Museum of Himachal Culture and Folk Art

After a week's worth of work at Dhagpo Shedrupling Monastery, I was ready for a day-trip to Manali. My colleague at the monastery Rajesh agreed to show me the tourist spots of Manali, and visit Shuru village if time permitted. And, this would be a biking tour.

Dec 5, 2019
Rajesh and I left the monastery around 10 AM on a Honda Hornet. Even in open sunlight at 45 kmph it felt cold but it was manageable. However, I was wondering how it would be after 4 PM. We reached Manali by noon, we passed through the market area and reached Hidimba Mandir. The temple was teeming with tourists yet the place felt peaceful. Then we went to Gatothkacha shrine followed by the museum. Lastly we went to Manu Mandir. Then we took a short break for lunch and stopped to buy a few shawls as souvenirs. That's it for Manali tour. It was a super tight tour!

For some reason this blog post was hibernating since 2020. Its hibernation ended with this post going live. Here are a few hurriedly shot pictures of the artifacts exhibited in the not-so-photography-friendly setup. The artifacts collection included kitchenware, models of a flourmill, models of Katkhuni houses, footwear, smoking devices, spinning devices and other stuff. I'll start off with this shield and pair of swords even though it wasn't displayed at the entrance.

Storage bins for storing food grains, water storage tank, and containers for churning butter-milk.

Wooden trays for preparing dough and wooden vessels with spout.

This sections has a stone vessels. Of the vessels, the Skaa has a detailed description, below is the transcription.

The use of the skaa is very simple but long time taking and very rare. The skaa takes about an hour to heat up. It directly placed on the fire. In the mean time a thick paste of powdered rice is prepared with water or milk. When the skaa reaches the appropriate temperature, the paste is filled into the holes. When the paste are about to be cooked, small holes appear on its upper surface. This dish is known as aaksu. A special needle made of wood is used to remove the aau from the skaa.

The aaksu are eaten with a blend of milk, sugar and ghee. The three ingredients are boiled together until they mix up thoroughly and become a little thick. The aaksu are dipped in this solution and are eaten.
This dish is rarely cooked in the area. It is mostly cooked during the phagli festival. The tradition and custom is to gift the aaksu to ones sister during this festival. So the brothers' families prepare aaksu for their sisters and then the aaksu are sent to the sister as a gift. Other wise preparation of aaksu is very rare among the people.

During a time all the families had a skaa in their house, but today it is difficult to find a skaa even in a village. Very rare families in the village have a skaa of their own.

This is a set of earthenware.

A wooden silo and circular grinding stone together form a flourmill. This seems like a flour mill designed for home use. Maybe it could be a common flourmill for a village. Here villages situated on mountain slopes are small, consisting of 20 to 50 houses. So, one or two such flour mills should be sufficient for such villages.

Slippers of Lahaul made of sheep skin, goat hair and straw grass.

A collection of hookahs.

Models of buildings of Khatkuni architecture. During the nine-day stay at Kais, I had explored a couple of villages, many of the houses were traditional buildings made of wood, mud, stone blocks and stone slabs. Do check out this post to see those sights: a glimpse of Himachal rural life.

A model of rural home kitchen with traditional vessels and utensils.

A clay pot covered in a layer of insulation, and a lid.

This section displays hand operated spinning wheels, known as charaka in most Indian languages. Also on display was a handloom used for weaving clothes.

This picture was shot in the mid 90s by my brother during his two week stay at Shuru village. The wooden contraption is a handloom. My brother's host probably had a spinning wheel as well. Such a life they led, occupied all the time, through out the year.

These brass utensils are for offering aarti, a Hindu ritual of offering fire to deities.

Here are samples of kitchenware made of brass and copper. The bottom left wooden box seems like a spice box.

Here's a collection of sculpted wooden pillars used in buildings, could be temples or homes. These pillars remind me of the sculptures seen at Hidimba Mandir and Mataji Mandir at Shuru village.

Lastly, the bench at the museum entrance caught my eyes. Made of vast iron brackets, fabricated steel mesh and wooden strips.. it's such a lovely creation. Who knows how many years of sunshine, rain water and snow this bench has taken.

There were a many more interesting artifacts here but photographing them was a challenge. If you are Manali, do make time for the museum.

After Manali tour, Rajesh and I rode to Shuru village, located my brother's host Kishanchand, who was elated to be remembered by an old guest, took us home and introduced his family, their welcome was warm and affectionate. For that matter, the warmth affection I received at the monastery, by the monks, and Rajesh... no words to describe it.

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a bridge across river Beas

While browsing through my photo archives photos of Beas river brought back memories of my stay at Dhagpo Shedrupling Monastery at Kais village.

Nov 6, 2019
It was for an acquaintance turned friend Rajesh who made it more interesting by showing me around. One of the days, we had been to Kullu on work, on the way back I asked Rajesh that I wanted to get into the river, not the water but the riverbed. Rajesh found a way to reach the riverbed. The first thing I noticed was that all stones, big or small, were rounded. I could hardly see any rock with sharp edges. That's Rajesh finding a safe path to get closer to flowing waters.

In Himachal, main roads run parallel to rivers. Here, along the right bank of Beas is NH-3 and on the  left bank is a rural road connecting towns and villages. The monastery where I stayed was on the left bank, a few kilometers from this bridge. These bridges are important links. I'm not sure if they are designed to take dynamic loads of moving cars but it's a common sight to see small cars on the bridge.

The spot chosen by Rajesh was really nice. The sound of flowing water was soothing. However, I had to be careful, one misstep meant falling into chilly waters. Not to mention the current and submerged boulders.

Water was clean and clear.

That's my friend Rajesh, we are in touch and hope to visit his home town Dharamshala some time.

After spending some 30 minutes in the riverbed, we headed back to the monastery. Here's a shot of the bridge. It's just wide enough for a small car and a pedestrian to pass by. There are unspoken rules for motorists; only one car on the bridge at a time. For the sake of safety and time, everyone respects the rules here.

A couple of views from the bridge. Somewhere in the vicinity is a rafting start point. I saw a couple of rafts with excited tourists.

There's one raft heading downstream. Some reason, I don't even want to try it. Just once I had sailed in a coracle in river Kali near Dandeli. Unlike rafts, coracles are highly unstable and only a skilled and experienced pilots can negotiate them in rapids.

Rajesh on his Honda Hornet speaking to an acquaintance. On that bike, we rode up to the top of a mountain on which the monastery is situated. The top was covered in a fir forest, ground was covered in snow. The place had an eerie silence. Rajesh didn't want to risk going further due to predatory animals and we were just two unarmed men.

On the Dec 5th we rode to Manali on the same bike. We visited Manu Mandir, Hidimba Devi Mandir, Ghatotkacha shrine and Himachal Pradesh cultural museum. Close to Manali is a village called Shuru, we visited it to meet up with an old acquaintance of my brother. Memories of the rural Himachali hospitality is still fresh and warm. The return journey to Kais was something else. In Himachal, sunset happens around 3-30. You must be wondering- how? Once the sun goes behind a mountain and if you are in the shadow, you can feel the temperature drop rapidly. We started from Shuru around 4-30 and reached Kais by 7-30. The entire journey I was shivering, trying to block the wind sneak into my clothing and helmet. With some 5 off kilometers to the monastery, we stopped at a teashop, the fire and hot tea felt heavenly. When we resumed our journey those five kilometers felt like ten. What an experience that was!

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