Ferns from the Northeast

First thing that attracts me in a forest is a fern. I love seeing them in wild. For the way they are, they pull me towards them. Their beautiful leafy-greeny posture makes me wonder at them. Like how they make the whole habitat look beautiful, they make me feel very special when I'm strolling among them in the wild. And there are many species of ferns. Every new place I visit, I see different varieties of ferns.

Last month, for the first time I visited the beautiful mountain valleys of Northeast and felt heavenly being among those mountains for a short period of time. The highlight of my trip to those valleys was the visit to Neora Valley. It spreads over an area of 88 km² and is one of the richest biological zones in the entire Northeast. It is the land of the elegant Red Panda in the pristine undisturbed natural habitat with rugged inaccessible hilly terrain and rich diverse flora and fauna making this park an important wilderness zone. First thing that attracted me in this heavenly valley, was a fern. They were in all forms and sizes everywhere. They were the first sign of richness in the valley.

As much as I enjoy seeing ferns, I love photographing them as well. I only wish I could know more about them. Well, I'm getting there. Although I do not know their IDs, I did photograph some of them. Below are some of the beauties from the Neora Valley National Park.

  

The new frond of a tree fern unfurling 

Tree fern species

A beautiful moth on the fern

It was a very spongy feel to touch this fern leaf

the bigger sized (perhaps a tree fern?)

Copyright 2012, Srikanth Parthasarathy

Tweet

Monastic Mountains of Sikkim

Visiting Himalayan Mountains is always a beautiful experience. Their culture, lifestyle, religion and beliefs are completely different compared to the non-mountain regions. They believe a lot in 'nature' and they protect mother nature all the time. That is the reason we see flags everywhere on these mountains. They write their prayers on those flags and they tag them everywhere so that when the wind blows, the prayers are spread all across the mountains. This is a common sight all across the Himalayan Mountains. Its the land of monks and monasteries. I visited many monasteries last year in Nepal and it was a beautiful experience. 

Sikkim is also a land of hundreds of monasteries. Sikkim is supposed to have more than 200 monasteries in its tiny geographical area. Sikkim's second-largest religion is Buddhism, which accounts for 28.1% of the population. We visited a couple of beautiful monasteries on those mountains. 

Prayer wheels everywhere

Its the monks land

Prayer flags blowing the prayers written on them all the time across the mountains and valleys

Rumtek Monastery

24 Kms. from Gangtok, a drive through beautiful countryside takes one to Rumtek Dharma Chakra centre built in 1960'S by his holiness the late 16th Gyalwa Karmapa. It houses some of the worlds most unique art objects, ancient manuscripts and icons. It is located at an altitude of 1500m and is currently the largest monastery in Sikkim. It is home to the community of monks and where they perform the rituals and practices of the Karma Kagyu lineage. A Golden Stupa contains the relics of the 16th Karmapa. Opposite that building is a college, Karma Shri Nalanda Institute for Higher Buddhist Studies. Monasteries in the Himalayan region of Sikkim, India, Nepal, and Bhutan were asked to send two monks each to study at the institute. When they completed their studies, they would return to their monasteries to teach, or stay to assist in the work at KSNI.

The Rumtek Monastery, Sikkim

Rumtek Monastery, Sikkim

Colorful walls, windows and pillars at the Rumtek Monastery

A colorful door at the Rumtek Monastery

Ranka Monastery / Lingdum Monastery

Visit to this monastery was most beautiful. This is a very peaceful place and one can spend more time photographing or just going around the place. At the entrance there is a long line of prayer wheels and is customary spinning these prayer wheels out there. The set up is so beautiful that the huge valleys look magical as a backdrop to this place. 

The peaceful Ranka or Lingdum Monastery, Sikkim

Monk kids having some fun time at the monastery

The entry to the Ranka Monastery

These were seen on every corner of the building

Ranka Monastery looking West with the back drop of huge valleys

Viewing south from the Ranka Monastery

(click on the pictures to enlarge them)

Copyright 2012, Srikanth Parthasarathy

Tweet

North-Eastern Panorama

As always, what I do like capturing during my travels are some panoramic shots of the places I visit. So, even this time, I tried capturing some wide angled shots of the huge valleys of North-Eastern Himalayas. Those high altitude serene lakes of Sikkim Himalayas and the huge valleys of Kalimpong mesmerized me enough to capture  them as much as I enjoyed them seeing through my eyes. The only disappointment was that most of the time I had my macro lens ON to capture those beautiful orchids and I missed a lot on spectacular misty landscapes of Neora Valley National Park. Well, sometimes those disappointments are absolutely bearable. And those beautiful landscapes I witnessed through my eyes and could not enter my lens will remain in my eyes forever for sure. It was my dream to visit North-Eastern Himalayas and I've lived my dream for 10 days in my life. I treat it as my first installment towards a major commitment in the future! The following pictures may not even properly justify  the actual scenery, but you will definitely get a glimpse of them! 

Farming fields of Gangtok Valley. The view is looking west of Gangtok on the way to Ranka Monastery 

Gangtok town looking East

Gangtok town as seen from Hotel Mayur viewing West.

Gangtok valley in the night

A beautiful lake at 14000 ft near Baba Harbajan Mandir, East Sikkim. Its called Memencho lake or Kupup lake

The famous Chaangu lake or Tsongmo Lake at 12400 ft. East Sikkim

Tsongmo lake at 12400 ft. There were many beautiful Rhododendrons in bloom around the lake

Beautiful valleys of Darjeeling and Kalimpong. This view was on the way to Darjeeling.

(click on the photographs to enlarge them)

Copyright 2012, Srikanth Parthasarathy

Tweet

A Day in Gangtok

I just returned from a terrific trip to the north-eastern; huge valleys of Sikkim Himalayas. Gangtok city itself was a treat to watch with the backdrop of the mighty Kanchenjunga peak. Although weather did not permit us to see the mighty peak on most of the days, we could get a glimpse of it (luckily) on the last day. The following pictures were as viewed from our room at Hotel Mayur. We never got tired of looking through the window for this view all through the day. 

It gets brighter as early as 5 am

Sunny afternoon at Gangtok

Evening colors at Gangtok

Gangtok in the night

(click on the pictures to enlarge them)

Copyright 2012, Srikanth Parthasarathy

Tweet