– a travelogue by The ‘Knee’dy Traveller- Dr Himanshu Mathur.
I know, O wise Reader, that to label a place; however exotic and wonderful it might be; as Shangri-La in today’s world is a grave risk- risk of being derided or risk of being totally overlooked, as in today’s time there is no dearth of pictures, videos, reels and what-not, swirling around twenty fours a day where travellers are reaching all remote corners of the globe and broadcasting about these destinations loudly; and so a sort of malaise sets in each one of us, and one tends to glance over details of every beautiful place as ‘just another beautiful place’ – another picture perfect valley or another Instagram-worthy building- and move on; without really registering the true beauty of the place.
So I understand the enormity of my task, and I do not take it lightly, which is to impress upon you, the wise reader, the uniqueness of a place that I happen to visit sometime back.
But before that I want to discuss – Shangri-La.
Shangri- La, taken literally, is a place mainly in mountains that is hidden and is very nearly Heaven. It’s not an actual place- but a myth or a dream for everyone to discover his or her Shangri- La.
It’s an Utopian place – where everyone is happy. A surreal place where modern world hasn’t entered and is unspoilt by the crowds.
Naturally, it’s not real but that does not mean that one can’t strive to find a place that fits, or almost fits, the description of Shangri-La. And each one of us could have a different Shangri-La, where we might have stumbled upon by chance or by design in our travels.
I was fortunate enough to visit such a place- Chehni Village, Banjar Valley, Kullu District, Himachal Pradesh, India.
And this is the account of that journey and why I have labelled the place as my Shangri- La.
The journey starts…
The way a family takes its vacation tells a lot about it, and I think it can be said about my family that my wife and kids have long ago stopped trying to make me go to a well-known destination that reeks of glamour, skyscrapers or golden beaches. They have understood that essentially I am a mountain man, perhaps a cave-man only living in this century, who does not associate relaxation and leisure with vacation. Mind you, they do enjoy the trekking and hiking involved every year on treacherous trails in glacial valleys, just that they don’t happen to mention it…
So in May-2022 I chose the stunning Tirthan Valley in Himachal Pradesh as our next destination.
This verdant glacial valley is a destination that I would recommend everyone to visit once in their lives. The Tirthan river originates from the Haskund peak, a mighty peak deep inside the Great Himalayan National Park, which is an UNESCO World Heritage site.
The river has carved a beautiful valley along its path and there are many tiny hamlets and towns that have sprouted on its path which might serve as idyllic destinations for one to stay and rejuvenate.
Jibhi, for example, is a remote town in this region that has been gaining a lot of traction in this region. Having read about it a lot in last few years, I decided to base our vacation at Jibhi and explore the surrounding region including a one night two days trek inside The Great Himalayan Nationanal Park.
Imagine my surprise then, when after a journey of full day by flight( Ahmedabad to Dharamshala) and then a long 10 hour drive to Jibhi on treacherous mountain roads, I found Jibhi not as a soothing, remote and laid- back archetypical Himalayan retreat but a place that had undergone immense explosion of attention by travellers and subsequent developments in last couple of years.
Every building in this tiny town now is either a Homestay or a cafe. There are many resorts and Tree-Houses on every corner and Jibhi is bustling with activity specially during summers.
It’s beautiful though, no doubt about that, just not as exclusive and unspoilt as I had thought. It seems that Lockdown during the pandemic pulled a lot of people from Delhi and nearby areas here, and they stayed here and worked from here. This sudden attention has made Jibhi quite popular and thus the resultant inevitable commercialisation.
Undeniably however, it remains a perfect spot to spend a night or two- it’s clear air, spellbinding beauty with tall Coniferous trees, a stream running by and humble people are hard to dislike. There are some tourist spots like —Jibhi Waterfall.
In search of Paradise…
When a man born and raised in cities is out in search for an ‘unspoilt paradise’ high up in the mountains, he becomes very difficult to please; specially a man as impatient and stubborn as yours truly; so after my trifling disappointment with Jibhi I expanded my search in nearby areas and then I heard about Chehni Kothi- a mystical tall building at a tiny village up in the mountains near Jibhi.
A quick research told me that it was the tallest freestanding building in western Himalayas and one of the tallest in the whole Himalayan region and about a thousand year old!
It seemed quite strange to me that such a gem was not widely known but tourism and widespread attention has not reached every nook and corner of the mountains and thankfully so!
I was greatly intrigued by Chehni Kothi and decided to have a look at it, and imagine my ecstasy when I came to know that to reach there one has to do a hike of about an hour!
I was desperate to do a beautiful hike in the trails of Tirthan Valley and this seemed the best suited opportunity- only if plans always go as planned though.
But first things first….
Shri Shringa Rishi Temple- First stop along the Hike…
Shringa Rishi Temple ..
The trek to Chehni starts from quite a well-known place, atleast locally in Himachal, the Shringa Rishi Temple.
The road from Jibhi to Banjar, where most of the riverside resorts are located, suddenly takes an innocuous right turn upwards and one finds transported to another world- a more serene world, a more sedate world and an ‘Older’ sort of world almost immediately.
Our taxi came to a stop after few hundred metres on this upwards going road in the mountains and our driver informed us that nearby were 50 odd steps that lead to Shringa Rishi Temple, and near the temple is the place from where the trek to Chehni starts.
The cars and SUVs go that point only( later I found out that there was another uncemented road from another direction that could lead the taxi right up to Chehni).
It was a beautiful morning- sunny but not warm and we all were invigorated by the fresh air of the hills, and so up we went in a jiffy on those huge stone steps and finally saw a vista opening up right in front of our eyes- on a sort of a plateau or a meadow, right in the midst of thick forest is an opening and on that sits a beautiful old wooden building that is known as the Shringa Rishi temple.
Now, I am not a religious man but the setting of that temple was so soothing- all around were trees laden with Rhododendrons and behind were snow-capped mountains filled with tall trees – there was not a soul to be seen and the calmness that I felt there is seldom felt in life; so it was a sort of spiritual experience for yours truly.
Apparently, Shringa Rishi was quite an important figure in mythology and is considered the ruling deity of this region and so the place is very sacred to locals.
The temple is said to be around thousand years old and is three- storied and totally made of wood.
I have seldom seen interior of a temple that I encountered at the temple… clean wooden floors with no idol on first two floors, only murals on the walls to depict the life of the patron saint, red and green walls and narrow harrowing wooden stairs to go up and down.
The stairs were difficult to negotiate to us, outsiders, but we saw few locals running up and down as if it was nothing!
On the topmost floor we found the idol of The Shringa Rishi and also the priest- he was quite young.
The priest and some locals, who were sitting there, were quite welcoming and told us about the history of the temple and the place. The view from top floor was mesmerising, on one side the valley opened up and we could see the glint of sun shining in the water of Tirthan river far away in the valley and on all other sides were mountains, trees and specks of villages interspersed in the forest on the rolling hills.
The locals were all wearing the traditional headgear or the ‘Topi’ of Himachal and vests. It was going to be the attire of everyone that we would meet that day …
Finally- Towards Chehni Kothi!
After spending a lovely morning at the temple we looked around for the way to Chehni village and none was to be found.
There were no directions or signage indicating the directions and it didn’t even look that there was any trail or even a village up there on the hills; we certainly could not see anything apart from dense foliage of the forest.
Finally, someone pointed out that a teeny-weeny tortuous muddy path lying meekly a few metres away from the entrance of the temple complex was the way to Chehni.
The path arising from a nook near a pile of stones seemed dubious and frankly not much travelled upon too. Immediately my literary mind was reminded of the famous poem by Robert Frost- The Road Less Taken.
If there was any such road – that pathway in that remote mountain was one.
It was from this moment that things started to go wrong.
We had spent the lovely morning at the temple and had started the hike around 12 PM and sun was directly upon us, and had started to become severe. We were wearing sweatshirts as it had been quite cold in the morning but now we had started to sweat.
Worse – we didn’t have any water or food. In my overconfidence that it was a short hike- a cakewalk for a moderately experienced family of trekkers like ours- I had not thought it essential to have supplies with us.
I had not taken the devastating loneliness of the mountains and the remoteness of the village in my calculations.
Nonetheless we took heart in the fact that many travellers before us had gone to Chehni and so it was definitely up there somewhere…
And so we started trudging upwards filled with a lot of enthusiasm and a little bit of anxiety.
I was still quite sure that the trail would lead us straight to Chehni and I remained in this state of surety for exactly 15 minutes or so…
Tough…Tough…Tough!
It’s funny how quickly the mood changes – one minute we were this happy family going to an exotic locale and the next minute we were this bickering, loud and foul-mouthed group of people not happy with each other, not happy with the weather, not happy with the world…
The sun was beating down upon us and we were going up a steep incline, and neither Chehni kothi nor a living being was to be seen. We had been meandering along the muddy and tough, rough path up the hill filled with pebbles and boulders for an hour now and were totally lost.
Kids were suffering in the heat but were hiking with a smile however, the wife was not happy, and rightly so.
We were stuck at a remote location without any direction to our destination and without water or food- who could blame her?
And as always I was at the receiving end of her ire ! Because, was it not my trip, my wish, my planning? I was putting up a brave face and my stubbornness and male ego were at their pinnacle but deep-down I, too, was worried and in a dilemma- whether to go ahead further on this wild-sheep chase or take cognisance of the situation and retreat?
I was desperate to see Chehni Kothi with my my own eyes but was also aware of rather difficult situation.
‘Where is that damn tall building!’
This was the thought that was resounding in my mind repeatedly. It was supposed to be one of the tallest buildings in Himalayas but we had not seen any evidence of this mythical building and of the village itself. By now we should have got a glimpse of them, but no- nothing. The mountain, it seemed, was hell-bent upon hiding its secrets.
Finally we sat upon a ledge jutting out of a rock- thirsty, pale, tired, deflated, and sweating profusely. Wife’s temper was spilling over and I was cowering behind the kids.
Then, at that moment, I took a heart-breaking decision- I told my wife that we would go just one more turn up on the winding uphill trek and if there we won’t find the way to Chehni village, then we would turn back and return to Jibhi. I had lost hope of reaching our destination- it was my last desperate gambit.
My wife reluctantly agreed to this compromise and we painfully went up one turn on that hike- just a few metres on that inclining muddy road and….
Shangri- La!
It’s true that few extra steps make all the difference in life, and also that – it’s not over till it’s over. These are not mere cliches that we use to make our essays grandiose. There are times in life when one understands that these sayings are rooted in truth and someone else’s experience of a long time ago- I found this out on a warm sunny day of May in 2022 standing on a narrow pathway, far from any civilisation or modern gadgets and comfort, high up in the mighty Himalayas – like a mirage the Chehni kothi, and other distinctive buildings, were shimmering before my eyes!
At this moment I realized that I had found my Shangri-La.
There are many reasons for this- firstly the vision that we saw that day from that viewpoint was nothing short of being heavenly; we were desperate to see some sort of civilisation that could provide us with water, food, shade, salvation, pictures, memories of lifetime and what-not; and Voila- Chehni village was suddenly right there in front of us! Secondly the village seemed so strange and beautiful! Chehni Kothi was towering over other buildings but other buildings were quite distinct too! It was a small village, a hamlet of few houses, but they were so different from anything that we had ever seen!
And thirdly, uptill a few metres down the trail we could not see anything- no glimpse of kothi or any other sign that a full-fledged village was right there only at a small distance from us; and we had lost all hope of reaching there, so when all of a sudden Chehni decided to reveal itself in all its glory, we all, specially yours truly, were stupefied and mesmerised.
That moment of grand reveal has been stamped upon my memory and will remain so till the end of my life. I perfectly understood then what James Hilton meant when he coined the word Shangri- La in his novel Lost Horizon – a mystical, harmonious valley and place in mountains- a Himalayan Utopia; isolated from world where people lived happily.
He coined this for a place in Kunlun mountains of Tibet but it was quite apt for Chehni too.
With a great hurrah we all rushed towards the village and found the most wonderful pathway riddled with fairy tale small farms and rustic warehouses.
It was at Chehni, situated at an altitude of 2145 metres, that I stumbled upon what I was looking for – authentic Himachal.
The main occupation of the people here is agriculture and cattle-rearing. And all along the path there were wooden warehouses, straight out of an Eighteenth century photograph, where the residents store hay for the cattle, stock of food and more importantly- wood, to be used as fuel, for the cruel winters, when this region is covered in snow and totally cut-off.
Chehni Kothi and the Village..
We walked along the narrow alleys of the village almost in a daze.
It seemed that we had time- travelled and had gone back two centuries. It was the real deal!
An unspoilt and virgin place where modern tourist and comfort hadn’t made its mark yet. Sure I saw few mobiles, without network though, in the hands of some residents and recently electricity had arrived there, which is good for the village, but in essence Chehni remains ‘Old World.’
Finally we arrived at the base of Chehni Kothi and could not see it fully – it was so tall and majestic and different!
The village is so small and so remote that it boggles the mind that how could such an architectural marvel be present at such an isolated and laid back place?
But there it was, rising like a miracle – 45 metres tall and about nine stories tall- Chehni Kothi or Chehni Fort, is an example of eco-friendly ‘Kath-kuni’ – centuries old traditional style of architecture of Himachal in which Stones and wood are mixed perfectly to make houses or tall structures without the use of cement.
Chehni is one of the very few villages left still practising this type of architecture, and that’s why it is so special.
The history of Kothi is not clear. Some say it is more than 1500 years old and some say it’s about 350-500 years old. What is more correct is that perhaps it was constructed by the King Dhadiya of this region about four centuries ago, and it was a military structure and also a storage facility, where people of Chehni used to take refuge in a case of attack by the enemies.
It was much taller than the present but upper two- three stories were destroyed in a massive earthquake in 1905.
The stones used in the construction of the building are massive and there is a dangerous looking wooden staircase to access the interior of the Kothi. There is no entrance at the ground level and the building can only be accessed by that precarious staircase which opens up only at the middle level. Earlier; as narrated by the locals; there were retractable stairs which were taken inside the building after every resident of the village had climbed up, during an attack by the enemy. So, there was no way for the opposite army to gain access, and the villagers and the local army could fire at them from high up as they were at the top of Chehni Kothi- ingenious!
Unfortunately, the building is considered sacred by the locals and outsiders are not allowed inside.
The lower stories are made up of stone interspersed with a layer of mashed woods and upper stories are wooden with a balcony at upper echelons topped with a beautiful hut-like apex full of airy windows.
There are few other similar structures nearby – a smaller tower that is used as a warehouse and a five- storied ancient Krishna temple.
What I found that day at Chehni was pure bliss- like when a deep thirst is quenched after a longtime; fully and satisfactorily. I wanted to be at a place that would transport me to another world and there I was – an authentic rustic village filled with strange buildings, hazy history and kind people, in short- Shangri-La.
We loitered in the main square of the village which takes about two minutes- it was that small a place!
By now we were dying of thirst and hunger, and thankfully there was sort of a cafe, recently opened, that offered Maggi and Pepsi to the tricle of tourists that fight there way to reach there.
A gentle lady that goes by the name of Shivangi not only offered us Maggi and soft drinks but also sat with us and enlightened us about her life there.
Maggi with Shivangi…
As we sat there in the cafe, a family of Bluejays chirped in an apple tree, yes; I forgot to mention that there are Apple Orchards everywhere at Chehni; and the whole scene seemed so beautiful and surreal to me that it looked farcical at some level. Perhaps I was dreaming, and following the Freudian principle that state the rule – a person dreams about the things he yearns for- I was fantasising about hills, forests, a hidden village with tall odd-looking buildings and people that were cutoff from world- a world that was nearer to Tolkien’s world of Lord of the rings.
We hung about the village for an hour or two and met such innocent kids that it seemed difficult to fathom that someday they would grow up and travel outside that small place and see how the world truly is – corrupt, cruel, fast-paced and futuristic.
How will they cope – I don’t know, but Pahari people are survivors if not anything else and somehow they will mange, but I am afraid that this old world charm and innocence will be lost somehow…
Final thoughts – Burning Nostalgia!
I am long back in the bustling metropolis of Ahmedabad from that paradise but the memories of that eventful day are still fresh – rolling hills capped by snow, a glacial river, gentle folk and a simpler life coupled with the struggle to reach there, and the moment of Truth when we first glimpsed Chehni.
This is what I yearn for but also know that I can’t have it, and perhaps that life seems attractive only from a distance. Surely there must be problems there that only locals know about, and we, the tourists, can only gloss over the life there in a day or two- only taking in the beauty and blissfully ignoring the ugly underbelly; and perhaps the residents of that Shangri- La covet our lives- full of modernism, full of opportunity and money; for humans are only tempted with what they lack… perhaps nobody is happy.
However, the snapshot of the life that I saw at Chehni seemed idyllic and happy. And at least we can travel to different parts of the world to observe the distinctive beauty, history and culture of different places, revel in the variety that humanity possesses.
At least I consider myself fortunate to have travelled there and so wanted to share the place and experience with the world because the place deserves more attention- though controlled; so as not to destroy its structure and innocence as was done to Jibhi…
Some more pics …
In the end- A Bonus Video ….
Signing off-
The ‘Knee’dy Traveller.
The 'Knee'dy Traveller 