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Kinnaur is the
lesser-known district of Himachal Pradesh. Kinnaur is The people of Kinnaur have very ancient roots and can trace back their origin to long before the ‘Mahabharata’. Most of them practice a religion, which is a mixture of Buddhism and Hinduism. Every village has its own local God or deity and demon-worship is also practiced. The Buddhist Lamas hold a prominent position and are consulted in matters of conflicts. The people here practice ‘polyandry’ and women participate equally in all festivities and occasions. People here, enjoy singing and dancing and claim that the most ancient inhabitants of the area were the ‘Kinners’. This race was known as the minstrels or heavenly musicians. They are also referred to as ‘Gandharvas’ in ancient Vedic literature. People here believe that the ‘Pandavas’ of the Mahabharat legend stayed here for sometime and learnt music and dancing from the ‘Kinners’. The people, even today, are great singers and dancers and sing of all aspects of their lives including sorrow and joy. Every village has a temple or a Gompa and some of the monasteries in Kinnaur are quite imposing with wooden carvings and exquisite sculptures. The wooden architecture of the houses of Kinnaur is very unique and extraordinary. The valleys near the rivers have pasturelands and gentle stooping meadows, with flowers growing wild and trees laden with fruits, where as the higher ranges of the valleys are snow covered, all year round. You will also find ruins of old forts at various places in the district. A number of Kinnaur villages are built on knife-edged ridge tops. The people dress in loose gowns, which look like woolen coats. These are dull Grey colored and home made. The caps are round and colorful. The jewellery is usually made of silver and studded with shining stones, which can sometimes be semi-precious. Even the artificial jewellery is very well done. Apart from agricultural and pastoral activities like sheep rearing, the Kinnauri people love to weave. The shawls and carpets, rugs of Kinnaur are in great demand all over India. The shawls and the carpets are very colorful with beautiful motifs, patterns and designs. The people of Kinnaur grow chestnuts, walnuts, pears, apples, apricots, grapes and the ‘chilghoza’ pines. They are good tradesmen and deal in handicrafts like metalwork, woodcarvings, silver smiting, etc. They usually drink at their festivals, which occur in great numbers. You can at least have one festival every month. The fairs held at these festivals are quite gay and hold foot races, horse races, ‘nattis’ (agile acrobatics), dancing and singing. In Kinnaur, one can visit places like the Sangla valley, Pangi, Wangtu, Sungra, Sangnam, Puh, Kalpa, Recong Peo, Powari, Morang, Chitkul and Niehar. |
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It is an interesting temple to roam around. It is next to the bus station. Malaon Fort About 42km south of Bilaspur, on the road of Chandigarh, Swarghat has a ruined fort and on the way from Bilaspur to Swarghat is Malaon fort. Shri Naina Devi Temple It is about 27km northwest from Swarghat near Govind Sagar. It is a very famous temple of Hindus & Sikhs. Here Navratri festival is celebrated every year in August. Bhakra Dam The tourist can visit Bhakra dam if one gets a permit. It is situated at nearby town of Naggal and is easily approachable. |
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situated on the eastern side of the state and has Tibet on its east, Spiti
on its north, Kullu on its west and Shimla and the Uttarkashi district of U.P. on its
south. The Sutlej River flows through the Kinnaur valley. The valley is situated at a high
altitude and has a rugged and barren mountainous landscape. The mountain ranges of
Zanskar, Great Himalayan range and the Dhauladhar lie in this area and the Sutlej, Spiti,
Baspa, Jaiti and Tirung river flows through it, thus creating a number of beautiful
valleys. The summer months are short, while the winters are long. During the winters, the
nomadic inhabitants of the place move down to the lower valleys along with their herds.
This area has been compared to the Ladakh and Lahaul regions due to the minimum amount of
rainfall that it receives.
