As I sit down to put pen to paper or fingers to the keyboard, I relive our unforgettable journey to Tawang. It is located in Arunachal Pradesh, the land of the dawn-lit mountains, which is a large state in the North-Eastern tip of India. Tawang town sits on the beautiful mountainous terrain of the Eastern Himalayan Range at a height of over 10000 ft. above sea level. Tawang is an important center of Buddhist learning and culture and is world-renowned for its 400-year old Buddhist Monastery.

My husband and I took our small car, the Maruti 800, and started from Guwahati, the capital of Assam in North-East India, and took the Guwahati-Tezpur-Bhalukpong-Bomdila-Tawang route to Tawang. The best time to visit Tawang is between June-October since winter starts in November and ends in February. In December, the mountain slopes are covered by a thick blanket of snow which, we were told, lasts upto March. In mid-winter the road to Tawang is often cut off by heavy snow.

The journey from Guwahati city to Tezpur town was uneventful. We left Tezpur at 4:00 pm and drove towards Nameri Forest Reserve. Nameri is a dense forest area and extremely lonely with just some clusters of houses which were few and far-between. As we were driving through Nameri, daylight started fading and on turning a bend in the road, my eyes fell on a signboard that said "Wild life active. Be careful". At every lonely turning in the gathering dusk, I felt as though a herd of wild elephants might appear in front of us! It took us less than an hour to get out of the forest, driving at great speed, the last 20 minutes having been in total darkness.

We arrived at Bhalukpongand stayed the night at the Tourist Lodge there. Bhalukpong is a small town on the banks of a gushing foaming river known as Kameng in Arunachal Pradesh and Jia Bhoroli after it enters Assam. There is a large beautiful gate here that says, "Welcome to Arunachal Pradesh.

Early the next morning, we started our journey again. The road starts climbing the Himalayan Range right after entering Arunachal Pradesh at Bhalukpong. On one side of the road is the steep mountain face and on the other side is a sheer drop to the valley below. The road snakes along the mountainside with many blind curves and sharp u-turns, up one mountain to its peak and then down again on the other side only to climb the next mountain. The folds upon folds of mountains were breathtakingly beautiful, with the Kameng River roaring through the valleys. There were big and small waterfalls and mountain streams all along and we stopped and took photographs at a particularly lovely spot. The far-away peaks were snow-covered and the sunlight glinted on them. Long stretches of the road were extremely lonely with hardly a soul to see us pass by.

The villages were few and far between, probably because the steep mountains were not habitable for humans. If, God forbid, something had happened to us we would have had to wait there until finally a rare vehicle passed by. There were many military outposts along the way and the sight of a lone soldier here and there was very heartening. Most of the rare vehicles that passed us were army jeeps and trucks. The presence of the army gives a tremendous feeling of security on this lonely terrain. Every kilometer meant an increase in the coolness of the air.

We passed a place called Tipi where Asia's third largest orchidarium has been set up having more than 50,000 orchids under cultivation. Here, scientists are creating new hybrid species employing the latest techniques of biotechnology. Arunachal has the widest range of orchids in the country. Another 40 kms away is the Orchid Park at the village Sessa. On the way we bought local Arunachal apples at a small village called Nechiphuwhich was at a height of 5680ft above sea level as announced by a signboard.

Sela Pass : Entry to Tawang District

We went on through the lonely twisting mountain road, up one mountainside and down the other to climb another mountain, exclaiming and wondering at the beautiful scenery. At some points on the lonely stretches I felt as though the road had been constructed specially for us. We often met the river gurgling over the boulder-strewn riverbed. Although the road was treacherously twisting and turning, the road-surface was beautifully pitched for most of the way except in places where obviously it had been broken by landslides. It was discomfiting to see that some of the landslides were fresh and had people working on them, clearing the debris.

About 4 hours from Bomdila, at a height of around 13,000ft., we reached Sela Pass, which is the entry point to Tawang District. There is a Memorial at Sela Pass, which is dedicated to those men of the Border Roads Organisation who have died while constructing the roads and connecting Arunachal even through heavy snow. Sela Pass is cold and foggy and we were thankful that we had donned our sweaters quite a while back. We read the inscriptions on the Memorial, took a few photographs and moved on.

Jaswant Garh : Tribute to Jaswant Singh

After about an hour or so we reached a place called Jaswant Garh which is a big Memorial dedicated to an army officer called Jaswant Singh who had died in the Indo-China War of 1962. He had fought a lone battle against the advancing Chinese for three days and three nights until finally they captured and killed him. The soldiers believe that Jaswant Singh's spirit was still around and many officers had also dreamed about Jaswant telling them that in case the Chinese attacked again, he would let them know 3 days in advance through his diary which has been preserved in the memorial. The Army also has a shack on the road from where they provide free hot tea to all travelers who stop. We had been told at Bhalukpong about Jaswant Garh and that we should stop and salute this brave son of India.

On to Tawang

At about 4:30pm we were on our way again to Tawang. The weather now was freezing and there was snow on the mountain slopes. The snow on the road had hardened to ice and driving was tricky. The road climbed up and up with not a single soul in sight and at one point we were above the first layer of clouds. We were almost on the peak of the mountain and on one side of the road was the mountain peak and on the other side, the sheer drop below was covered by dense white clouds. The road curved round the peak and up into the sky. I can freely admit that I was never more nervous in my life. Fortunately we could still see a few meters of the road clearly ahead of us, and after a few heart-stopping minutes we slowly came out of the enveloping clouds.

We sped on our way and driving through a beautiful decorated gate we reached Tawang just after 6:00pm. having crossed a few big and small villages and towns on the way. Tawang town, the district headquarters of Tawang District, is a modern and bustling little town. We checked into a new hotel called Hotel Buddha. It was biting cold in Tawang, especially so since it was after dark. Since we had only one day at hand to enjoy the sights of Tawang so we prepared a list from the Manager of our hotel and also the friendly girl in a shop in the market below. The next morning we set off in our car to view the sights of Tawang.

Lake Sanghersh (Madhuri Jheel)

We first visited Lake Sanghersh which is now popularly known as Madhuri Jheel since the Indian filmstar Madhuri Dixit had shot a song sequence there for the film Koyla which was shot entirely in Arunachal Pradesh. This lake is 2 hours journey from Tawang. The road is not too good with evidence of frequent landslides and at a few places the boulders and rubble on the mountain face seem to be barely balanced. We kept climbing from Tawang and at one point we were 14,860ft. above sea level and from this point we again climbed down.

We finally reached Lake Sanghersh (Madhuri Jheel) after asking our way at many places, mainly from helpful Armymen. The lake nestles between huge mountains and is clear and beautiful with what looked like a hundred bamboo poles standing straight up in the water all over the lake. These were actually ramrod straight trees without any branches or leaves on them growing in the lake-water. The entire scene is breath-takingly beautiful. The air is cold and biting and even in our warm clothes we felt cold. On the way there were many big and small clear mountain lakes which were also very beautiful. About 18km. from Tawang there is a particularly beautiful lake on the way called PT Shoh - Shoh means lake in Arunachali language. We returned to Tawang at around 12 noon.

After a lip-smacking Tibetan lunch, we went to see the Tawang Monastery which is the second largest Monastery in Asia (perhaps the world), the largest being in Lhasa, Tibet. Tawang Monastery, of the Mahayana sect of Buddhism, is also known as 'Galden Namgyal Lhatse . Monasteries are known as Gompas in Arunachal and this Gompa was established between 1643 and 1647 by a Monpa Lama called Lodre Gyaltso (popularly known as Mera Lama), following the mandate of the Great fifth Dalai Lama, Nawang Lobjang Gyatso (1617-1682) . (Monpa is a Buddhist tribe of Arunachal and Lama means Buddhist monk). The sixth Dalai Lama was born in this Monastery.

This large fortified monastery is strategically located on the crest of a large hill and can be seen from all the surrounding mountains, even at a distance of 2 hours journey from Tawang. The white-walled and yellow-roofed monastery is built like a fort and spreads over 140 square metres and is enclosed by a compound wall 610 metres long. It is a center of Buddhist culture and learning. It has a colossal gilded Buddha, 18ft. in height, and can house around 500 Lamas, from very small boys to old men. Recently during the Buddhist Mahotsav, a Museum had been opened here in the main building which has a very interesting collection of old utensils, lovely old wall-hangings, small antique statues etc.The gold and silver articles were very chunky and many of them were made with an alloy of gold and silver that is known as "Limar".The museum is kept securely locked since this collection is invaluable not only in its material wealth but also in its age and antiquity. The Lama who was showing us around told us that there were more such articles which they hadn't yet taken out for public viewing. Before the advent of Buddhism, Tawang was a center of Tantric religion.

We left the Monastery and went to see a War Memorial which was inaugurated in Nov. 1999. The Memorial is dedicated to all the Indian Army men who died in the Indo-China War of 1962. The names of all the men who made the supreme sacrifice are written in golden letters inside the Memorial

We stayed the night in our hotel and early next morning at 6:30am, we left Tawang on our return journey to Guwahati. After about one and half hours of journey, near the village Jang, we came upon a bylane that leads to the Hydel Water Project, which supplies electricity to a large surrounding area including Tawang. This Project has been set up on a magnificent waterfall which falls straight down from almost the top of a mountain to the valley far far below. We spent some awestruck moments viewing this splendid waterfall. Then it was on again through the twisting turning mountain road.

Driving almost non-stop, with breaks for lunch and tea, we reached Guwahatiat 8:30pm. Surprisingly, despite a 14-hour journey with 9 hours on a mountainous road, we did not feel too tired.

This is a holiday where the entire experience is to be enjoyed and not the kind where one goes to a specific place to enjoy only the sights of tourist interest. It is a holiday where to a large extent "the journey is the destination".

Tips to motorists driving their own vehicles :

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