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Most tourists wanting to see India visit Rajasthan and then perhaps Goa and highlights of Kerala. Very few ever tour Orissa and visit Bhubaneswar and Puri. Yet these two cities on the eastern coast of India offer some of the most striking temples and can be used as staging points for tours into the interior of tribal Orissa.

Bhubaneswar, the capital city of ancient kingdom of Kalinga, is known as the Temple City of India. Among the finest and also the biggest of Bhubaneswar’s 600 temples is the Lingaraj Temple of Shiva built in the 11th century.

Best visited from Kolkata, start your tour of Bhubaneswar with the Mukteswara temple. Built in the 10th century, Mukteswara temple is known for its richly decorated stone arch at the entrance. With the tales from the Panchatantra carved on it, the temple is a magnificent example of classical architecture of Orissa.

The Rajarani temple, set in picturesque surroundings, is noted for its intricate carvings of floral, animal and human figures. Built in the 11th century it has no deity.

Parasurameswara temple is small but richly decorated shrine of Shiva built in the 7th century. It is one of the best preserved and is embellished with sculptures featuring amorous couples, animals and floral motifs.

Last, do not forget to see the the Vital Deul-tantric temple located near Linagaraj Temple.

After touring Bhubaneswar continue to Puri. Puri is another major pilgrimage centre in India. Puri was established as one of the four cardinal institutions, shakti peethas, holy places of cosmic power, by Adi Shankara. Also known for its Golden Beach the fame of Puri emanates mostly from its Jagannath Temple. The 12th century temple is known for its annual Car Festival.

From Puri continue to the legendary Konarak temple. The temple chariot of the Sun God on the coastal sands of Bay of Bengal is a 13th century architectural marvel. It is designed as a celestial chariot of Sun God, complete with twelve pairs of wheels and seven horses. This striking temple has sculptures of great beauty covering all aspects of life, but it is most famous for its erotic art.

While in Puri, also visit the Raghurajpur village to have a look at the Patachitra painting, an art form akin to Batik.

Every year in July, the sacred coastal town of Puri celebrates the Rath Yatra of Lord Jagannath The entire Ratha Yatra is a symbolic humanization of God.

In 1973 the Indian Government launched Project Tiger, a tiger conservation project to control and supplement the dwindling population of the Royal Bengal tigers in India. Over the years the Project Tiger has become one of the most successful wildlife conservation efforts in India. While initially only nine tiger reserves were set up under the Project Tiger, today there are nearly 30 tiger reserves all over India. Although not all tiger reserves, wildlife and national parks in India offer equal chances of seeing a tiger in the wild, there are a few where one can take tiger safari tour and have a good opportunity to actually see the tiger.

Bandhavgarh, Kanha National Park and Pench National Parks are the finest wildlife reserves when it comes to chances of encountering the magnificent Bengal tiger in the wild. Located in the hills of the Vindhyan Range in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, Bandhavgarh National Park is considered to have one of the densest tiger populations of any wildlife reserves in India, though since 2006, when Kaziranga National Park in Assam of north-eastern India was too declared a tiger reserve, that crown is now claimed by Kaziranga. Considered one of the best parks in Asia, Kanha National Park is hailed as providing the best opportunity for seeing a tiger namely on account of having the largest number of tigers, said to contain over 400 of these predators.

Bandhavgarh, Kanha, Pench and Panna National Parks can be included in your tour of the Khajuraho and Varanasi region. Pench and Kanha National Parks are best accessed from Nagpur, easily accessible by air from Delhi, Mumbai or Kolkata.

Located in the foothills of the Himalayas is the majestic Corbett National Park, once a popular hunting ground of the British. Corbett NP became the first national park to be established in mainland Asia and the first sanctuary to come under Project Tiger. It is best visited as part of your Northern India itinerary, where it can be ideally tailored into your Rajasthan – Varanasi – Indian Himalayas itinerary.

Another option for visiting Corbett National Park is to combine it with a tour to the hill state of Uttarakhand, to Garhwal and Kumaon region. Here it is best added to your trip to Haridwar – Rishikesh – Almora – Nainital itinerary.

One of the premier parks of India and also established as one of the best for a chance of seeing a tiger has become Ranthambore National Park in Rajasthan. Typically visited as part of so called Temples, Tigers and Ganges itinerary that packs in the best of Varanasi and Khajuraho first and the tour visits Ranthambore en route from Agra to Jaipur.

Last but certainly not least recommended for seeing the tiger is Kaziranga National Park. Although relatively small, Kaziranga NP is among the best of India’s wildlife parks. As a result of a truly remarkable success story of conservation of the One Horned India Rhinoceros, Kaziranga National Park got the recognition of the UNESCO World Heritage Site List in 1985. Kaziranga NP is best visited as part of Assam – Meghalaya itinerary, either by flying into Guwahati, Dibrugarh, Jorhat or Shillong.

Binsar is a wildlife sanctuary under the management of Corbett National Park. Within its boundaries are hamlets whose residents have lived for centuries in close proximity of the forest and wildlife, and whose livelihood is interdependent with nature. The development and progress made in other villages of the region has eluded these hamlets due to stringent laws, remoteness of locations and the fact the people would feel resentment towards the Sanctuary unless efforts are made to integrate them into activities which empower them economically and socially. The concept of the village walks is to introduce nature lovers to the world of the forest dwellers and the hamlets within Binsar, creating a sustainable livelihood for the villagers and motivating them to appreciate and protect the unique biodiversity of the sanctuary.

The village walks are hosted by a local professional operator, Alpine Adventure, and the residents of five of the hamlets in the Sanctuary: Gaunap, Katdhara, Pataniyanail, Dalar and Rishal.

The walks take visitors through both the upper and lower reaches of Binsar, through oak and pine forests, up crests with stunning views of the Himalayas and surrounding areas and down valleys with streams and thick undergrowth. Starting from the North face of Binsar the walks go round the south and west faces of the mountain and return to the top. En route visitors will see hundreds of varieties of plants and wildlife, namely ghoral, barking deer, langur monkeys, wild boar, and possibly even a leopard. For birdwatchers there are 400 species of resident and migratory birds in Binsar Sanctuary. Combined with the great outdoor and a forest adventure are the lovely villages with their terraced fields, stone houses, and their dignified and hardworking inhabitants. In spite of the hardships of life and relative backwardness of the area, the people are proud and exude an inner strength and resolve as well as gentleness and joy. Visitors are guaranteed to come away nourished and refreshed by the experience.

Go to sample Binsar Village Walks itinerary.

For more info contact Alpine Adventure ‘Outdoor Programs’

Pemyangtse Monastery, West Sikkim

Sikkim’s original inhabitants, the Lepchas, call their land Nyemael , “Paradise.” Though one of the legendary “bayul” or Shangri-la valleys that refer to a handful of remote valleys of the Himalayas was said to be only behind the mighty Kanchenjunga, rather than implying the entire former Kingdom, Sikkim, now the 22nd state of India, has very much the same characteristics as the other fairy tale kingdoms of the Himalayas.

Lepcha girl

The Buddhist patron-saint of Sikkim is Guru Rinpoche who is said to have passed through the land in the 9th century and introduced Buddhism to Sikkim. As a result landscape is studded with many picturesque monasteries, much like Bhutan further to the east. Though most monasteries extol Padma Sambhawa and follow the Nyingmapa order, or Red Hat school of Buddhism, since 1959 when the 16th Karmapa arrived in Sikkim after Tibet was overrun by the Chinese, Rumtek, a large monastery near Gangtok, has become the seat of the Tibetan Karma Kagyu lineage.

Gompa near Yuksom

Same as its neighbors, Sikkim too was a monarchy, presumably since the 13th century though the first king, or Chogyal, of Sikkim was not consecrated until 1642 in Yuksom, in West Sikkim. The end of Sikkim’s monarchy came on April 6, 1975 when the Indian army subdued the palace guards, placed the king under house arrest and Sikkim ceased to exist as an independent kingdom, its sovereignty lost. It is said that Sikkim’s merger with India was necessary for India’s national security since India’s first cross border skirmishes with the Chinese in the 1960s. China claimed Sikkim to be part of Tibet, hence part of China and India feared vulnerable to an attack should Sikkim succumb to China. Though the eventual annexation of Sikkim to India was years in the making, perhaps as far as back as 1947 when India gained independence from the British, fact is also that India played dirty in the process, staging referendum vote whether the people wanted to become part of the union, all to pave the road to justification of the eventual annexation. Hailed as expression of democracy, those that remember the voting and events of those days well recall India hauling in masses of poor folks from the plains, some said to have been brought from as far south as Bihar to vote, all to show the wish of the majority was to join the Indian Union. No foreign press was allowed into Sikkim for a long time and even as late as 1980s number of those that used to be close the former Chogyal and agitated against India’s rule lingered off and on in Indinan prisons.

Preparing for a ceremony, Pemyangtse

Today, most Sikkimese know they lost their independence in 1975, and the plains-bound passengers from the hills still say they are “going to India” despite that indeed they are in India. The pride of the Lepchas and being Sikkimese carries on and it is good to see that the young generation has not lost their identity, quite the contrary. Although India has always been hailed as the largest democracy and praised for its practices, it seems the spirit of democracy it sowed in Sikkim is a far cry from its otherwise fine track record.

To learn more about the events of 1970s when India annexed Sikkim, read Smash and Grab: Annexation of Sikkim, by Sunanda K Datta-Ray.