Palampur is a small hill station situated between the beautiful hills in Himachal Pradesh. This small place is said to be the best place in the Kangra valley. It is located at an altitude of 1205 meters above the sea level. It attracts the tourists in every season either it is summer season or winter season. It is said that the word Palampur was derived from the name of local language “pulam” which means “enough water”. And really there is no shortage of water in this hill station. It has many sources of water like water fall, river etc. That is why in the air of Palampur there is moisture along with coolness. This moisture full wind and the formation of sun rays which are prone to mountain slopes give specialty to its climate. This specialty is very important for the tea plantation. After finding this specialty, Dr. Jamsen in 1849 do tea plantation here for the first time. And after few decades, the tea of Kangra valley became world famous. Palampur is considered as the ideal place for visiting famous places in Kangra valley of Himachal Pradesh. Except monsoon you can visit here in any season. The nearest broad gauge railway station of Palampur is Pathankot. From there the tourists can reach to Palampur through short line toy train. From the Palampur station, the town is about 3 kilometers far. From station we can reach town through taxi. Bus route is connected to Palampur Mandi, Chandigarh, Dharamshala, Shimla and Delhi. The Airports of Amritsar and Chandigarh is the nearest airport here.
BEAUTIFUL VIEWS
Today Palampur city is situated between big tea gardens. And these green tea gardens are the attraction point of the tourists. The people walking on foot and far away in these beautiful tea gardens plucking the tea leaves offers a very attractive view to the tourists. These people tied long bask in their waist and then start working. Some tourist also went to these gardens for roaming. And this is a very unique experience for them. There is a place name “newgal khad” in Palampur which is known as a picnic spot. This place is located on a steep rock on the edge of the mountain. And from here we can see the beautiful view of baadla jaldhara and dhauladhar mount ranges which is 15000 feet from the ground. From this place, the beauty of nature can be seen in every direction. There is also a newgal café of the tourist department in this place. Around 5 centuries old, Bandala Mata Temple and Vindhavasini Temple are also very beautiful. Along with tea garden, trees of deedar and chirr also give its contribution towards greenery of Palampur.
The centre of Palampur is Subhash Chowk and it is surrounded by the market. This market has many fast food corners and restaurants. Tourists can also see the tea processing in the cooperative tea factory. The smell of tea here and the taste of it will also attract them to buy tea. There is also a reason behind the popularity of this place as an ideal tourist destination. Actually the tourists can also see the famous beauties of Kangra valley from here. For this the tourists first of all reach Palampur from Kangra valley by using toy train. Around this, many important sites are located at a few moments in different directions. Around 13 kilometers far located Aandreta is one of the places. This place is known as the pilgrimage for art lovers. This place is associated with the memories of Nora Richard which is dedicated to the rural and Punjabi theater. She was also the student of Gandhiji. Apart from them, Andretta also has a connection with famous artist padmashri soba singh and BC danyal. Here is the small art gallery of Soba Singh. Many of his paintings also show famous images of Sohni-Mahiwal, Heer Ranjha and Kangra Dulhan. Famous historical Baijnath temple is also located at a distance of 18 kilometer from here. About 1200 years old, this temple is important in terms of architecture and archeology. Shivling, established in the sanctum of the temple, is counted in 12 Jyotirlingas. There is a beautiful garden around the temple. From where, the view of the clouds on the mountains affects the tourists. There is a huge fair here at Shivratri.
CHAMUNDA DEVI TEMPLE
About 17 kilometers far from Palampur, there is another religious place called Chamunda temple. This place is also known as the Chamunda- Nandikeshwar Dham. This Dham is situated on the banks of the Ganges and it is a fiery proven bench. Mother Kali killed the demons in the form of death. That form was worshiped as Chamunda Devi here. There is a huge crowd of devotees here on the occasion of Navratri. Only 18 km from Chamunda there is another famous tourist destination known as Dharamshala. The Vajreshwari Devi temple of Kangra and the Jwalamukhi temple of Jwala ji are also not very far from Palampur.
The Vajreshwari Devi is also known as the Nagarkot Kangra wali Mata. At the same time, the volcano temple is a famous religious place because of being one of the 51 Shakti Peeth of the Goddess. It is said that here the tongue of Sati was fallen. Here a flame continuously flows from the cracks of the rock. This blue color flame is known as the goddess. In the temple, the statue of the goddess is also present. The golden dome of Jwalaji temple is very gorgeous. The other religious place in Kangra include Kripaleshwar Temple, Veer Bhadra temple, Kurukshetra Kund and
Guptganga.
The
Bir Billing Paragliding place in Kangra are very famous as the place of adventurous sports. These places are located at a few and a half hours distance from Palampur. These places are counted as one of the important spot for paragliding. . Apart from these, some selected Tracking routes from Palampur also go towards different directions, which are waiting for people who are happy about the glory of nature. Somewhat far from Palampur is the Gopalpur Wildlife Sanctuary. This garden can also be seen going towards Chamunda Temple.
