Kalpa is a small village in the

Sutlej The Sutlej River or the Satluj River is a major river in Asia, flowing through China, India and Pakistan, and is the longest of the five major rivers of the Punjab region. It is also known as ''Satadru''; and is the easternmost tributary of t ...

river valley, above

Reckong Peo Reckong Peo, also spelled Rekong Peo or simply known as Peo by the local inhabitants, is headquarters of Kinnaur district, one of the twelve administrative districts of the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. At a height of 2,290 metres (7,513&n ...

in the

Kinnaur district Kinnaur district () is a mountainous district located in the northeast part of the state of Himachal Pradesh, India. Kinnaur district borders Tibet (China) to the east, the state of Uttarakhand to the south, Shimla district to the southwest, K ...

Himachal Pradesh Himachal Pradesh (; Sanskrit: ''himācāl prādes;'' "Snow-laden Mountain Province") is a States and union territories of India, state in the northern part of India. Situated in the Western Himalayas, it is one of the thirteen Indian Himalayan ...

, Northern India, in the Indian

Himalaya The Himalayas, or Himalaya ( ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the Earth's highest peaks, including the highest, Mount Everest. More than 100 pea ...

. The region is inhabited by the

Kinnaur Kinnaur district () is a mountainous district located in the northeast part of the state of Himachal Pradesh, India. Kinnaur district borders Tibet (China) to the east, the state of Uttarakhand to the south, Shimla district to the southwest, Ku ...

i people and is known for its apple orchards, as apples are a major cash-crop for the region. The local

Kinnauri Kinnauri is the most widely used language in Kinnaur. The languages have seen different nomenclatures in written literature. Kinnauri was mentioned as Kunawaree (Gerard 1842, Cunninham 1844), Kanauri (Konow 1905), Kanawari (Bailey 1909) and ...

follow a

syncretism Syncretism () is the practice of combining different beliefs and various school of thought, schools of thought. Syncretism involves the merging or religious assimilation, assimilation of several originally discrete traditions, especially in the ...

Hinduism Hinduism () is an Hypernymy and hyponymy, umbrella term for a range of Indian religions, Indian List of religions and spiritual traditions#Indian religions, religious and spiritual traditions (Sampradaya, ''sampradaya''s) that are unified ...

and

Buddhism Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...

, and many temples in Kalpa are dedicated to both Hindu and Buddhist gods and goddesses. The average literacy rate of Kalpa is around 83.75%. India's first ever voter, Shyam Saran Negi, also belongs to Kalpa.

Geography

Kalpa is at . It has an average elevation of 2,960 metres (9,711 feet) and is located 265 kilometres (165 mi) beyond

Shimla Shimla, also known as Simla ( the official name until 1972), is the capital and the largest city of the northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. In 1864, Shimla was declared the summer capital of British India. After independence, the city ...

on the NH-5 in

. It sits at the base of the snow-capped

Kinnaur Kailash The Kinnaur Kailasha (locally known as ''Kinner Kailash'') is a mountain in the Kinnaur district of the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. As per Hindu scriptures, Lord Shiva and goddess Parvati reside in Kinner Kailash. It is the fourth most ...

ranges. The

Shivling A lingam ( , lit. "sign, symbol or mark"), sometimes referred to as linga or Shiva linga, is an abstract or aniconic representation of the Hindu god Shiva in Shaivism. The word ''lingam'' is found in the Upanishads and epic literature, wher ...

peaks rise up to 6,000 m (20,000 feet). Kalpa is nestled among apple orchards, pine-nut forests, and the stately deodhars.

Overview

Kalpa was known as a Chini village during the colonial and pre colonial period. It was tehsil headquarter during colonial times and later became district headquarter of Kinnaur before it was shifted to Reckong Peo. The

Sutlej River The Sutlej River or the Satluj River is a major river in Asia, flowing through China, India and Pakistan, and is the longest of the five major rivers of the Punjab region. It is also known as ''Satadru''; and is the easternmost tributary of th ...

below runs through deep gorges, and the winding mountain road is bordered by chilgoza forests. The serenity of this sleepy hamlet was not often visited by foreigners until recently, but there are still relatively few visitors. There are now more than five places to stay in Kalpa and more below in

where travelers must stop to get their inner line permits to continue upwards to the

Spiti Valley Spiti (pronounced as piti in Bhoti language) is a high-altitude region of the Himalayas, located in the north-eastern part of the northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. The name "Spiti" means "The middle land", i.e. the land between Tib ...

, which is a small ancient part of what used to be

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ), or Greater Tibet, is a region in the western part of East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are other ethnic groups s ...

. Also visible from here is the sacred Shivling rock on the

Kailash Mount Kailash (also Kailasa; ''Kangrinboqê'' or ''Gang Rinpoche''; ; ; , ) is a mountain in Ngari Prefecture, Tibet Autonomous Region of China. It lies in the Kailash Range (Gangdisê Mountains) of the Transhimalaya, in the western part of ...

mountain that changes its color at different points in the day. In Episode 5 of Ice Road Truckers#IRT: Deadliest Roads - Season 1: Himalayas Lisa Kelly and Rick Yemm delivered two images (one each) (well

packed Data structure alignment is the way data is arranged and accessed in computer memory. It consists of three separate but related issues: data alignment, data structure padding, and packing. The CPU in modern computer hardware performs reads a ...

with

sandbag A sandbag or dirtbag is a bag or sack made of Hessian (cloth), hessian (burlap), polypropylene or other sturdy materials that is filled with sand or soil and used for such purposes as flood control, military fortification in trenches and bunke ...

s and sand and straw) of the goddess

Kali Kali (; , ), also called Kalika, is a major goddess in Hinduism, primarily associated with time, death and destruction. Kali is also connected with transcendental knowledge and is the first of the ten Mahavidyas, a group of goddesses who p ...

(shown as treading on her husband

Shiva Shiva (; , ), also known as Mahadeva (; , , Help:IPA/Sanskrit, ɐɦaːd̪eːʋɐh and Hara, is one of the Hindu deities, principal deities of Hinduism. He is the God in Hinduism, Supreme Being in Shaivism, one of the major traditions w ...

) along a frightful mountain road hacked out of cliffsides to a temple at Kalpa.

Demography

Kalpa has an average literacy rate of 83.75%.

Religion

is the main religion in the district followed by

Tibetan Buddhism Tibetan Buddhism is a form of Buddhism practiced in Tibet, Bhutan and Mongolia. It also has a sizable number of adherents in the areas surrounding the Himalayas, including the Indian regions of Ladakh, Gorkhaland Territorial Administration, D ...

. These two religions have undergone religious mixing, along with some indigenous shamanistic practices.

Places of interest

: Located from Shimla, from Powari and from Kalpa.

is the headquarters of district Kinnaur. Kothi Temple: Just from Reckong Peo. Kothi has a temple dedicated to the goddess Chandika Devi. Set against a backdrop of mountains and groves of the deodar the temple has an unusual architectural style and fine sculpture. An exquisite gold image of goddess is enshrined in sanctum. The Chaka Meadows: is an easy hike of . The trail starts from a point on Kalpa - Roghi road. Chaka meadows (alt. ) offers splendid views of the

mountain range. Rolla Dokhang: is a selfie point located on Kalpa-Roghi road (about 3 km away from Chini Market). This rocky outcrop offers some great views of the Kinnaur Kailash mountain range, Satluj river gorge and Roghi, Mebar and Ralli village.

Agriculture

The region is very famous for production of high-quality

apple An apple is a round, edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus'' spp.). Fruit trees of the orchard or domestic apple (''Malus domestica''), the most widely grown in the genus, are agriculture, cultivated worldwide. The tree originated ...

s and

pinus gerardiana ''Pinus gerardiana'', commonly known as the chilghoza pine or neja, is a pine species native to parts of central and southern Asia, including the western Himalayas. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) listed it as near thre ...

, also known as chilghoza. All of tehsil Kalpa is apple growing area, the primary crop for residents of the area. Kalpa is surrounded by Deodar, apple, and

chilghoza trees.

Climate

Kalpa enjoys a temperate climate (

Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Bernd Köppen (1951–2014), German pianist and composer * Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan * Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author ...

''Cfb'') due to its high elevation, with long winters from October to May, and short summers from June to September. In winter, all the villages are covered by about of snow, and the temperature can drop to as low as . Warm clothing may be necessary even in the summer.

Food habits

The staple foods are wheat, ogla, phafra, and barley, all local produce. Besides these, kankani, cheena, maize, chollair and bathu are also common. The principal pulses consumed are peas, black peas, mash and rajmash.} The vegetables usually consumed are cabbage, turnips, peas, beans, pumpkin, potato, okra and tomato besides some locally available wild greens. Also popular is rice, which is imported from the plains. A salted tea in the morning and evening is very popular among the Kinnauris, usually taken along with sattu made of parched barley flour. People are non-vegetarian and eat goat and ram's meat. Alcoholic drinks in day-to-day life and also on ceremonial or festive occasions are quite common. Alcohol is distilled at the household level. It is made out of locally grown fruits like grapes, apple, and pears, as well as from barley.

Lifestyle

Generally, Kinnauri houses have storerooms for keeping grain and

dried fruits Dried fruit is fruit from which the majority of the original water content has been removed prior to cooking or being eaten on its own. Drying may occur either naturally, by sun, through the use of industrial dehydrators, or by freeze drying. Dr ...

, and separate wooden grain-storage structures, called kathar. Pakpa, a piece of sheepskin or yakskin, is often placed on the khayarcha mat. Traditionally Kinnauri use utensils made of brass and bronze. Modern influences have included the introduction of Chinese crockery, and utensils made of stainless steel and aluminium. Clothes are mainly of wool. The thepang, a grey woollen cap with green velvet band is worn by the local people . The Tibetan chhuba, a long woollen coat which resembles an achkan, is worn as well, with a sleeveless woollen jacket. While men wear woollen churidhar pajamas, and tailored woollen shirts such as the chamn kurti, the women wrap themselves up in a dohru. The first wrap of the dohru is based on the back, with embroidered borders displayed throughout its length, which stretches to the heels. Darker shades of colours are preferred for the Dohru, although other coloured shawls may be worn, usually draped over the shoulders. A choli, another type of full sleeved blouse worn by women, may serve as a decorative lining as well. The Kinnauri are classified mainly into two castes: lower and upper caste. Again both of these categories are divided into sub classes. The caste system is more prevalent in the Lower and Middle Kinnaur regions

Gallery

File:Kalpa and Kailash.jpg, Kalpa and Kinnaur Kailash during monsoon weather File:Inside of Kalpa Temple,Kinnaur.jpg, Wood work at main Entrance of Hindu Temple at Kalpa File:Hindu Temple at Kalpa, Himachal Pradesh.jpg, Hindu Temple at Kalpa File:Kinnaur Kailash.jpg, Kinnaur Kailash from Kalpa File:Kinner Kailash hotel in Kalpa.jpg, Kinnaur Kailash Resort Kalpa File:View from Kalpa.JPG, Kinnaur Kailash range form Kalpa

References

External links

Kalpa - Kinnaur - Indian Himalayas
{{commons category, Kalpa Cities and towns in Kinnaur district Tourism in Himachal Pradesh