Tour Darjeeling on Toy Train

 Darjeeling is one of the oldest hill stations in India. Though this queen of hill stations in India beckoned enticingly the ruling British headquartered at Calcutta, they found the 3-day journey to Darjeeling, covering a steep distance of 600 kilometers interspersed with rivers to be too difficult.

Although they could reach Siliguri from Calcutta by train, they had to use horse drawn carts or tongas to go further to Darjeeling. Interestingly, the main road connecting Siliguri and Darjeeling is still known as the Hill Cart Road.
 



The British then built the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway between 1879 and 1881 and is about 88 km long. It takes 6 hour to reach Darjeeling by the toy train from Siliguri Junction through a breath-taking and gorgeous terrain to Darjeeling.




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Buddhist Places of Interest in India

Read Life Story of Buddha in Pictures: Part 1    Part 2

"Discovery" of Buddhism

Buddhism disappeared in India in the 11th century, due to the many invaders who destroyed thousands of monuments. The Buddha was all but forgotten in the land of his birth.
Buddhism was rediscovered owing to the work done by government-sponsored Archaeological Survey of India, founded in 1871. Alexander Cunningham, the first Director-General, brought Buddhism to the forefront and established its study as a separate discipline.

Assisting Cunningham in his archaeology work were the accounts left by two Chinese monks: Fa Xian’s Record of Buddhist Countries in the 1840s and Xuanzang’s Record in the 1850s. Between the two of them, they had mapped out the whole of Buddhist India, with all the main sites, their locations, their importance, their histories, and details of the monasteries and the monks who inhabited them.

One such Buddhist site uncovered by Cunningham is at Sarnath, the spot of the Buddha’s first sermon after his enlightenment. The Mahabodhi Temple as we see it today in Bodh Gaya was restored by him. Another of his discovery is the spot where Buddha died. Under his supervision, the statue of reclining Buddha picturing the Nirvana was found amidst stupas exactly as Xuanzang had described it 1,200 years before.

Helping to tie up the information about Buddhism were the hundreds of stupas that were excavated at various sites. These carried inscriptions, most important of which were the Ashoka's edicts. Ashoka was gave up military conquest to undertake Dharmavijaya — victory by righteousness and truth, and provided royal patronage for the propagation of Buddhism both within and beyond his empire, into Asia and Greece.

  Important Places Associated With Buddhism in India/Nepal

1.  Kapilavastu/Piprahwa where Buddha was born

The location of ancient Kapilavastu is still not unanimously accepted. Buddha/Prince Siddhartha's father Shuddhodana ruled Kapilavastu near the Indo-Nepal border way back in 563 BC. Queen Mahamaya  traversed the distance of 15 km from Kapilavastu, to her parental home Lumbini in Nepal, where she gave birth to Siddhartha. Generally, Indian guidebooks consider today's Piprahwa village (110 km north of Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh) to be the real Kapilavastu, while Nepalese guidebooks consider Tilaurakot to be the real Kapilavastu. Buddha spent 29 years of His early life in Kapilavastu and Lumbini.

Read more about Kapilavastu, Bodh Gaya, Sarnath and Kushinagar.

Celebrating The Night of Shiva: Life of Indians in Mauritius

November 2, 1834. A National Holiday, observed as ‘Apravasi Day’, in Mauritius. This was the day the ship ‘Atlas’  carried the first batch of indentured labourers from India to the Aapravasi ghat (immigration depot) in Mauritius. Mauritius is a small island country formed by a volcano and located in the Indian Ocean 500 miles east of Madagascar. Sixty percent of the island is Hindu, with English as the official language, and French Creole, the common vernacular.

Aapravasi ghat received indentured, or contracted, labor from India, who were eventually transported to plantations throughout the British Empire, including Mauritius. From 1849 to 1923, half a million Indian indentured labourers passed through the Immigration Depot. Since 68 percent of the current total population have Indian origin, the Immigration Depot has become a historical and cultural identity of Mauritius.

Apravasi ghat, National Heritage site at Port Louis; Source

Slavery abolition was then in the offing (British abolished slavery in its empire in 1835), but the demand for cheap labor had not abated. The French, who had taken over Mauritius from the Dutch, planted sugar in Mauritius in 1767. After the Napoleonic Wars, British acquired Mauritius in 1810. To meet the rising demand for human resources, great waves of contractual laborers descended on Mauritius from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat.

The Great Pyramid Mysteries

Great Pyramid gives evidence of supernatural intelligence, and some believe it to be the sign and witness to the God of the Bible.

Ancient Egypt, the land of the pharaohs, has fascinated people from all walks of life. Countless monuments left behind by the ancient Egyptians make us rethink our hypotheses that civilization as we know today is only a couple of thousands of years old. The Great Pyramid located in Cairo testifies of a far superior knowledge that surpasses the capability of even today's technology.

Egyptologists believe the pyramid was built as a tomb for the Egyptian Pharaoh Khufu. They believe it was constructed over a period of fourteen to twenty years and completed in 2560 BC.

Each giant stone of the 100,000 stones in the Pyramid weighs from 1 to 20 tons, and it boggles the mind to think how the Egyptians who had no machinery, engines, or construction equipment, built them.

It is believed that the original structure of the pyramid stood 480.6 feet tall however with erosion, the current height of the pyramid is 455.4 feet tall. The length of each side of the base is 755.9 feet long and the mass of the pyramid is an estimated 5.9 million tons and covers an area of more than 13 acres of land. This ancient wonder has survived for over 4000 years.

Who Built The Great Pyramid?

Early Hieroglyphics on Egypt suggests the Great Pyramid was standing before Egyptians populated the land because they discuss everything from farming, building structures to Pharaoh worship, but nothing about building the Great Pyramid.

The Great Pyramid is truly unique in its superior workmanship that is unrivalled by any other pyramid. It is one of the heaviest structures on earth and could not be built anywhere. The architect had to pick a site that could withstand the weight of the Great Pyramid. Its builders had to have deep geological knowledge to be able to pick the site.

Vivekananda Memorial at Kanyakumari, The Southern-most Tip of India

Vivekananda's memorial stands on a rock known as "Sripada Parai", meaning the "Parai" or rock blessed by ‘the sacred feet’ or "Sripada", and represents the place where goddess Kanyakumari performed austerities.

Kanyakumari is a small town at the southern-most tip of India, flanked by sea on all the three sides, being the place where three large water bodies – Arabian Sea, Indian Ocean and Gulf of Munnar – converge. Kanyakumari takes its name from the Kumari Amman or Kanyakumari Temple. Both words 'Kanya' as well as 'Kumari' mean an 'unmarried girl' or a 'virgin'.
The Kumari Temple is a Shakti Peetha dedicated to a manifestation of Parvati, the virgin goddess who did penance to obtain Lord Shiva's hand in marriage.

The Maiden Kanya Kumari Does A Bay Watch For Her Lord

Banasura, a demon, harassed Devas or gods, and they went to Lord Vishnu, and on His advice, prayed to Goddess Para-Sakthi. The Goddess promised to destroy Banasura. It was pre-ordained that only a virgin-goddess could kill Banasura, so she arrived here as a virgin girl and started a penance before setting out to kill Banasura. Lord Shiva at the Suchindram temple (11 km away from Kanyakumari) saw the beautiful goddess, wanted her as wife. He bid Devas to make arrangements for the wedding.

Pre-historic Sun Temples Around The World

Pre-historic Sun temples around the world served as astronomical observatories and have given rise to the study called "Archeoastronomy".

Ancient civilizations have been known to worship the Sun as a god and build temples dedicated to Him. In ancient Egypt, Re or Ra was known as the Sun god and the creator of our world. Cities such as Baalbec town in the Bekaa valley in Lebanon and Rhodes, a Greek island southwest of Turkey in the eastern Aegean Sea, are some of the ancient cities in the Middle East which had temples dedicated to the Sun god. Temple of the Sun at Baalbec, also known as Heliopoils, was the largest religious building in the entire Roman Empire. 


Baalbec; Source

Karnak Sun Temple and Abu Simbel, Egypt

Scientists and astronomers of the day who lived in these cities studied the Sun, Moon, stars and the planets. They sited many ancient temples on geometrically significant latitudes. They knew about winter and summer solstices. On the winter solstice day, December 22, the sun is at its southernmost position, and it moves northwards with each sunrise until the summer solstice, June 21. Solar Temple of Amen-Ra at Karnak (Thebes) in Egypt built during the time of the Pharaohs some time after 2000 B.C. near the present day Luxor has been located in such a way as to align with the summer solstice sunrise and is considered the day of the "manifestation of Ra" (sun god). 

In 1257 BCE, Pharaoh Ramses II had two temples carved out of solid rock at a site on the west bank of the Nile at Luxor and known today as Abu Simbel. 


Temple of Ramses II at Abu Simbel

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Kishkinda of Ramayana: Where Rama Met Monkey King Sugriva and Hanuman

Hampi, the capital of Vijayanagar Empire in the southern state of India, Karnataka, is a magnificent site with great monuments and temples, more than 500 in number. It is also the place where Ayodhya's king Rama forged an alliance with the monkey king Sugriva to trace his abducted wife Sita.

Anegondi across Tungabhadra River; Source

Kishkinda. Near the great world heritage center Hampi in Karnataka, Kishkinda presents an awesome boulders-strewn landscape about 30 kilometer-square in area, flanked on North and South by Tungabhadra river (a tributary of Krishna River) and thick and impenetrable forests on the East and West. Naturally fortified from intruders, this region has seen several civilizations and empires rise and fall.

Kishkinda is presently called Anegondi, which means the "Elephant's Pit" in Kannada, and was once the place where elephants of Vijayanagar kings were lodged. The place exudes a rural charm; it is still untouched by tourists except by a discerning few.

Though both Hampi and Anegundi are situated at a distance of 5 kms from each other, Hampi falls in the Bellary district, while Anegondi comes under Koppal district of Karnataka.

Kishkinda is presently called Anegondi, which means the “Elephant’s Pit” in Kannada, and was once the place where elephants of Vijayanagar kings were lodged. The place exudes a rural charm; it is still untouched by tourists except by a discerning few.

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