The Journal

Stories from Himachal,
told slowly.

Field guides, traveller diaries, and slow-living notes — written by the people who actually live in these mountains.

Featured · Stories & Legends

The Kullu Dussehra — When 300 Gods Come to One Town

While the rest of India ends Dussehra, Kullu begins it. For seven days in October, over 300 village deities are carried by their communities to the Dhalpur Maidan in Kullu town. Each god arrives on a palanquin, accompanied by drums, horns, and a village's worth of devotion. It is the largest assembly of Hindu deities anywhere in the world.

6 min read

Travel Guide·7 min read

The Great Himalayan National Park — India's Quietest UNESCO Site

The Great Himalayan National Park covers 754 sq km of western Himachal Pradesh — one of the most biodiverse patches of temperate forest in the world. It received UNESCO World Heritage status in 2014. It has no roads, no lodges, and no phone signal. You walk in and walk out. That's the only option.

Stories & Legends·8 min read

How Tibetan Exiles Built McLeodganj Into a Second Lhasa

In 1960, McLeod Ganj was a near-abandoned British hill station with a population of 500. Then the Dalai Lama arrived with 80,000 refugees. Sixty-five years later, this tiny mountain town is the capital of the Tibetan exile government and the most important Tibetan city outside Tibet.