Magical Kalpa - A Himalayan town around Sutlej River in Kinnaur region of Himachal Pradesh with some stunning landscapes, quiet temples and scary ravines
We started our journey from Shimla in a car and drove through Jeori, Pooh, Nako, Tabo, Kaza, Key, Kibber, Langza, Koimik, Dhankar, Gue & Kalpa, along with various smaller stops on our way. It was last day of our road trip and this post talks about the day spent around Kalpa and on the way to Shimla. And not only that, we will share how to reach Kalpa, main things to do and some of the not to miss experiences in this part of Kinnaur, Himachal Pradesh.
The photograph above shows Kalpa village. We were staying in one of the hotels on top hill from where village was clearly visible. Some of the main places to explore in Kalpa are -
- Trekking to Chakka,
- Kinner Kailash Views,
- Narayan-Nagini temple,
- Hu-bu-lan-kar monastery,
- Sapni Fort
- & walks around the woods.
How to Reach Kalpa or Rekong Peo from Shimla/Chandigarh/Delhi :
Kalpa is very well connected through roads. So one can take bus from Shimla to reach Rekong Peo and then local taxi or bus to reach Kalpa.
Shimla to Rekong Peo is 225 kilometers and it almost take whole day to reach here. Which means morning bus from Shimla will land you Rekong Peo by late evening.
Kalpa is 3 kilometers from Rekong Peo. The upper road of Kalpa has lot of hotels to stay and from this road offers views of the village and Kinner Kailash mountains.
Shimla is nearest railway station and airport, so you can plan accordingly if you are coming from other cities or countries. Please do note that train from Kalka to Shimla is very slow as it's narrow gauge, so time-wise it may not be very efficient but great from time perspective.
Since Rekong Peo is coming multiple times in this post, let me also share a little about Rekong Peo. Rekong peo is administrative town of Kinnaur district. There is no town/city with name Kinnaur and all administrative offices of Kinnaur are in Rekong Peo and it's a pretty big town for obvious reasons.
Let's talk about some of the interesting things to do around Kalpa Town of Himachal Pradesh :
Kinner Kailash Views :
Above is photograph of Kinner Kailash peaks during early morning. Sun is about to rise and that's why you see orange shades of clouds. I didn't really think about getting up in the morning to see these mountains but everyone in the hotel was crazy to see these peaks. There were lot of sounds at around 4am as it seems that mountains are mostly covered by clouds and the only probability to see them clearly is early morning. So if you are around Kalpa and intend to see these mountains, don't miss to get up early and see. If you are lucky, clouds will remain away during the day as well.
Fellow travellers on roof-top of the hotel. Kalpa is extremely beautiful place surrounded by green apple orchards and snow capped mountains on one side. Along with this natural beauty, Kalpa has strong heritage. If you look around, you would find lot of tourists at Kalpa and there is very high probability that you would hear bengali language on the streets. And don't be surprised if you see restaurant menu in Bengali. Interestingly lot of Bengali tourists visit Kalpa and hotels here take best care of them. In fact, there are lot of folks from West Bengal who are running hotels in Kalpa.
Trekking to Chakka around Kalpa Village of Himachal Pradesh :
Before I start sharing about trekking opportunities around Kalpa, let me share that above photograph is a staged photograph although there was a challenge to bring few leaves from that plant which was not so easy :).
When you think about Kinnaur and places like Kalpa, there are endless hiking opportunities around you. and you can plan a trek of easy, medium or difficult range. Like Kinner Kailash trek is one of the toughest treks in Himachal and probably in India as well.
Chakka is supposedly one of the most preferred destinations around Kalpa that offers tourists with ultimate trekking and hiking experience. The beautiful Chakka peak is situated around 15,000 feet above sea level and the uphill journey to this place will take around 2-4 hours, which is not bad. Which means this is something you can plan for a day while around Kalpa village of Himachal Pradesh.
One can reach Chakka through trekking in the upward vallies and while crossing many water channels, lake and springs. If you plan to do it in a day, it's highly recommended to start early in the morning. That always has different advantages when it comes to hiking in hills. You cover more before sun rises and can conclude the day before it gets dark.
The Chakka offers an amazing experience of the natural beauty and I would recommend that you hire a guide who knows the terrains & can share about local things. It's always more fun along with being safe with a local guide.
The trails for Chakka start from a point on Kalpa Roghi road near Chini village which is around 10 km from Reckong Peo. One doesn’t need any prior trekking experience but willingness to be around nature & ability to deal with unexpected climbs, which you may not do on a usual day.
Narayan-Nagini temple in Kalpa is a wonderful place for brilliant views at peace :
Narayan-Nagini Temple is located at a walking distance from main chowk of Kalpa village. And not only the temple, but houses on it's way from market are quite interesting. Most of these houses are built with wood, stones and mud. Gradually new structures are coming up and you get the major surprise as you reach entry gate of Narayan Nagini temple.
Narayan Nagini temple is built in typical kinnauri style with great wooden carvings all across and then golden work with beautiful designs on that. Each part of the temple, it's top, windows, doors, roof, ceiling etc are beautifully done to depict Kinnauri architecture.
Narayan Nagini temple is dedicated to Durga ma and there are tiger sculptures in the temple to establish strong relationship between Durga ma and tigers. Above photograph shows 2 yellow tigers just outside the temple. And look at this temple which is build with wood and certainly needs specific safety measures. It's interesting to see dragon carvings in the temple which are probably influenced by Tibetan culture in this part of Himachal Pradesh. There is also a small monastery nearby.
Above photograph shows the entrance to the temple campus in Kalpa. And just look at the architecture, designs, colours and fine work all across. Don't miss the golden gates with equally good emboss and designs. This gate also shows the dragon on 2 of the poles of entry gate, which is probably influenced Tibetan architecture. This can also be seen in many temples in Kinnaur, Spiti and Shimla regions. Hatu Temple also has similar carvings.
If you pay attention to above photograph, you may realise that this temple is surrounded from all four sides with different structures and it's pretty tight. The shadows of surrounding structures is telling the story of space around Narayan Nagin Temple of Kalpa. One of friends paying attention to details like this yellow coloured tiger and wooden carvings on almost all the walls of the temple.
Sapni Fort around Kalpa Village of Himachal Pradesh :
Sapni Fort is one of the few heritage structures in Kalpa village of Himachal Pradesh. This is known and visited for it's exceptional architecture and beautiful surroundings. Sapni Fort is located in proximity to the Sapni village which is another beautiful village in the vicinity of Kalpa. The Sapni Fort faces the wonderful valley overlooking white peaked mountains and it's a structure with two buildings integrated into one. The unique architecture of Sapni Fort makes it one of the most popular destinations around Kalpa & Rekong Peo towns of KInnaur region in Himachal Pradesh.
The structure also has a temple on 5th floor of the taller building which is dedicated to Goddess Kali. Two buildings of this fort were constructed by King Padam Singh of Rampur, and it seems one of these 2 was his queen’s tower. This fort also displays some impressive woodwork and carvings on window frames and door, like you observe in other temples & old buildings around Kinnaur or specifically around Kalpa.
One of the building of Sapni fort is seven storey which has a Kali Temple. The travelers can see these beautiful wooden carvings on windows and the door frames of the fort and take pictures as well. The frequent rain and cold weather condition of the region have damaged the carvings, but visitors still love to see these artworks & these carvings have their own charm.
If you look at this structure from outside and how it must have been built in old times, you would appreciate it more and specially architects who built something like this.
Hu-bu-lan-kar monastery in Kalpa, Himachal Pradesh :
While walking around the market of Kalpa town, apart from temples you can also visit this old monastery, which comes on the way when you walk towards Narayan Nagin temple. You need to take a few steps climb on left side of the main path and you are close to the monastery with snow covered mountains in the background.
Folks who have interest in history can enjoy this place a a lot. If you have recently visited other monasteries and especially coming back from Spiti, this may look very small but when explore, you will realise that it's very different from many modern monasteries. Kalpa monastery was founded by Rinchensang-po around 950-1055 AD and hence you find some evidences of it being very ancient.
Kalpa Monastery also has many captivating wall paintings and the daily buddhist chants bring a Kalpa town to a very different mood.
Roghi Suicide Point (Don't take 'suicide' as a serious word here) :
All suicide points (it's weird that there are so many so called 'suicide points' around Indian hill stations) I have seen so far, this one was very scary. Usually I hate these points, but really liked this place. The surroundings are brilliant and the edge around the road is very scary. Just notice the bus crossing this place. There is hardly any space on left of the bus. Roads in this region of Himachal are very scary.
Whenever I have shared this photograph, lot of folks liked and shared their curiosity through comments & questions. That's when I realized how amazing this view is and why such photographs go viral on internet.
I visited this place while coming back from Spiti Valley and trust me, there are much riskier places in Spiti. It's just that people don't stop at all the spots and probably there are not good places from where photographers can click those scary views and can show the scale. This photograph was shot in May'2017 and since then I have been getting lot of messages from travelers, publishing houses, media people to understand more about it. And this place is quite popular so I was also wondering why people have to know this from me and not search on google. That's where I realised about this opportunity to write a special post about this famous Suicide point near Kalpa town in Kinnaur district of Himachal Pradesh.
If you are visiting Rekong-Peo or Kalpa towns in Kinnaur, please do visit this place and it's certainly very interesting. We walked around a bit and then drove back to Shimla. This suicide point is located on the road which connects Kalpa with Roghi village and it's approximately 3 km from Kalpa village.
You notice a beautiful temple building standing tall on right side and in the middle of Kalpa village. Chandika Devi temple is an interesting place inside the village and there are some interesting shops to try and enjoy some local flavours.
There is a small road which goes down to Kalpa Village which has a small market. Some of the bollywood movies and music videos. One of the popular bollywood movies 'Highway' has plenty of shots from this village, it's lanes and small hikes around the tiny market. There is a small parking area in Kalpa market where we parked the car and started walking towards this temple. By this time, we didn't know about the name of the temple and how far it is.
Kalpa village is facing snow capped mountains and snow is there throughout the year. We were there in the month of May and snow was shining bright with thick layers on Kinner Kailash range of mountains. Because of that weather is pretty good here during the day with bright/clear sunlight & air with cool nip in it. The place is also decorated with these prayer flags around the hills in Kalpa. They certainly look more beautiful with the colourful background of snow covered hills & apple orchards.
Address of this place is also known as Kothi. So when you search for Chandika Devi Temple in Kalpa, don't get confused it you see Kothi as name of the place in searched results. This temple in Kothi village of Kalpa is dedicated to Chandika Devi which is oldest daughter of Banasura. Banasura had 18 sons and a daughter. Chandika Devi is considered as one of the powerful godesses and especially in this part of Kinnaur in Himachal Pradesh.
This temple has beautiful architecture with significant use of wood and stones. The roof is mainly wooden with specific kind of slates which is produced out of local mountains of special kind in Himachal Pradesh. I have some of such mountains in Dharmshala/Mcleodganj area.
The wooden blocks of the temple have beautiful carving which you would find in most of the wooden temple in Himachal Pradesh, but this one is little special because of it's size and shape.
Travellingcamera thoroughly enjoyed observing the architecture and finer details of the cravings around the whole campus of this beautiful temple.
And it's not only the temple which impressed us with the architecture, houses in this village are beautifully built. Above photograph shows one of the houses on the street which connects the market with Chandika Devi Temple.
There is a government school close to Chandika Devi Temple in Kalpa and above photograph shows these roofs of school buildings.
Walks around Kalpa Town and it's forests can be very enriching experience :
Mountains around Kalpa village are full of high & dense deodar forests. Lot of movies and songs are shot around this region of Himachal Pradesh.
Kalpa is one of the most visited places in Kinnaur district of Himachal Pradesh and especially popular amongst tourists. Lifestyle of people is this region is very different. You would be happy faces all around and involved in agriculture. Apple is main cash-crop of this part of Himachal Pradesh. In fact, Apple from Kinnaur is considered very high quality & mostly exported.
Hindu temple is in middle of the village and above photograph shows the narrow lane taking us towards the temple and the fort. These wooden houses all around add a lot to the beauty of the Kalpa town. Bollywood movies like Highway are shot in the town and on these lanes.
During this trip we met lot of lovely people. Folks in these regions are simple and you find them in good mood, most of the times.
We spent quite good time roaming around Kalpa market. There are various small shops serving snacks, food items and daily use general stores.
It was early in the morning when every shopkeeper in Kalpa was gearing up for the day. Above photograph shows the only tailor in Kalpa market.
Take a walk in Rekong Market and grab some Kinnari specialities for your loved ones :
When you are Kalpa, plan a visit to Rekong Peo and look for following stuff (Things to buy in Kalpa or Rekong Peo in Kinnaur, Himachal Pradesh) :
1. Kinnauri Topi
2. Shawls or woolens
3. Kinnauri Apples during apple season
4. Local Almonds, Apricots, Chilgoza etc
5. Rajmah Beans
And when you walk around, I am sure you will more stuff worth for your home or friends/family.
There is a this huge flag installed in Rekong Peo. Not sure if we can call it one of the highest Indian flag at high altitude.
Rekong Peo being near by big town, can also be a place to explore when in Kalpa. With that, we take a leave and hope this would help you know about Kalpa and planning your visit to this beautiful Himalayan village in Himachal Pradesh.
If you liked this post and found it helpful, I would request you to follow these things when traveling -
1. Manage your waste well and don’t litter Use dustbins.
2. Tell us if you went to a place and found it hard to locate a dustbin.
3. Avoid bottle waters in hills. Usually you get clean water in hills and water bottles create lot of mess in our ecosystem.
4. Say big no to plastic and avoid those unhealthy snacks packed in plastic bags. Rather buy fruits.
5. Don't play loud blaring music in forests of jungle camps. You are a guest in that ecosystem and disturbing the locals (humans and animals) is not polite.
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