Monday, March 23, 2009

Naggar - a delightful hamlet

Perhaps it was because we happened to visit the place on a Monday. One of the attractions, an art gallery, is closed Mondays. So it seemed to us that we had the whole hillside village to ourselves.
At 17 km from Manali, Naggar is just a short drive away, and the Himachal Pradesh tourism department includes it in its regular circuits.
The Naggar palace (castle), with a very interesting history from pre-colonial and colonial times. The palace is now a heritage hotel with a restaurant, an outlet for woollen things, a museum and the Jagatipatt (Shiva) temple within the palace.
(The courtyard was the venue of a popular number of the likeable Hindi film 'Jab We Met').

The Shiva temple within the palace. The wooden pieces that hang ornately make the most soothingly delightful sounds when there is a breeze around.
An ancient Vishnu temple adjacent to the palace.



An even older Gauri Sankar temple a short walk away.
(If you wish to see and buy purses, caps, shawls and coatees made of rabbit wool, just visit the second shop from the palace gates. We were very impressed with the presentable young owner, who was evidently proud of his produce).

See more visions from around the world in My World Tuesday
More posts on Manali
Seeing is believing - hot springs of Manali
Interesting local items
Yak's hair
Manali snow in February

Thursday, March 5, 2009

Shelf-hopping, window-shopping

Accompanied a neighbour to a function at our children's school, and we stopped on our way back for her to look for purposeful gift items. You'll be glad I had my camera by me, won't you?Lord Krishna in brass
A brass conch used during puja (worship) (You can guess how over-zealous my camera was!)
A low chair...
...that can easily be folded to stow away. (noted the hooks at the sides in the previous image?)
Typical musician set
Complete living room needs!
PhotoStory Friday
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