April 30, 2023
See the other parts of this journey - part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6.
From our native village we went to Kausani. Kausani is a small hill station with a good view of Himalayas - trishul and Nanda Devi peaks, tea plantations and hilly spices. Kausani is half split across Almora and Bageshwar districts. Those who are familiar with Hindi poet and writer Sh. Sumitranandan Pant will also know that it is also his hometown.
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| Kausani village |
We stopped by the Anasakti Ashram. The highlights of our trip had been the tea stops everywhere and this was no different. Pahadis usually drink extremely high sugar in tea so we always had to ask to lower the levels.
Mahatma Gandhi called Kausani as Switzerland of India after his visit.
We then went to the lodge we were staying that night. Another cup of tea in somewhat cold weather didn't hurt. After some rest, we went to the nearby shawl factory. The artisan was on leave that day so we ended up just visiting the shop outside. There was also buransh drink in the shop but since we had already bought a bottle back home, we didn't buy another one. Buransh is a Himalayan flower and its sharbat is popularly used in the hills and near by areas. It has medicinal properties as well.
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| Buransh |
Later that night, we visited another nearby shop which had local foods and products made by tribal women. Kumaon has its own food collection like any other place. Munsyari rajma is famous, so is the collection of various Himalayan spices like jambu, gandhreni, dun, jakhiya etc.
Our lodge also had some tea plantation and variety of fruit and spice plants.
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| Tea |
Fruit and spice trees included pomegranate, peach, shahtoot (mulberry), apricots, kiwi, tej patta (bay leaf), figs, walnuts.
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| Pomegranate |
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| Peach |
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| Mulberry |
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| Apricots |
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| Kiwi |
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| Tejpatta (bay leaf) |
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| Fig |
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| Walnut |
Our plan next morning was to wake up early at 5:30am and watch the sunrise while the sun illuminates the Himalayan peaks that were hidden behind the clouds that day. Looking at the sun rise in itself is a beautiful thing to watch. The hazy mountains added to the morning fun in the cold.
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| Trishul parvat |
The beauty of this small village is worth watching.
Baijnath
After the breakfast, we started for Baijnath which is 20km north of Kausani. It comes under the Bageshwar district and is also known for Swami Vivekananda spending his time here. There is a groups of temples also called Baijnath in the village.
This Shiva Parvati temple is at the bank of river Gomati. The group of temples has around 18 temples with a main temple in between. This kind of structure is common to most temples built during that time by Katyuri kings.
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| Baijnath |
The main temple has a Parvati sculpture with 26 images on it all around. There is also a stone idol of Kala Bhairav outside in a peaceful meditative pose along with Shiva lingas. It was beautiful to say the least. There are fish in the artificial lake on one side of the temple.
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| Bhairav |
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