The Panchmura Horse

The famous terracotta horse from Bishnupur has been widely recognized as the symbol of the artistic excellence of Indian rural handicrafts. It is in fact the official motif of the Central Cottage Industries Emporium.

This long necked horse is made by the artisans of Panchmura village about 10 kms from Bishnupur. These are generally brown in color and made of terracotta.

The One Horned Rhino

The Jaldapara Wildlife Sanctuary is the only place in present day Bengal where the one horned Asian Rhinoceros is found. This species of rhino which was once found all across Bengal in the districts of Darjeeling, Coochbehar, Maldah, Murshidabad and even in the Sunderbansa was, in fact, on the verge of extinction at one point of time as a result of indiscriminate hunting and loss of habitat.

The Buxa Fort

The Buxa Fort is located at an altitude of 867 m in th Buxa Tiger Reserve. It was built by the rulers of Bhutan and was used by them to guard the trade route that passed through this area.

During the British Rule this was used as a high security prison and was the most notorious and unreachable prison in India after the Cellular Jail in Andaman. Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose was said to have been imprisoned here for some time. The prisoners had once wrote a letter to Rabindranath Tagore from this prison and the venerated poet had sent them a reply. The replicas of these letters enscribed in marble can be seen in the ruins of the fort.

The fort was last used by the police to keep the Naxal rebels during the Naxal rebellion in the seventies.

Only ruins of the fort can be seen today. What remains of the formidable fort and prison of the yesteryears are three small cells where prisoners were kept. We were lucky enough to spend a night in these cells.

This is one piece of our history which is very much worth preserving.

The Bridges across the Hooghly in Kolkata

The Howrah Bridge is one of the most popular landmarks and symbols of the city of Kolkata which can only be matched by the Victoria Memorial. This bridge, inaugurated in 1943, is one of the busiest bridges in the world with over 80,000 vehicles and more than 10,00,000 pedestrians crossing it everyday. It was built with 26,500 tonnes of steel. It is a suspension type bridge with a central span of 457 m, the two towers being 85 m high. It was renamed as the Rabindra Setu in 1965. The influence of this bridge on popular culture and the tourist map of Kolkata is huge; in fact a major movie had been named after it.

Completed in 1992 after 20 years of construction the Second Hooghly Bridge or the Vidyasagar Setu, this is one of the world's largest cable-stayed bridges with a length of 457.2 m.

The Vivekananda Setu (erstwhile Bally Bridge) was built in 1932 as a multi-spanned steel bridge much before the Howrah Bridge near Dakshineshwar. This is further upstream from Kolkata.

The 880 m long Nivedita Setu about 50 m downstream of the Vivekananda Setu was inaugurated in 2007.

The Jainti Mahakaal

The Jainti river valley in the Buxa Tiger Reserve is one of the most beautiful and sere places in the country. The river Jainti zigzags through the hills of the tiger reserve. Apart from the beauty of the place and numerous birds which makes it a favorite of the bird watchers, the Jainti River Valley is also famous for the shrine of the Jainti Mahakaal.

A Mahakaal is generally referred to the Shrine of the Lord Shiva in the Hills of the Himalayas. These caves are mostly hard to reach and very small. The Jaini Mahakaal is no different. In order to reach the cave formations where the abode of the Lord is, you need to do a steep climb of about a thousand feet from the river bed.

The stalactite and stalacmite cave formations have several caves the most important being that of the Mahakaal, the Mahakaali and Paglaa Baba. The Mahakaal cave is a very small one and to enter it is in itself an ordeal. The opening to the cave is so small that if you do not follow specific steps while entering and coming out, you can get stuck in a very awkward position. While entering the cave, first your left hand, then you head, after that your left leg, right hand and at last your right leg should go in otherwise you are doomed. Its the other way when you come out.

The priest who used to worship the deity when we went there in 2007 would sit there day long and bless the pilgrims to the shrine. When I saw the place I was awed by the nature of it and asked him, "Baba, how old is this place? Since when is the Mahakaal being worshipped here?" I had thought that he would say something around a hundred or a thousand years but the answer was "Since the Satya Yuga." Now that is an answer.

This place is very popular among the trekkers in the region. It is also accessible to the casual visitor from Rajabhaatkwaowa.

The Hills of Purulia

Purulia is a district which is different from the rest of the state of West Bengal. It is situated almost entirely in the Chhotanagpur plateau. The land is not fertile and in many places barren. There are hills all around but the natural beauty is exquisite. It has always been the favorite tourist spot for Bengalis. For the adventurous Purulia is an ideal place to visit. Equipped with a tent, sturdy shoes and other trekking equipments, Purulia can be the ameteur trekkers's paradise.

A major tourist attraction is the Ayodhya Hill (700 m) which is loacted 42 kms from the town of Purulia. It is popular among trekkers and mountaineers. Sitakund is a small lake at the foot of the mountain. Legend has it that during theeir 14 year exile, Lord Rama and Sita had come here and when Sita was thirsty, Rama stabbed an arrow into the ground and water sprung from the ground to form this lake.

Kairabera is a place where there is a reservoir and a hill. The beautiful lake Murguma is the prime attraction of this place. Around six hours by foot from Murguma are the tribal villages of Jering sering, Mamudi and Loya. Purulia has the second highest tribal population in the state after Jalpaiguri, the main tribes being Santhals, Bhumji, Kheria and Shabar.

Joychandipahar, 45 kms from Purulia town is a major rock climbing destination. Mayur pahar, Bamni Falls, Matha Falls and Gorpanchokot are other places of interest.

Dakshineshwar Kali Temple and Belur Math

To the north of the city of Kolkata is the spiritual escape for the city crowd - the Dakshineshwar Kali Temple and the Belur Math.

The Dakshineshwar Kali Temple was built between 1847 and 1855 by the famous Rani Rashmoni. It is built as a temple complex on the banks of the river Hugli. Other than the central temple to the Goddess Kali, there is the Radha Krishna temple and the twelve Shiva temples as well.

The temple was made famous by its priest Shri Ramakrishna Paramhansa who was considered as an avatar or divine incarnation of Lord Vishnu himself. He is a figure of high cultural, religios and spiritual importance in Bengal.

Ramakrishna's disciple Narndranath Dutta who later took sannyaas and became renowned throughout the world as Swami Vivekananda. Swami Vivekananda introduce the Vedanta philosophy and Yoga to the Western world through his tours in America and Britain in the last decade of the nineteenth century. He stirred the Western audience like never before, specially at his first speech in the World's parliament of Religions in Chicago, who at the time was facing a spiritual identity crisis as a result of rapid growth in wealth and materialism as a result of the industrial revolution.

He later came back to Kolkata and built a temple to his Guru, Shri Ramakrishna on the opposite bank of the Dakshineshwar temple on the Hugli river. The temple was made into the Global headquarters of the Ramakrishna Mission, a social and spiritual organization which has its branches all across the globe.

The Belur Math in itself is an architectural masterpiece as it contains Hindu, Christian and Islamic elements in it in order to convey the philosophy of unity of all religions and of a universal faith as preached by Ramakrishna.

The Annual festivals of Santiniketan

An educational institute as it is, the site of the Viswa Bharati University in Santiniketan is famous for its annual seasonal cultural festivals. All of these festivals were started by the Tagores. These festivals are the celebrations of the different seasons of Bengal and of the cultural fabric of rural Bengal. There are sevral such festivals out of which the Poush Mela and Basanta Utsab are the most prominent.

Poush Mela is the Winter Festival of Santiniketan. It begins on the twenty-seventh day of the Bengali month pf Poush usually December 22/23 to mark the foundation day of Santiniketa. The fetivites start with a community prayer with Vedic hymns and writings by Rabindranath Tagore and his father Maharshi Debendranath Tagore being read aloud. Well known bengali artists and students of the university sing Rabindrasangeet ( songs composed by Tagore ).

The graduation and other award giving ceremonies of the different educational units of Santiniketan including Patha Bhavan, Shiksha Bhavan etc are held on the second day.

At the fair irself, the stage is never quiet. Baul songs, kirtans and other forms of music and dancing from Bengal are performed by folk artistes, students and many eminent artists from Kolkata.

Magh Mela is another important annual festival of Santiniketan. It is usually celebrated between february 6-8 each year in the celebration of the foundation of Sriniketan, a rural reconstruction and industrial center set up by Tagore in 1922. A rural handicrafts fair at Sriniketan is the high point of this festival.

The most beautiful and popular Basanta Utsab is the climax of the seasonal celebrations of nature and the culture of Santiniketan and Bengal and India as a whole. It is the Spring Festival of colors started by Tagore and celebrated on the day of Holi in March. This festival has transformed into one of the biggest cultural events of Bengal and draws crowds from all across the globe.

Students, alumni and teachers all dressed in the beautiful Baashonti (yellow) color play Holi, the festival of colors in celebration of the vibrant colors of nature in Spring. Abeer (gulaal in Hindi or colored powder ) of many colors is smeared at everybody and all around.

As is the tradition for all cultural events of Santiniketan, music is the underlying essence of the Basanta Utsab as well. Baul, kirtan and Rabindrasangeet and Rabindrnrityo ( dancing to the tunes of Tagore, dance form introduced by Tagore ) is performed all around.

Sandakphu - The Highest Peak in Bengal

Sandakphu at a height of 3,636 meters is the highest peak in West Bengal. It is situated in the northernmost. It derives its name from a Lepcha phrase which roughly means ' the height of the poison plant'. Such a name is due perhaps to the profusing growths of the poisonous aconite plants in this area. It is situated in the Singalila National Park in the West Bengal - Sikkim border.

Beautiful flowers like magnolias, rhododendrons, primulas and many other sub-alpine flowers bloom in this region. This is home to over 600 species of orchids, probably the highest number of different varieties to be found in a single geographical location anywhere in this world.

Sandakphu, 58 kms from Darjeeling can be reached either by 10 hour trek or a 2-3 hour ride from Maanebhanjan (2,134 km). Sandakphu's location makes it ideal for viewing the mountain peaks of the Everest, Lhotse, Makalu and the beautiful Kanchenjangha. This makes Sandakphu one of the hottest and most scenic trekking destinations in the country. The 21 km long trek route from Sandakphu to Phalut (3,600 m) on the Singalila ridge is one of the best in the country.

The best time to trek is from March to May and from September to November.

Trek Route (10 - 12 days)

Route Distance (in Kms)

______________________________________

Siliguri - Ghoom * 73

Ghoom - Maanebhanjan * 18

Maanebhanjan - Tonglu ** 11

Tonglu - Kalipokhri ** 12

Kalipokhri - Sandakphu ** 08

Sandakphu - Phalut *** 21

Phalut - Singalila Pass ** 06

Singalila Pass - Chiyabhanjan ** 09

Chiyabhanjan - Uttrey ** 10

Uttrey - Dentum ** 07

Dentum - Pelling ** 21

Pelling - Jorethang * 51

Jorethang - Siliguri * 85

______________________________________

* Bus/Jeep

** Trek

*** This stretch is uninhabited and must be covered in a day