Kala top and Khajjiar
Khajjiar
Khajjiar is a tourist spot auxiliary to Dalhousie. Tourists who come to
Dalhousie generally visit Khajjiar too. The rolling green meadow gently sloping up and
down, bordered by deodar forests are reminiscent of high altitude valleys in the Alps and
are ideal for tourists to ramble about.
The mini “lake” with the “island” of floating vegetation is an added
attraction. The hills covered with Deodar forests make Khajjar a place of superb scenic
beauty.
An ancient temple of Khajjnag is a major feature of this place. The name Khajjiyar is
derived from the name of Khajjinag..
The temple is quite a large one and has beautiful wood carvings in folk form. Undoubtedly,
several times in history this old temple has been renovated.
Unfortunately, in recent times shops have been allowed to conduct business from the temple
premises. The shops have crowded around the temple encroaching on the temple complex area.
This has greatly diminished the beauty of this temple.
As govt. Officials and temple authorities are not sensitive to the maintenance of the
beauty of the temple compel, they have not made any systematic attempt to evacuate these
shops from the temple complex area.
The carved door is remarkable and the five images of five Pabdavas are very forceful and
impressive examples of himalayan folk sculpture. It is quite easy to identify Yudishthira,
Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva when observing these solid wooden sculptures.
The temple has a pavilion of wooden floors and wooden pillars. It seems that in the olden
times the temple complex area was much larger and perhaps ‘Dharamsala’ guest
house facilities for pilgrims was available then.
There must have been a settlement or village of some sort at Khajjiar from the time of the
Temple construction. The meadow mifgt have been used for grazing sheep by tribal shepherds
in summer. Since there was the temple at Khajjiar, there must have been a road of some
sort to Khajjiar in olden times. This road must have been connected to Chamba and not
Pathankot, as Chamba was the most important nearest town. The road to Khajjiar from Chamba
must have been the line of communication along which pilgrims and villagers came to visit
the temple of Khajjinag. Gaddi shepherds too might have brought their flocks for grazing
at Khajjiar in season along that track or road.
The settlement at Kalatop
The settlement of charcoal burners labourors at Kalatop may have been there even before
Dalhousie town as charcoal was a main source of fuel in olden times.
This village undoubted supplied people for manual work as labourors to Dalhousie town
since the town developed.
The clay covered flat roofed type housing style is very old and the close knit community
is an example of survival tactics of economically weak hill people.
The way of living has been changed by the supply of tap water and electricity to this
settlement. Facilities of schools and primary health clinics have radically improved the
lifestyle of the people living here. This settlement is an interesting plane for the study
of social anthropology.
Prabal Pramanik
 
 
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