Kullu Tourism, Himachal Pradesh India

Kullu (1,220 m or 4,000 ft) was once known as Kulanthpitha - `the end of the habitable world`. Beyond rose the forbidding heights of the Greater Himalayas and, by the banks of the shining river Beas, lay the fabled "Silver Valley".

 

The Chinese pilgrim monk Xuanzang visited the Kullu Valley in 634 or 635 CE. He described it as a fertile region completely surrounded by mountains, about 3,000 li in circuit, with a capital 14 or 15 li in circumference. It contained a stupa (tope) built by Ashoka, which is said to mark the place where the Buddha preached to the local people and made conversions, stupa was taken away by a mughal ruler and put in feroz shah kotla maidan in Delhi. There were some twenty Buddhist monasteries, with about 1,000 monks, most of whom were Mahayanist. There were also some fifteen Hindu temples, and people of both faiths lived mixed together. There were meditation caves near the mountain passes inhabited by both Buddhist and Hindu practitioners. The country is said to have produced gold, silver, red copper, crystal lenses and bell-metal.

 

"Thus, Ku-zu is the Bu-nan name for Kuḷū. . . . Dr. Vogel in his MS. notes on Lahul gives Ku-zuṅ as the Gārī (Bu-nan) name of Kuḷū. Ku-zuṅ is the locative case of Ku-zu. He adds that Kuḷū is called Ram-ti by the people of Ti-nan, and Ram-di by those of Caṅsa (Me-rlog). The Tibetans call it Ñuṅ-ti."

 

Kullu got its first motorable access only after Indian Independence. The long centuries of seclusion have, however, allowed the area to retain a considerable measure of its traditional charm. The road through the Kullu Valley and Lahaul is now paved all the way, to connect and provide the major access route between the northern Indian plains to Leh in Ladakh.

 

Further information can be read at http://hpkullu.gov.in, The Official Website of Kullu District.