We spent last weekend at a lake near Mandi called Rewalsar. The town is built around the lake, which is sacred to followers of Buddhism, Hinduism and Sikhism.
The legend goes that Padmasambhava (aka Guru Rinpoche) fell in love with a local princess (Mandarava), and the king, disapproving of the match decided to burn his daughter and Padmasambhava alive.
When the smoke cleared, the fire had been replaced with Rewalsar lake, with Mandarava and Padmasambhava sat on a large lotus flower in the centre of the lake. The king changed his mind about the match after this.
The legend goes that Padmasambhava then went on to travel from India to Tibet, and spread the Buddhist religion there. For this reason, he is revered by Tibetan Buddhists, and a large community of Tibetans have settled at Rewalsar. In 2012, an enormous (40m tall) statue of Padmasambhava was erected atop one of the Buddhist temples there.
Four of us (Jess, Karen, Melanie and I) went for a quiet weekend away, and we found it. Rewalsar is so peaceful and relaxing, it was great. We got up early Saturday for a walk around the lake, popping into the numerous small Hindu temples along the way.
We then took a taxi up to a cave above the town where Padmasambhava meditated. The cave is pretty far up the mountains, so the cloud is really thick - it looked like we were at the end of the world!
After a good lunch of Momos (Tibetan dumplings) we headed for another stroll around the lake. Jess, Melanie and I went up to see the Sikh Gurudwara, and were promptly invited to sit and listen to the music being performed, and to visit the community kitchen there (all Sikh temples are open 24/7, with free food offered to all from the community kitchen). We were completely full of Momos, but out of politeness also managed to eat a place of Rice and Dal there too (like that Vicar of Dibley episode, anyone?). We were made to feel very welcome, and we all left with a fuzzy feeling inside (and a lot of rice).
Offers of free food continued as we visited a local fete, hosted by the Tibetan community in the town. We found out much later that it was to celebrate the Dalai Lama's birthday. The whole community had got together to put on music, food and dancing, throughout the whole weekend.
We returned at dinner time - to see more of the festivities and take up the invitation of sharing dinner with the local monks. The girls were in full flow, dancing and generally entertaining the large number of teenage monks from the local monasteries. The whole place was alive with energy, and it seemed like the entire community had come together for the celebration. They welcomed us, despite forgetting to bring our own bowls ("This is a community, and the community will provide you!"), and we enjoyed a massive, spicy dinner of noodles and tsampa (doughy bread).
The weekend was really fun. It was nice being in small group, without the fuss of lots of people, and suiting ourselves. We also found the people in Rewalsar to be really kind and friendly , which made it such a good weekend.
The legend goes that Padmasambhava (aka Guru Rinpoche) fell in love with a local princess (Mandarava), and the king, disapproving of the match decided to burn his daughter and Padmasambhava alive.
When the smoke cleared, the fire had been replaced with Rewalsar lake, with Mandarava and Padmasambhava sat on a large lotus flower in the centre of the lake. The king changed his mind about the match after this.
The legend goes that Padmasambhava then went on to travel from India to Tibet, and spread the Buddhist religion there. For this reason, he is revered by Tibetan Buddhists, and a large community of Tibetans have settled at Rewalsar. In 2012, an enormous (40m tall) statue of Padmasambhava was erected atop one of the Buddhist temples there.
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| This was one of the views from our guesthouse - they love a good statue in India. |
Four of us (Jess, Karen, Melanie and I) went for a quiet weekend away, and we found it. Rewalsar is so peaceful and relaxing, it was great. We got up early Saturday for a walk around the lake, popping into the numerous small Hindu temples along the way.
We then took a taxi up to a cave above the town where Padmasambhava meditated. The cave is pretty far up the mountains, so the cloud is really thick - it looked like we were at the end of the world!
After a good lunch of Momos (Tibetan dumplings) we headed for another stroll around the lake. Jess, Melanie and I went up to see the Sikh Gurudwara, and were promptly invited to sit and listen to the music being performed, and to visit the community kitchen there (all Sikh temples are open 24/7, with free food offered to all from the community kitchen). We were completely full of Momos, but out of politeness also managed to eat a place of Rice and Dal there too (like that Vicar of Dibley episode, anyone?). We were made to feel very welcome, and we all left with a fuzzy feeling inside (and a lot of rice).
Offers of free food continued as we visited a local fete, hosted by the Tibetan community in the town. We found out much later that it was to celebrate the Dalai Lama's birthday. The whole community had got together to put on music, food and dancing, throughout the whole weekend.
We returned at dinner time - to see more of the festivities and take up the invitation of sharing dinner with the local monks. The girls were in full flow, dancing and generally entertaining the large number of teenage monks from the local monasteries. The whole place was alive with energy, and it seemed like the entire community had come together for the celebration. They welcomed us, despite forgetting to bring our own bowls ("This is a community, and the community will provide you!"), and we enjoyed a massive, spicy dinner of noodles and tsampa (doughy bread).
The weekend was really fun. It was nice being in small group, without the fuss of lots of people, and suiting ourselves. We also found the people in Rewalsar to be really kind and friendly , which made it such a good weekend.
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