Archive for the ‘Heritage’ Category
Chautare: A travel magazine for East and Northeast India
Tuesday, December 1st, 2009Help Tourism celebrates diversity with grassroot level stakeholders promoting pro-poor tourism & green travel in East & Northeast India.
Thursday, October 1st, 2009Help Tourism celebrates World Tourism Day at several destinations by empowering the grassroot level stakeholders in tourism and launching several green travel products.
Puri, by the Bay of Bengal is one of the most sought after pilgrimage destination for the Hindus worldwide has gradually emerged as a leisure holiday destinations for the millions of travellers from West Bengal and other parts of India. With the change in type, the quality of facilities also changed drastically. The pilgrimage dharamshalas (free/donation accommodation for pilgrims) were replaced by hotels, the temple prashad (food offered to the Gods and then distributed to the pilgrims) was all replaced by restaurants, rickshaws were replaced by auto-rickshaws etc. The 2000 auto rickshaws put the rickshaw pullers out of work, leaving them frustrated anti-social elements and Puri a polluted town.
A group of about 50 rickshaw pullers greeted the passengers with roses in the morning at Puri Railway Station. They were led by the local Superintendent of Police, Mr.S.K.Priyadarshi and the members of Barefoot (a local association of tour operators, hoteliers and other professionals). Help Tourism, Siliguri is an advisor to this association and acts as the principle motivator towards responsible tourism.
In the morning itself at 10am, the Mayor of Puri, Mrs.Shanti Pradhan flagged off the Green Rider Rickshaws from the Lion’s Gate of the Jagannath Temple. The rickshaws passed through all the major roads and sightseeing points, stopped occasionally by the people who supported the rickshaw pullers by giving them drinking water. The rickshaw pullers rode proudly around the town with a sense of achievement.
The evening was an exclusive event in the Panthanivas beach of Puri. This event dedicated to the rickshaw pullers and their families was attended by several tourists, travel agents and hoteliers. The chief guest of the event was Mr.S.Das Verma, the local MLA from Bragmagiri, Orissa and the Guest of Honour was Dr.Peter Patel, an active Rotarian from the United Kingdom who has been organizing several health programs in Orissa. Mr.Gobind C. Bhuyan, Asst. Director, India Tourism was a special guest at the event.
The highlight of the evening was the team of Mrs.Nanda Kundu, a salsha guru from Delhi and founder of Kiran’s Dance in Rhythm, who performed several international level western and Indian folk & classical dance forms. The team consisted of both Indians and foreigners and truly lived to the theme of World Tourism Day 2009, celebrating diversity. A team from the youths of the Sevait families performed yoga under Bharat Yoga Kendra. The Green Riders were finally recognized on stage and several facilities were announced for them.
International sand sculptor, Mr.Sudarshan Pattnaik and his team created a beautiful piece of art in sand to match the World Tourism Day theme. A film by famous news personnel, Ajoy Roy, who is also the President of ACT (Association for Conservation & Tourism) made an excellent promo -documentary on the Green Riders.
The extraordinary initiative was taken by Mr.Yugabrata Kar, founder of Heritage Tours of Puri and Barefoot, Puri. This was supported by India Tourism (Kolkata & Bhubaneswar), Orissa Tourism, Mayfair Puri, Chariot Puri, Holiday Resort, Shakti International, State Bank of India, Lakshya, NICE, Coca cola, 1000 Sands etc.
Kurseong, a part of the Darjeeling Hills in the East Himalaya houses the World Heritage Site, the DHR (Darjeeling Himalayan Railway), but the sense of ownership by the local people was missing as their livelihood had no relation with the DHR. This is when the DHR Director, Kurseong SDO , Divisional Forest Officer and several other persons from the administration and political parties decided to support a local group of youth from Kurseong and adjoining areas to start ecotourism and hence their name Himalayan Ecotourism Welfare Society.
Help Tourism, as their advisors helped the youths to constitute a management committee and framed a greater heritage area added to the DHR World Heritage Site, ‘Kurseong Ecotourism & Heritage Park’. The Tea Estates and Forests with the people in and around Kurseong were included in the map. Hotels, Tea & Forest Bungalows, Homestays and other service providers were identified and added to the initiative. Activities including nature treks, nature drives, tea treks, tea drives, DHR heritage rides, cultural shows, handicrafts & handlooms and volunteering with schools, scouts, health & Agro based NGOs, salamander conservation programs etc were included.
The official launching was done on the World Tourism Day, 2009 in the presence of several people and media from the region. Chief Guest, Mr.Gopal Lama, Director, West Bengal Tourism and Guest of Honour, Mr.Subrata Nath, Director, Darjeeling Himalayan Railway declared the project launching of ‘Kurseong Ecotourism & Heritage Park’. They both said that this initiative will bring back the old glory of Kurseong. Mr.Gopal Lama said that this will help in generating self employment in hundreds of families in this area and will support a better civil society. Mr.Subrata Nath said that they will provide all support for the successful implementation of this project, also a tourist information centre was inaugurated in the Kurseong Railway Station on this date to be managed by the Himalayan Ecotourism Welfare Society. Mr.Paras Dahal, the East Himalaya co-ordinator for Help Tourism said that the national & international bodies like DHR-India Support Group & DHR Society will certainly provide support to the initiative by participating in the several ecotourism programs that have been launched and will help in promoting the same.
Map of Kurseong Ecotourism & Heritage Park
Introducing a new destination: Tashiding / West-Sikkim
Friday, April 3rd, 2009
Tashiding, the main centre of pilgrimage in East Himalaya, is located in the West District of Sikkim. Sikkim, referred to as the Bayul Demazong (Hidden Valley of Rice) in the Neyig (Guide Book to Holy Places), was blessed by Guru Padmasambhava himself. The centre of this blessed land is the most sacred establishment, ‘Dakkar Tashiding’, surrounded by four holy caves, Sharchog Bephug in the East, Khandozangphu in the South, Decchenphug in the West and Lhari Nyingphug in the North.
The Bumchu or the ‘Holy Water Vase’ festival is organized every year on the night of the 14th day of the 1st month of Tibetian Almanac. It is the celebration of the entire agrarian society of the East Himalaya, including Bhutan, where The Vase containing Holy Waters is kept in a miniature mansion (Chosham) under lock and seal of the Chogyal (King) of Sikkim, to be opened only during the particular occasion under strict supervision of Lamas and high officials. The quantity and quality of water decides the fate of agriculture and the society of the running calendar year. It is believed that a drop of Bumchu Water is the Seed of Enlightment.
The once very inaccessible Tashiding is well connected by roads and bridges maintained regularly by the Government of Sikkim. The more remote areas have been recently connected by fair weather road under the initiative of the present Area MLA and Speaker, Mr.D.N.Thakarpa and his team of active Gram Panchayat (Village administration) leaders. Several remote and interesting villages has now become easily accessible from Tashiding, specially to mention the Gangyap village, dominated by the age old Lepcha Monastery, Sinlon Gompha and the Eklabya Tribal School. The Lepcha people believe that one of their greatest religious leaders had arrived here at the Sinlon Gompha with his disciples to create a new world in the late 1950s, but had to leave and finally walked into the glaciers north. The Eklabya Tribal School, housed in the more than 100 year old Lepcha house has students from various communities of the adjoining areas. The Principal boasts about the multi talented students, who care for their traditions and also excel in modern education, sports and music.
The road from here continues further north to Labdang village (7,000 ft / 2,100 mtrs approx) via Kongri waterfalls. The rock bee hives in the waterfalls starts becoming active from March end and so does the birds dependent on them. The road leads through the Lepcha villages to Labdang, which is dominated by the Gurung community, who are also Buddhists by belief. Labdang can be designated as the cleanest village and very hospitable people. The road ends here combining traditions with modernity, people with nature. Labdang is the base camp for the Areylungchok Dzongri Round Trek Expedition, Neythem Holy Cave Trek and several day and overnight trails.
There are several other villages like Mangham, Karjee etc which can now be heard of because of the road connectivity, but the major circuit would be a combine of Tashiding, Gangyap and Labdang villages. There is no major tourism infrastructure in this circuit and hence basic home stays are the main support for the visitors of all categories. A week long package program launched by Help Tourism with the support of the Gram Panchayats is a major breakthrough for the tourism in the East Himalaya, which in the long run would be instrumental in the formation of ‘Peace Parks’ locally.
“Living Buddhism in Northeast India and its importance in Tourism” – Seminar
Tuesday, December 23rd, 2008Help Tourism was one of the organisers of a conference that was held in Siliguri to highlight the links between tourism and a living Buddhism with a focus on the East Himalaya. Peace, spiritual oneness and preservation of heritage – tangible and intangible – are common aims.
Buddhism to boost tourism!
Statesman News Service
SILIGURI, Nov. 23: Dr Ravindra Panth, the Vice-Chancellor of Nava Nalanda Mahavihara (Nalanda Deemed University) said that the hoary heritage associated with Buddhism must be preserved and the Northeast India, being the melting pot for several cultures, must play its role to disseminate the spiritual message of eternal India far and wide.
He was addressing a seminar on ‘Living Buddhism in Northeast India and its importance in tourism’ in Siliguri yesterday. Mr PK Dong, the former director (Europe), for the government of India, department of tourism, inaugurated the seminar. It was organised by Navanalanda Mahavihara and Help Tourism.
Emphasising the importance of Buddhism in today’s world Dr Panth said that with the world in turmoil the perennial philosophy enshrined in the Buddhist scriptures and culture must again inspire the world at large.
“And the Northeast India is the right place to disseminate the message of peace and spiritual oneness far and wide. My university is looking forward to the spiritually imbued region for the regeneration of the Indian mysticism, seemingly the only way out of the deepening crisis of civilisation,” he said.
Mr Dong said that an endeavour was on to create a circuit connecting the Buddhist communities in the Northeast India including the East Himalayas.
http://www.thestatesman.net/page.arcview.php?clid=10&id=258947&usrsess=1
Tracing Traditional Routes through Tourism – Our Mission 2008
Wednesday, May 7th, 2008
“All roads lead to China border”, the Telegraph today headlined an article reporting that “India is sprucing up its frontier with China by taking up a massive four-year project to connect villages, military posts and towns strung on the border across the Himalayas from Ladakh to Arunachal Pradesh.”Few weeks back the “Maitree-Express” to Dhaka was flagged off from Kolkata as the first passenger railway service between India and Bangladesh since 43 years (article in The Hindu). For the East Himalaya the thaw in the border policy is a great chance and a great support to our this year’s mission “Tracing Traditional Routes through Tourism”.
Entering Tibet from Sikkim via Nathu-La Pass, visiting both the Indian and the Bangladesh Sunderbans as one ecosystem by boat, following the Ledo Stillwell Road through the Mishmi Hills of East Arunachal and crossing the Pangsau-Pass into Burma/Myanmar, entering Manas Nationalpark in India after a visit to Bhutan via the Royal Manas Nationalpark, experiencing the rich heritage of Central Bengal with the lost cities of Pandua and Gaur in West-Bengal on the Indian side and the World Heritage Site of Bagerhat in Bangladesh, or tracing Buddhism from Lumbini in Nepal via Bodh Gaia in India and the Somapura Vihara at Paharpur in Bangladesh before re-entering India in the Tripura, where Buddhism flourished from the 2nd to the 9th century, and many important sites are yet to be explored by tourists. The list could continue without losing any attractiveness given the cultural, religious, ethnic and natural diversity and links that characterize the region.
Eight years back we have promoted the “Destination 2000: East and North East India, Nepal, Bhutan & Bangladesh”, and in 2006 we headlined our efforts “Cross-border Conservation through Community Cooperation”. Now, we feel that our 2008 mission “Tracing Traditonal Routes through Tourism” is a vision increasingly being shared.
