Himachal Tourism | The Hindustan Tibet Road

It was the British Governor General of India Lord Dalhousie (1848-1856) who ordered work to begin on the Hindustan Tibet Road in June 1850. Various reasons are cited for the building of the road that connected Kalka and Shimla to the Tibetan border. The system of begari prevalent in the hills, where unpaid labourers were pressed into service – including for the transport of timber and files to Shimla – is said to have upset the Governor General so deeply that he wanted to improve the road these men trudged. Lord Dalhousie also wanted to create trade ties with Tibet and this is felt to be the real reason for initiating the road and for his own trip to Kalpa in Kinnaur. The immense machinery at the disposal of the East India Company was pressed into service and halfway down the nineteenth century, work on what was then styled as the Great Hindustan Tibet Road began under the charge of the Commander-in-chief Sir Charles Napier. Beyond Shimla, to the Shipki pass on the border, the route took 228 miles.

While the Dalhousie road brought the route into focus, the area had long been on one of the peripheral trade circuits of the legendary Silk Route. The path that passed the tract carried goods like musk, borax, wool, livestock, dry fruits, precious and semiprecious stones to and from Tibet, Kashmir, Ladakh and Yarkand.

Maintaining a vibrant tradition, Rampur’s Lavi fair dates back to the trade agreements between Tibet and the former state of Bushair. And part from the goods that plied on the path it was the myriad cultural and historical influences that established the true worth of the Road.

All the romance of the road can be savoured in the following stages:

Day 1. Parwanoo

Day 2. Shimla. En route visit Kasauli and see a section of the old staging road

Day 3. At Shimla

Day 4, 5 and 6. At Kufri, Fagu and Narkanda. Visit Thanedhar and Kotgarh, Himachal’s apple growing heartland. Drive or trek through Baggi-Khadrala

Day 7. Sarahan

Day 8. Sangla

Day 9. Kalpa

Day 10. Drive beyond Kalpa towards Spiti or return to Shimla.