Superb stone carving is what Jaisalmer is famous for and rightly so, but on some walls of a haveli, a dome of a temple, occasionally entire rooms and even in private art collections are found excellent examples of paintings that existed and flourished around the 18th century. Unfortunately the Jaisalmer paintings have never been seriously studied or extensively documented, nor have the reasons for the dying out of this tradition been thoroughly researched. However, historical records do point out that many artists migrated to different parts of Rajasthan as well as the country to escape the malevolent minister Salim Singh's wrath. Though the stone carvers came back and some cheepas or printers too started using their techniques, the painting tradition died. A close study of the paintings, murals and manuscripts indicate that there did exist a distinct Jaisalmer school of painting akin to that of Jaipur, Jodhpur and Bikaner. The colours used and the facial forms in these paintings appear to follow the Jaipur and Jodhpur style of painting. There are also records of some artists who came to Jaisalmer from Jaipur via Jodhpur at the behest of Maharawal Berisal and later set-tled in Jaisalmer and developed the Jaisalmer school of painting. An artist from Udaipur named Kashi too is said to have done a substantial body of work, and his paintings are in the royal family col-lection, a number of them with the inscription 'Kashi painter of Udaipur'. His style of work seems to be influenced by the Jaipur school. Many of the miniature paintings depict popular subjects like Moomal-Mahendra, Radha-Krishna, battle scenes and equestrian portraits. Wall paintings or murals both in the aaraish and tempera techniques seem to have been very popular with the rich and the royalty around the 19th century and are in sync with what was the trend all over Rajasthan during that period. Fragments of mural paintings are found in many havelis in the city as well as the fort, the most superior and well preserved of these being in the Patwon ki Haveli, Nath Mal ki Haveli, and some apartments in the Raja ka Mahal. Rang Mahal and Sarvottam Vilas have painted chambers which along with the traditional motifs and scenes of Radha-Krishna, court ladies and processions also have painted on the walls a Mona Lisa lookalike and a European hunting scene. Another palace in the fort, Sabha Niwas, has two painted chambers, the main chamber with Krishna's Raaslila painted in fine detail all over the walls. The paintings in this chamber have been fully restored with the best conservation techniques leaving a small patch of painting untouched to show the difference. A popular form of expression was the painting of Ganesh and Saraswati, the goddess of learning, on takhatis—wooden boards used for learning alphabets. The painting traditions of Jaisalmer deserve to be studied further for they too have a story to tell. For more information on painting traditions of Jaisalmer Rajasthan and Jaisalmer tour packages contact Swan Tours one of the leading travel agents in India.
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Food is an important aspect of the overall experience of traveling in India , The most popular travel circuit in India - Golden Triangle Tour Packages includes visit to Delhi , Jaipur and Agra . The cuisines at all three destinations is different from one another . There is no single Indian cuisine: eating in India can be gloriously varied for the taste buds. Traveling around the Golden Triangle, you can try courtly Mughlai dishes simmered in rich sauces or simple North Indian kebabs grilled on charcoal, Light Street snacks, a Rajasthani thali or a rogue thali intruding from South India, and sweetmeats coated in real silver or chunks of fresh papaya and mango. More myths to dispel. There is no single Indian curry and no single `curry powder'—each dish has its own refined set of ingredients flavored with its own masala (spices). Indeed, the proper use of spices is the basis of good Indian cooking. The secret is the right selection, blend and quantity. Ingredients may include ginger, cumin, cardamom, mace, cloves, cinnamon, nuts and chillies. In Indian cooking, it is fine for a dish to be hot from a mixture of spices, not so fine for it to be, as locals put it, 'chilli-hot'. As a general guideline to spice explorers, chillies make a dish hot, while yoghurt and coconut keep it mild. Indians, particularly men, take their food extremely seriously. A man needs only the tiniest hint to effuse poetically about a chicken dish only perfected by his great aunt (could he arrange for her to cook it for you?), the spinach grown in a certain area, the subtle succulence of his mother's filial (lentils). Aerobics may have penetrated a few homes, but a showy stomach is still an accepted sign of well-being. As one Indian woman candidly remarked to me, 'The sari is no incentive to slimming; it can expand as I do with no alterations.' Western visitors have often been frustrated in their efforts to find good food. This is because until recently Indians preferred to eat at home, and home cooking is still the best. The change began in the 1970s in Delhi, when the growing middle-class began to eat out, and a new generation of foreign visitors arrived with more discerning and adventurous palates than their Raj forebears. The Punjabi hotel-owners who moved to New Delhi aft (Independence could no longer serve up tandoori chicken (spices removed i case memsahib gets the hiccups) and nursery Raj food in flowered wallpapered rooms. The food revolution began. Out went brown soup, spiceless tandoori chicken and caramel custard. Old chefs were consulted; authentic recipes revived. And in came the speciality restaurant. Now restaurant eating is part of fashionable New Delhi life. The local clientele enticed with new decor, regional cuisines and a string of food festivals—French, Italian, Thai and Japanese. In essence, whatever the tastebuds demand is available in Delhi; there are even a Domino's, Pizza Hut and McDonald's for fast-food addicts. In Jaipur, capital of Rajasthan, there is a fair range of cuisines, but almost no distinctive Rajasthani food unless you make a special request. And Agra offers little of its great Mughal past. For general tips and specific restaurant suggestions, see pages 233-236. Ordering a meal is not as difficult as the long menus imply. Try a lamb (gosht) and chicken (murg) dish with a seasonal vegetable—cauliflowe (gobi), spinach (saag) and potato (aloo) are delicious in winter. The huge variety of Indian breads taste best hot and fresh, so it is best to order one, then more (perhaps of a different type) after the food arrives—in an Indian home the breads are cooked throughout the meal. Among the pickles (called chutneys in the West), mango is likely to pep up a dish enough and chilli is likely to blow the roof of your mouth off, although some Indians start their day with a palate-cleansing raw chilli before breakfast. Chutney Hindi word, meaning relish) is, confusingly, a fresh sauce, such as the mint spice and yoghurt mixture served with samosas. To cool off any unwelcome heat and to keep the tummy happy, yoghurt (dahi) eaten plain or mixed with cucumber, tomato, etc, works better than water. As for eating, to really enter the spirit follows the old proverb: 'Eating with a Iodic and fork is like making love through an interpreter.' Using your right hand, never the left, mix mouthfuls of rice with meats and vegetable or nimbly tear off pieces of bread and wrap them around the drier foods, using a spoon for more liquid dishes. Being adventurous and trying the different cuisines on offer is part of visiting India. In Delhi a rich and royal Mughlai feast complements a day exploring Old Delhi. Agra has few Mughlai restaurants, although it was to this city that the first emperor, Babur, brought his taste for exotic Persian food. In Babar's diary there are a number of references to food and feasting: the transport of 'excellent' almonds by camel merits a large picture, the ginicow is 'very tender and savoury' and the citron is a 'deliciously acid fruit, making a very pleasant and wholesome sherbet'. Babur set the tone for Mughal feasting, a combination of present-giving, entertainment and gourmandizing. Later, Akbar claimed that 500 different dishes were essential for a regular royal meal; let alone what would be expected at a feast. Today, a Mughlai meal still sits heavily. Try rich shammi or seekh kebabs to start, then a biryani (meat tenderized in herbs, spices, nuts, raisins, coconut and cream, then cooked with rice), raan-i-mirza (leg of lamb cooked in curd, cardamoms and cumin) or murg massalam (chicken stuffed with ginger, eggs, pistachios, cashew nuts and other goodies). Scoop it up with rich Mughlai breads such as the flaky, butter-oozing paratha, a sheermal, a baharhani or a Kabuli noon; or order a pile of rice given royal status with saffron and cardamom. Nav-ratan (nine gems) is the speciAly good chutney. The brave can finish with the immobilizing, sweeter-than-sweet rice dish, muzafar; the less brave with a sherbet. Hotels and Connaught Place restaurants can provide sumptuous food and settings; Old Delhi restaurants such as Karim (see page 85) have equally good food but in simpler surroundings and with good local atmosphere. Regular North Indian food, of the kind eaten by the hungry Muslim armies sweeping down the Himalayan passes to conquer Hindustan, traces its origins to the North-West Frontier and western Punjab. Like the Mughlai cuisine, it focuses on meat, but it is simpler and less rich. Kebabs of spiced meat on long skewers are plunged into the red-hot clay or iron tandoor ovens. Unlike Mughlai dishes, the meat is usually cooked on the bone in its own juices and a few spices. It is not tenderized too much so it keeps a good chew to it, and the gravy is left unstrained and slightly nutty compared to Mughlai smoothness. For breads, there are plain naan, parathas, the makai-hi-roti (made of cornflour) and the roomali (handkerchief) roti which the chef tosses and twirls high in the air to stretch it to transparent thinness. Northerners like vegetables, especially potato (aloo), spinach (saag) and peas (mattar). A pulse, perhaps chickpeas (channa) or lentils (dhal) and mango pickle complete the meal. The favourite winter Punjabi pudding is gajar (carrot) halwa. After those Indian spices, you could try chewing a paan to cleanse aid digestion. There are paan-sellers on street corners, and several restaurants keep paan boxes. To concoct a paan, a sliced, woody betel nut is laid on a betel leaf with lime, catechu paste and as many other ingredients as you wish, both sweet and sour. The leaf is then deftly wrapped into a tidy parcel. You pop it in, chew, swallow the juices, and spit out what is left when you have had enough - only the tenderest leaves can be swallowed. For a light meal, South Indian is the answer. A thali has the advantage of being easy to order: just one word brings a complete meal, usually only lightly spiced, easy to digest in the heat and gentle on a stomach new to India. It is all vegetarian, and the dishes are selected by the chef from an almost infinite list of vegetable combinations cooked with gentle spices. (Some northern restaurants serve a 'non-veg', i.e. meat thali, to pander to locals.)
The thali (platter) is delivered with a ring of hatoris (little dishes), each containing a different dish and usually arranged in order so you progress round the circle through complementary flavours ending with payasam (rich rice pudding). The centre is filled with rice and breads, replenished whenever you wish. Another good South Indian meal is a masala dosa, a large paper-thin rice pancake wrapped around a dryish potato filling and served with sambhar, a more liquid vegetable dish, and some fresh coconut chutney. As it is often eaten in the morning in the South, masala dosa is on some hotel breakfast menus. And the steaming South Indian filter coffee is excellent, like Italian espresso. Then to fruits available during the Golden Triangle Travel package . North Delhi's Sabzi Mandl, the largest vegetable market in Asia, ensures a constant flow of fresh vegetables and fruits. Without importing, India can produce fruits from cool bills and hunting plains. And India is so big that some fruits are available all year as they are grown in different places. Papayas, pineapples and coconuts are always around, as are delicious bananas. Then there are limes, custard apples, guavas, live .star fruits, apples from Kashmir, chickoos (like kiwi fruit), kinos (a marinade hybrid of sweet lime and orange which ripens in .January) and the divine mangoes which make their first appearance in April. One special fruit is found in the Agra backstreets. It is petha, a huge green-skinned pumpkin whose white flesh is cut up, pricked, washed in soda and then cooked in sugar syrup until it turns transparent. If you like pumpkin pie, you may well like petha. The place to taste the best petha is at Panchi Petha Store on Bhagat Singh Road. Snacks are an important part of Indian life. And the delicious-lookin dishes prepared at roadside stalls and in tiny shops are too tempting to resist. To try these is not as dangerous as many people believe, for while is sheer madness ever to drink unboiled water, freshly cooked food shoul not upset a good constitution. Snacks start at the pavement chaat stalls. Chaat is a spicy mixture which tingles the tastebuds. Everyone eats it including suited office worker and it is also a favourite with pregnant women. Found all over India, with infinite local variations, it is always eaten cold. Delhi chaats, considered some of the best of all, usually include dry mango and fresh mint chutneys (and raw mango in season). Try one based on chole (chickpeas in gravy) or on seasonal fruits and topped with coriander and ginger. In Agra, pani purl is the chaat speciality. A watery liquid (pani means water) spiced with tamarind, lime, mint paste and hot chillies is poured into a crisp fried shell (a pun), to be popped into the mouth in one, quickly, before it collapses. Another is sank, a boat-shaped poppadum filled with a spicy fresh chutney, often on sale in the main market street behind the Jama Masjid. After the savoury, the sweet in India, gods and humans alike have a very sweet tooth. If you enjoy the sweetmeat shops and the hot gulab jamun served in restaurants, try a roadside special. In Old Delhi, moving down Chandni Chowk Main Street from the fort, you can find Nairn Chand Jain on the left, a kiosk where the founder's grandsons cook huge, golden-brown, calorie-laden jalebis day and night, soaking the fried twirly sjiapes in cauldrons of bubbling syrup. Around Fatehpuri Mosque, fresh nuts and dried fruits are sold straight from the sack. Although these ones are intended to further enrich the Mughlai dishes, Mahatma Gandhi believed that a man's diet 'should consist of nothing but sunbaked fruits and nuts'. In old Agra, they are sold on roadside carts together with a winter local favourite, gujak, a nutty-textured biscuit made of caramelized sugar and sesame seed. As for freshly-made ice-cream, the fruit or nut ones such as mango and pistachio are delicious, especially at LMB on Johari Bazar in Jaipur and at Giani Ice-Cream found a few yards along the road to the right of Fatepuri Mosque in Old Delhi; Giani also has mountains of irresistible hot halwa. Hotel snacks offer none of this fun. Best is to loll beside the hotel pool or sink into a wicker chair for teatime samosas (a fried, pyramid-shaped envelope with a meat or vegetable stuffing) or pakoras (deep-fried vegetables) with fresh mint chutney, washed down with strong Indian tea. For drinks, the most thirst-quenching is fresh lime juice mixed with water (nimbu pani) or soda (nimbu soda) and drunk plain or with sugar or salt. Lassi, a drink of fresh yoghurt, is also taken plain, sugared or salted, and is both refreshing and tummy-settling. (In the heat, salted drinks help keep the body's fluids in balance.) Then there are the many fizzy sweet drinks, the safest if you want a drink from a street cafe or kiosk. Pure fruit juices such as fresh mango or pineapple are delicious, especially at Nathu's in Delhi; but be careful where you order them. For something stronger, Indian beers are similar to lager and the Indian-made spirits are considerably cheaper than imported brands. Indian rum is particularly good and Indian gin makes a perky Tom Collins cocktail, a sort of alcoholic nimbu soda. Indian vodka is equally good. Postscript: In any restaurant, smart or modest, if you think the hygiene is dubious, order freshly cooked hot food, avoid lingering buffets and resort to an omelette if necessary. For drink, use purifers if you think the water has not been filtered or boiled, see that bottled drinks are opened in front of you and do not take ice unless you are confident the water is OK. And remember, alcohol is not a sterilizer. For further information on Food trails in Golden triangle travel circuit , contact one of the top India travel agency - Swan Tours , The company promotes Delhi Agra Jaipur Luxury tours , Delhi sightseeing tour by car, golden triangle with shimla tour and many more such travel itineraries . Majority of the tourists traveling to Bhutan covers Paro, Thimphu and Punakha , but the second time traveler also visits some of the less popular destinations such as Trashigang and Yangtse, more travel information on these destinations is as below : The trip from Mongar to Trashigang is the easiest part of the long journey east. The three-hour drive includes crossing the Kori La Pass (2,684 m/8,800 ft) and the rapid descent through the famous Yadi loops, 10 km (6 mi) of switchbacks that weave back and forth in a series of figure eights before reaching the valley floor. The vegetation changes drastically as the climate warms, and banana 'groves are scattered alongside the road. Arriving in Trashigang is eventful, as it marks the end of the long drive eastward from Thimphu. The close proximity to Samdrup Jongkhar, in the southeast Indian state of Assam, has enabled the small town to develop into an urban center for the eastern region. The town is situated on a ridge that juts out of the mountain. The business district is at the far end of the ridge, near the dzong, while private homes, the hospital, the school, and the guest house are scattered higher along the mountain. Trashigang is a bustling marketplace with people everywhere, particularly in the main square, where an enormous prayer wheel turns incessantly. Merak and Sakteng hill tribes come to trade yak butter and other assorted provisions. The tribes are known for their traditional yak hair hats and brightly colored clothing. Merak and Sakteng are about 80 km (50 mi) east of Trashigang, near the bor-der with India's Arunachal Pradesh. In order to protect the lifestyle of these indigenous peoples, both Merak and Sakteng have been declared restricted areas for travelers. The Trashigang Dzong sits at the far end of the mountainous ridge, overlooking the Gamri River. It is protected on three sides by deep ravines. It was built in 1659 by Minjur Tenpa, the Penlop of Trongsa, and named Trashigang Dzong, the "dzong of the Auspicious Mount." The dzong governed the whole eastern region from the 17th .century until the be-ginning of the 20th century, when it was destroyed by a fire. The dzong was enlarged by Tenzing Rabgye, the Fourth Desi of Bhutan, and restored in 1950. Trashigang has its own festival in November, celebrated with sacred dances. The dancers are usually lamas, are almost always masked, and represent gods and demons from Buddhist mythology. It is a very ex-citing dance to observe, and if your trip here happens to coincide during the tsechu, you are sure to be welcomed. About 24 km (15 mi) from Trashigang, the temple of Gom Kora sits alongside the road. It is another of the famous meditation sites of Guru Rimpoche. Here, it is said, he meditated to subdue a demon. An enormous boulder sits in the middle of the garden of the temple, and leg-end states that anyone who can climb the rock will be cleansed of sin. Farther along the road, about 28 km (17 mi) north of Trashigang, is the small village of Yangtse, which developed around Chorten Kora, one of two chortens built in Nepalese style within the kingdom (the other is Chendebji chorten, near Trongsa). The chorten is enormous. Its location, on a plateau in the foothills, is believed to be a site where Guru Rimpoche meditated. It rests on a square base, with wide steps leading to a circular dome covered with a gold-leafed umbrella. The chorten has since become a sacred religious symbol of peace and great happiness. It is believed that the prayers made here by those with clear souls will be answered. Just outside Yangtse, a little farther along the road, is the Trashi Yangtse Dzong. The original dzong was founded by Pema Lingpa, after the Drukpa conquest of 1656. Because the dzong was rather small, and its location a bit precarious, a new dzong was built in 1997, in the cur-rent site overlooking the valley. This dzong is now an administrative subdivision of Trashigang. For more information on Bhutan Travel Packages contact one of the leading Travel agents in India since 1995 - Swan Tours. Druk air operates daily flights from Delhi , Swan Tours can provide Bhutan tour packages from Delhi inclusive of airfare , Hotel Accommodation , Sightseeing and guide services , For discounted offers call 011-23415601 |
AuthorSwan Tours one of the leading travel agnets in India Archives
January 2018
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