Off to Sherabling monastery, paragliders' landing site, Bir and back

Tibetan monasteries exude peace and spiritual calm. Tucked away as they generally are in some remote, quiet corner high up on a hill, makes them look even more charmingly divine. I had heard a lot but not been to one such monastery: the Sherabling monastery located near Bir, about 7.5 kms from Baijnath. Therefore one sun-blessed April morn, we, a batch of four, headed off to see it. After passing through the Baijnath bazaar, there is a diversion from the NH on the left, just a kilometre or so up ahead. This is the Deol-Sehal-Sansaal link road. We took this road and were soon treading our way and enjoying a beautiful view of the open countryside: terraced fields, houses new and old, and men and women going about their daily chores at an unhurried pace. The road, though narrow, is in good shape and the traffic minimal. We passed by pine-forested hill sides with refreshingly clean and fresh, balmy April air caressing us playfully. (You could take another road too, called the Bhattu road which forks out from the above mentioned link road soon after crossing a bridge over the Binwa, but we preferred the Sansaal road.) A few more bends and curves and suddenly there were those Tibetan flags strung across trees and fluttering merrily that came in view as if to announce the presence of the monastery: we had arrived!

We parked our vehicle nearby and took in the panoramic view of our beautiful Kangra valley that presented itself before us from these heights. After a little walk we were before the stupas looking resplendent against the backdrop of a thick forest canopy. It was all so serene and quiet; the enveloping calm punctured only by human voices of a few visitors.  We went around seeing some of them one by one and that done, we drove a little distance further down and were right at the monastery- the Palpung Sherabling  monastery. By the way Palpung stands for ‘glorious union of study and practice’. This monastery caters to four aspects of life: spirituality, education, health and culture. It is equipped with shrine halls, a monastic college, school, library, 250 monks’ quarters to accommodate over 500 monks, museum, exhibition hall and dispensary. It was humming with life and fervour when we entered there. The Buddhist monks could be seen busily engaged in their day’s religious practices. We entered a hall where the monks, young and old, sat in a long row immersed in prayers, the sound emanating from their musical instruments at intervals lending an aura of preternatural bliss. Then we entered the main compound and went up to the richly and ornately decorated main shrine hall. A large, golden image of the Buddha was before us to fill us with a sense of piety and reverence. Here too the monks sat in a long row on our right chanting prayers. Entranced by the overall ambience of such pure peace, we paid our obeisance, clicked pictures and stepped out.

It was indeed a hugely satisfying visit.

From here the very same road leads you to Bir/Billing through the landing site for the paragliders on the way. We pulled over at this point: the landing site. It is an open, sunny, gently sloping patch of land.  We watched several paragliders taking off from a hill top above – the take-off site at Billing - then floating in mid-air (looking like some large winged creatures from some alien lands) and landing – rather a bit sloppily - on the ground right before us.  
If you are the adventurous type, you could enjoy a short ride with a trained, license-holding paraglider there. But we stayed content with just watching and enjoying the colourful spectacle.

The area right now is largely uncluttered and clean. But commerce is fast catching up. Eating joints and other kinds of shops are making inroads to cater to the needs and demands of the tourists and visitors. We too had our chicken-daal-roti lunch at one such eatery– and were not disappointed. Then we proceeded ahead to Bir passing  through the narrow bazaar lined on both sides by shops of all kinds, hotels, restaurants and houses. After wandering around for some time at Bir from where a road snakes its way up to Billing, we wended our way back home along the same route happy, refreshed and content.

If you are a traveller having come to the Kangra valley for respite from the heat and dust of summer-scorched plains, do include a visit to Sherabling monastery-Bir-Billing in your iterinary. It will be paisa vasool, I assure you: You will return with Pine-scented, fresh air in your lungs, a sublime feeling of peace in your soul, and of course, a sense of adventure as well!

The Kangra valley

                                                     

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Quotes of the week

Humans must leave earth in 100 years to survive (climate changes, asteroid strikes and overpopulation)

               - British Physicist Stephan Hawking

Politics: a strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles

                - Ambrose Bierce (Deccan Herald)

'Star Wars' isn't a movie, it's  a religion

                 - J J Abrams (Deccan Herald)

I regret cheating on my wife with Sushmita Sen

                  - Filmmaker Vikram Bhatt (HT)

Let's sail on the tide of freedom, instead of being drowned by it

                  - Game of Thrones, Season V

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Random news headlines

US politicians to meet Dali Lama in Dharamsala next  week (The IE)

20 more terror camps come up in PoK (Deccan Herald)

An FBI agent fled to Syria to marry ISIS jihadi (ToI)

There is an overall sense of shrinking liberty in India: The Hoot report onWorld Press Freedom Day (Scroll.in)

Activity resumes at North Korea nuclear test site: analysts (ToI)

New crack in one of Antarctica's biggest ice shelves (NDTV)

There is no science behind denying climate change (Forbes)

Airfare from Dharamsala to Delhi dips (The Tribune)

Higher the testosterone, more impulsive men get:study (Firstpost)

Coffee may halve prostate cancer risk (DH)

Sunscreens may cause vitamin D deficiency (DH)

Want to shed extra kilos? Try eating avocados (Business Standard)

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