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The
Victorian capital city of west Bengal that recently turned 300 years old,
Calcutta, is the land of Tagore’s Gitanjali and Mother Teresa’s
‘Missionaries of Charity’.
Across
Howrah
bridge this city is the nucleus of the eastern region, bustling with ceremony or
ritual, or the more earthly vocation of soccer. The terracotta temples at
Vishnupur, are a treat to behold.
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Shantiniketan,
the Gurukula university, founded by Rabindranath Tagore as an ashram, and famous
for its open air classes is now a cultural and creative centre of
India
.
The Great
Bengal tiger roams the marshy mangroves of Sunderbans, considered the largest
estuarine forest in the world. (west
Bengal
tourism offers a 2 day trip in the company of armed rangers into the Sunderbans).
Bihar in
the foothills of the
Himalayas
is the land where Buddhism and Jainism sprouted and flowered. Buddhist Viharas
(monasteries), and sacred pilgrimages like Bodhgaya where Buddha attained
enlightenment; Nalanda the 5th century
university
of
Buddhist
learning and Rajgir (sacred for Jains as well), are the religious, cultural and
archaeological sites in
Bihar
.
Gaya
near Bodhgaya is an important Hindu Pilgrimage.
Along the
south-eastern coast lies Orissa. The Capital city Bhubaneshwar is a city of
temple, the renowned Lingaraj temple amongst them. An hour’s drive away, at
Puri, every year in June-
July, the ‘Rath Yatra’ of Lord Jagannath is held.
The 13th
century sun temple at Konarak, 65 kms away from Bhubaneshwar is an artistic
wonder sculpted in the shape of a chariot drawn by seven horses. For three
evenings in the last the surrounds come to life with the streams of music, the
jingle of anklets and the beat of percussion, as experts of Indian dance perform
at the famous annual Konarak Dance Festival.
There are
two famous beaches in Orissa other than the one at Puri Chandipur and Gopalpur
on sea both fine beaches. Gopalpur provides very good facilities for surfing and
sailing.
Chilika in Orissa is
India
’s largest salt water lake. The astounding variety of birdlife seen here
includes the itinerant Siberian Crane.
A ‘toy
train’ plies from New Jalpaiguri station up the hills amongst terraces of tea
the
Darjeeling
.
Mt.
Everest
and Kanchenjunga form an ideal backdrop for this land of the celebrated CTC and
Darjeeling
tea. Clamber
atop a howdah and ride elephant-back into the marshes of the Kaziranga Wildlife
Sanctuary the main sanctuary for the Indian one-horned Rhinoceros. Amongst
the bamboo forests of
Assam
lies the Manas Wildlife Sanctuary. Manas, besides being home to the rare golden
langur, offers excellent facilities for trout fishing.
400
species of Orchids bloom in the ever green hills of
Sikkim
, often called the last Shangri-La. A flower festival is held here every year in
the months of April- May.
Arunachal
Pradesh on the north eastern border is the threshold to
India
. Here stands the majestic Tawang over 350 years old, the largest Buddhist
monastery in
India
. Towards the eastern border with
China
and
Burma
, the
Brahmaputra
river forms a lake, a hole pilgrimage for Hindu’s Brahmakund.
The clouds
literally open up at Cherrapunji, in Meghalaya. Believed to be the wettest place
in the world, it receives 45 inches of rain annually. Shillong, the capital
perched at 4,900 ft is known as the ‘
Scotland
of the East’.
The
inscription on the war memorial at Kohima in Nagaland reads, “When you go
home, tell them of us and say, For your tomorrows we gave our today.”
Trade goes
don briskly at the women’s market in lmphal, the capital of Manipur. There is
a museum here which displays tribal artifacts.
Further to
the south lies Mizoram, a mountainous terrain, and cut into deep gorges by the
rain fed rivers.
Tripura’s
legacy of craft exctica is evident at the exquisitely crafted
Ujjayant
Palace
and the Neer Mahal in capital Agartala. 67 kms away, at
Udaipur
, the ancient capital, are the ruins of the Tripura Sundari temple.
In the
small state of Manipur, there is a wonderful floating sanctuary on the Logtak
lake, the
Keibul
Lamjao
National Park
, home ht the rare Thamin deer.
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Eastern India
