Mick Canning
Travel Photography and Paintings
Himalayan Foothills, Northern India
By 'Foothills' I mean the ranges of hills and smaller mountains that guard the approach to the Himalaya proper, where the big beasties rise up to heights of over 8000m with permanent ice and snow cover. The old Raj hill stations such as Nainital and Darjeeling were built at heights of around 2000m - high by UK standards, but certainly not by Himalayan ones.
Naini Tal, Nainital Town, Northern India. Morning Light. (Photo H1) Nainital lake, ('naina' is Sanskrit for eye and 'tal' means lake) in Hindu mythology, is one of the emerald green eyes of Sati, Shiva's wife. This was my first view of it after getting off of the overnight bus from Delhi.
Gadhar Kunkyop Ling Gompa, Nainital (Photo H7). Unlike many other Himalayan towns, Nainital has no sizeable Tibetan population, and this Monastery, perched high to the North East, overlooking the lake, is the only one in Nainital and home to just seven monks.
A sea of prayer flags on Observatory Hill, Darjeeling (Photo H2). Darjeeling, unlike Nainital, has a large Tibetan population and many Gompas both in the town and the surrounding hills. Observatory Hill is the site of the original temple of Dorje Ling, long destroyed, but after which the town was named, once the British had persuaded the then ruler of the area, the Chogyal of Sikkim, to lease them the land to build a hill station. The hill is now home to a Hindu shrine, with the British built church of Saint Andrew close-by.
But no Gompa.
The 'Toy Train' stopped outside Samten Choling Gompa at Ghoom, near Darjeeling (Photo H13). This train runs for 51 miles from Siliguri to Darjeeling, rising a total of just over 7000 ft. It has numerous steep gradients and sharp curves, including the famous one at 'Agony Point' - originally the loop there was a diameter of only 59.5 ft and the train literally overhung the mountainside as it rounded the curve. All in all, quite a remarkable engineering feat and deservedly a World Heritage site.
Druk Sangak Gompa (Photo H14), a large Buddhist monastery on the edge of Darjeeling, West Bengal. A fairly new gompa, it was inaugerated by the Dalai Lama in 1992.
Not Chelmsford, UK, but Darjeeling, West Bengal (Photo H3). Many of the old British hill stations, such as Darjeeling, still retain much of their colonial character.
A clash of cultures! (Photo H12) And what a clash. East meets west, with brass band in the park meeting the Indian Himalaya, courtesy of the Darjeeling Police Band. The band played in a bandstand on the Chowrasta, the open square at the top of darjeeling, close to Observatory Hill. In the days of the Raj, this would, no doubt, have been familiar to all who lived there. Close your eyes and think of England...
Tea pickers, Darjeeling. (Photo H9) Think of Darjeeling, think of tea. In the hills surrounding Darjeeling are numerous tea estates, where the job of tea picking, sorting, drying and packing goes on much as it has done for the last 150 years.
Buddhist painting on rock wall, by open air shrine (Photo H20), Darjeeling. As well as the larger gompas, you come across small shrines and gompas unexpectedly around odd corners everywhere.
Prayer Lags in Yumthang Valley, Northern Sikkim (photo H11). This is as far north in Sikkim that you are allowed to travel, just a few miles south and west of Tibet. Everybody is still very touchy about borders.
Crossing a bridge in the Yumthang valley (Photo H18). It should be safe, considering the number of prayer flags!
Unnamed 6000m peaks overlooking the Yumthang Valley (Photo H21). We asked our guide the names of these peaks, only to be disparagingly told 'They don't have names. They're less than 6000m tall.'
And more prayer flags...(Photo H19)
Young monks on a hillside (Photo H17), Phodong Gompa, Sikkim.
Monastery wall painting, Lachung Gompa, Northern Sikkim (Photo H10). Lachung Gompa is about 2km above Lachung village, at a height of about 3000m. It is not a 'working' gompa, the monks living down in the village rather than at the gompa, so it is generally kept locked and only used on festivals and full moon days.
Monastery door, Tharpa Choling Gompa, Kalimpong, W.B. (Photo H4). Kalimpong, not far from Darjeeling, but 1000 metres lower, has also a large Tibetan population.
Statue of Chenrezig (Avalokiteshvara), Durpin Gompa, Kalimpong, West Bengal (Photo H16). Chenrezig (Tibetan) or Avalokiteshvara is the Bodhisattva (a being who has partly or completely attained the state of enlightenment) of compassion. The well-known mantra 'Om Mani Padme Hum' is dedicated to him.
Market trader, Kalimpong (Photo H15). She seemed to find it hilarious that I should want to photograph her.
Lake Dal, Srinagar, Kashmir (Photo H5). Unfortunately, it is still probably unwise to visit most of Kashmir, and things will probably remain this way for some considerable time to come. A pity, because this really is a most beautiful part of India and Pakistan. I took these photos in 1989, a very short while before the area became off-limits to tourists.
Panorama - Lake Dal, Srinagar, Kashmir (Photo H6). In the distance is the Hazratbal Mosque, a comparatively modern mosque, enshrining a hair of the prophet.
Houseboats around the shore of Lake Dal, Shrinagar, Kashmir (Photo H23). In the nineteenth century, the British, who first developed Srinagar as a hill station to get away from the stifling heat of the Indian Plains in the summer, found that the then Maharajah refused to sell them land to build houses. The solution? They built boats to live on...great, elaborate, ornate carved and decorated houseboats. These same boats, with many more recent editions, now function as floating hotels to tourists. The majority are moored not on the actual shore, but a little way off, often on the edge of small islands. This gives the local shakira (a type of small boat unique to Lake Dal) owners a chance to clean up, as a taxi service.
Shakira (Photo H25) moored on Lake Dal.
