extremely dangerous drive. We finally reach the small town of Kalpa, which offers splendid views of the Kailash mountain range- said to be the abode of Lord Shiva Himself.

Rain and slight snowfall welcome us into Kalpa, and our umbrellas come to our rescue as we set out to explore this land. We first reach the View Point, also called locally as the "Suicide point", which offers dramatic, views of the surrounding valley. Beware the height although, for just one wrong step leads us thousands of feet down into the Sutlej river.

We next reach the village Roghi, which we are informed, is the oldest village in the Kinnaur region. And the architectural styles of the village houses and the people's lifestyles stand as a testimony to this fact. We encounter houses built of a combination of stone slabs and wood, as is typical of mountain, Himalayan architecture, since this part of the world is very earthquake prone.

Trekking through the village we spot some beautiful waterfalls far away into the valley, with water falling through such immense heights that it is blown away into mists by the strong winds before it even reaches the bottom. We also spot a water wheel in the village, which harnesses the water's energy to grind wheat. We are left amazed at the sight of this ancient eco friendly technology. Roghi has indeed preserved its ancient cultures and forms to this day. We reach the very ancient Narayan temple in the village, which houses idols of Lord Vishnu, with a very obvious Buddhist influence on the form.

Continuing our exploration of Kalpa further, reach a beautiful place in the midst of the town, called "Van-Vihar", which is a forest land with amazing diversity of plant species. The rain continues accompanying us once again along our trek into this wonderful land full of natural surprises.

We reach back to our hotel, to be greeted by the local village dogs which are covered with their dense fur to protect them from the ever prevalent biting colds at these high altitudes. Continuous rains ensure dense clouds obstruct our view of the Kinner Kailash mountain range. We wait until the next morning to be offered the spectacular views of the snow covered peaks of the abode of the supreme Lord Shiva.

A natural rock formation amongst the peaks resembles a Shiva-lingam, the formless entity symbolizing the formless nature of Lord Shiva. The trek to this Shivalingam is extremely treacherous, taking around 14 days. An exquisite feature of the structure is that it changes colours at different times of the day: brilliant red, orange and yellow during different times of the day. Such is the spleandour of the ancient land of Kalpa: the window to Lord Shiva's abode.

So, hold your breath, tighten your seat belts and come along with us as we take you to this divine place, gather and document historical evidences on this enchanting journey, studying the architectural features and critically examining the events as described in the ancient Indian texts, and as we see them first hand. "BHARAT DARSHAN: exploring the unexplored", every thursday at 12pm EST on Steemit webseries.