Three in One

I think that what I have been trying to suggest is that Shimla city moves its average visitor through a journey of sacred spaces. Starting with the lift Temple associated with the modern era, noise, chaos, humanity, the absence of beauty, being enclosed, darkness, limited visibility etc. To Christ Church and the ridge, associated with the Colonial era, quiet, manmade order, humanity pointing to nature, manmade beauty inspired by nature, both overlooking and being overlooked, light, extreme visibility etc. To Jakhoo Temple associated with the mythic era, the quiet whisper of nature, natural order, natural beauty augmented by man, overlooking, the sun (and heavens), blended visibility. All these sights are moved through chronologically by the casual visitor, with all being moved through twice apart from Jakhoo (once on the way up and once on the way down). Jakhoo then is the peak of the revelation of the Divine that Shimla offers – it is both literarly and figuratively the zenith of its landscape. Spatially these all involve am movement up, there is not much horizontal movement on this journey the movement is largely vertical and each space is encountered in the context of the previous, with the insight imparted by the previous. There is also a movement to do with association of time here from the present to the colonial to the mythical and each space not only progressively deepens our reach through time but also is a living space that carries through the others without rupture. That is to say that Christ Church not only draws from the colonial past but is very much alive and contributes to post colonial Shimla. Jakhoo not only reminds us of the mythical past, but draws us through the colonial period to the modern age, where it also is alive today as an important point of pilgrimage. Here then connected by space and time are three sites of religious worship that are encountered by the visitor and which encapsulate the multi–layered nature of modern Shimla.
Of course I am talking here about the average day/or weekend tripper, how these spaces are encountered by more frequent visitors and local residents is a different story altogether and I think the subject of another day.

Jakhoo Temple (1.3)

Although Christ Church is the icon of Shimla it is dwarfed by the mountains all around, the geography of Shimla mall soars up behind Christchurch like a wall which leads to Jakhoo peak, home of Hanuman. Now, Jakhoo temple can’t really be seen from the Mall, or the lift, unlike Christ Church, because it is hidden behind a covering of sacred deodars. To get there involves abandoning modern transport even more, no car, no lift, instead most people walk up the path that winds behind Christ church and through the forest. Jakhoo then does not stand (as Christ Church does) proudly for all to see as a man made construction that reminds us of Divine creation, rather it sits engulfed in the Divinity of the natural world. As such it mirrors the mountains that are visible surrounding Shimla, many of them topped with temples whose beauty and serenity far surpasses that of Jakhoo in my opinion, but nevertheless operate in a similar way. Nearby there is Tara Devi, from which the peace of the mountains begins to descend on you, as the wind toys with your hair. Behind the old temple is a newer Shiva temple, which is beautifully carved from the scared deodar trees that can be seen all around. Even further away, yet more /or less visible from Shimla mall on a clear day lies Hatu peak, a place where it is possible to stand and see nothing but trees stretching out bellow. And here two a new temple is being skilfully crafted by Himachali artists from sacred deodar wood. These temples then point to the divinity of nature in a far more direct way than Christ Church and like Christ church they point to the past as well as existing in the present.
My point is perhaps made stronger if I return my wandering gaze to Jakhoo hill once more. Here we have a place that, unlike the elevator area and temple, clearly engages with Shimla’s colonial history. As with Christ Church there are wonderful tales of Characters from the Colonial period who worshiped there. I am thinking particularly of that fellow who one often hears about (a Brit I think) who converted to Hinduism and lived on the mountain, in the forest of Jakhoo, it is said taht he was able to talk to the monkeys... it is frutstrating not remembering all the details and many of my notes are lost in transit (one box of books shipped from Shimla arrived here several weeks ago, yet the other sent at the same time is still to arrive, we know it made it to Delhi and then the expensive tracking system we paid for seems to fall apart, although no one is saying this, i worry that it has be lost or stolen along the way) . Anyway if anyone knows the details of this fellow and can provide them I would be grateful. The point is that Jakhoo temple intersects with that period, but it also points back beyond it. It points back to the founding of Shimla and even beyond to the mythical age when it is said That Hanuman stopped there on his way back from collecting the Sanjeevani booti. Jaknhoo hill moves us closer to nature again and connects the postcolonial period back through the colonial period to the pre-colonial period.

Up The Lift to Christ Church (1.2)

The Shimla lift takes you from the cart road to the mall and seemingly transports you to an otherworld (interestingly skipping the lower bazaar, which is another story again), where the more organic vernacular architecture gives way to the imposing Colonial structures. The largely car free mall road, although bustling with life, is quieter and more restful than bellow, at times it is possible to glimpse over the buildings and see the tree lined hills soaring above and the delightful valleys bellow. Dogs impose peace on the space by lazing restfully in the middle of the paths that the humans bustle along and the wide streets are swept clean of litter, by both human workers and the ever watchful non–humans. A sense of history now comes to the fore, whereas the cart road seems like any small new town in modern India here people notice things about the buildings and tell stories of the events that they heard occurred here in the past. From more or less anywhere on the Mall you can see rising above you Christ Church Cathedral, most people make their way to the ridge, buy some popcorn or ice cream, look at the hills, and then take a picture outside Christ Church. It is almost emblematic of the entire mall space and it is what Shimla is to many tourists. Christ Church itself is designed in an orderly fashion and upon stepping inside even the noise of the mall drops away, hundreds of visitors (of all faiths) have recorded in the visitor’s book that the thing that strikes them most about Christ Church is a sense of peace. Furthermore the church is designed to draw attention to certain aspects of nature: its towering Gothic structure draws the eyes up towards the heavens (in a mimicry of the surrounding mountains) and in contrast to the temple below, inside it is filled with light that spills in and refracts through the cleverly designed windows in ever changing ways. Thus, the church is a man made structure that draws attention to both the past and nature and the presence of divinity within these. It reminds us of order, of peace and calm, it stands for something that connects the past and the present in a seemingly timeless way and encourages you to abandon bustle and give in to peace. The Church is no museum piece but is still very much alive enriched by a diverse group of worshipers who blend the traditions of the past with postcolonial innovations in worship – now and then are tied together.

Space and Place in Shimla: the cart road to the mall (1.1)

Here is a thought that was running through my head in the Sauna today. The average visitor to Shimla city arrives at the elevator, takes it up to the mall, after doing some shopping goes to take a picture by Christ Church and if they are adventurous enough then pants up Jakhoo hill to the temple where they fall easy prey to the canny monkeys. There is a both a spatial and temporal element then to the visit which builds towards the Hanuman Mandir and begins with standing outside of the temple in the car park while waiting for the lift. There is also a movement from the cart road, which is unquestionably of man, to the relatively peaceful, Jakhoo hill whose deodars and monkeys suggest that we are entering more into the realm of nature. Now i myself hate over simplistic nature/culture oppositions, but it seems that there is something in the experience and the understanding of divinity here that makes use of those oppositions. To push it a little further, the first temple that you experience by the lift is incredibly noisy, the road with its horns and roaring still intrudes despite the attempts of teh priests to drown it out by using loud hailers, the temple is built into the side of the hill and behind a car park, so it has no view of the forest or the slope bellow, the way that rubbish thrown from above gathers there and clogs the stream intensifies the feeling of being at the bottom of something. Here then the first impression of Shimla is of a place in which man is wholly dominant. Man and the machinery of course of the lift, the loud hailer, the cars and busses the flashing neon lights and the discards of man’s excess. Yet amongst all this is the temple reminding us that even here, amidst all this, we are not far from the Divine. It is possible to see something of the Divine and to come to know something of the Divine even in this space.

Back in Europe

I am now back in Europe and feel that it is now that this blog can really come to life as a discussion group, I will post up various findings and thoughts from time to time and I hope that all Shimlites, especially Christians, will feel free to comment and contribute to the generation of understanding.