I am a big fan of the Russian artist Nicholas Roerich, an explorer, philosopher and artist, some of whose works I am lucky enough to have in my private art collection. I have previously visited the Roerich Museums in New York and St. Petersburg, and last year visited his home in UlaanBaatar, Mongolia, where he spent two years planning his extensive Central Asian and Tibetan expeditions.
Following that, he relocated for the last 20 years of his life to Naggar, in the Indian Himalayas, where he founded the Roerich Peace Institute, an influential pre-WW2 entity that ultimately went unheeded. Nonetheless, Roerich left a considerable contribution to global society, including the scientific classification and uses of many Himalayan and Central Asian plants, in addition to his philosophical musings about spirituality and his belief and search for the mythical realm of Shambala.
Naggar itself is reached via a hours turbo-prop from Delhi, with a small airport carved out of the Kullu Valley, followed by a two hour drive further up the mountains. The Kullu Valley itself is impressive and was where British-era experiments in introducing trout fishing to India ultimately, after years of failure, proved successful with fingerlings being introduced into the River Beas. Fresh grilled trout is still on the menu at selected restaurants here, although after the more spiced fare on offer in Sri Lanka, Asia and India I am used to it seemed somewhat bland. Rather better was the Masala Trout, a combination of England’s chalk rivers meeting the Punjab.
Naggar itself is rather off the international tourist map, which is a good thing; most of the travellers here arriving by charabanc from Delhi – a good 7-8 hour drive. There is a Taj affiliate hotel here, the luxurious Baraghar resort, sited in the middle of the area’s extensive apple orchards, but sort of tuck half way and and down between Naggar proper. I opted instead for a wooden cabin closer to Naggar Castle towards the summit, and walking distance to the Roerich residence, now a museum comprising both the family home and his research institute slightly further up. These are spectacular locations, one can see why he settled here, with the Himalayan landscape partially reminiscent of Russian forests.
I took a Ladakh Pony for a bit of a trek, these breeds are bred for the Himalayas and are very sure footed and even-tempered, climbing up another 3km for some spectacular views. The peaks here are over 6,500 metres, higher than anything in Europe.
The temperatures dropped considerably in the evening, promoting me to acquire a local ‘Manali Cap’ and making my appearance somewhat Roerichesque.
We were directed further up the mountains to Jala, a small village way above Naggar for some traditional food, which turned out to be a type of clay tandoori oven fired by wood, which produced some amazing Thali’s, including items not dissimilar to Northern Chinese food, such as Baozi. Also excellent were the local ciders – Apple Orchards grow all up these mountains, while the local Ginger Ale was also pretty scrumptious – and alcoholic at 5 degrees proof.
Some of the buildings were Tibetan influenced and, including Naggar Castle (which has spectacular evening views down the valley and across to the mountains) deploying an earthquake-proof design of loose stones overlaid with horizontal timbers. I don’t know how this ancient technology worked, but it is a common sigh here. Given that Naggar Castle is nearly 400 years old and survived an apparently very serious earthquake here in 1905, it appears to work.
Here are some of my images of the mountains, and a couple of Roerich’s own work from the 1930’s.
