• Our Tours
  • KHC Pahadi Products
  • Articles
  • About
Menu

Travel The Himalayas -Kashmir 360

Street Address
City, State, Zip
Phone Number
Curated Experiences in the Himalayas

Your Custom Text Here

Travel The Himalayas -Kashmir 360

  • Our Tours
  • KHC Pahadi Products
  • Articles
  • About
22555783_10211871460795612_4786186632850919126_o.jpg

Glawan Valley to be opened for Tourists

A Collection of Articles and Notes on the History, Geography, Culture, Arts and Architecture of the Himalayas

Dalhousie's Colonel

December 4, 2018 Prashant Mathawan
dalhousie

Col. Jagatram was a Doctor in the British Indian Army. Though originally a Dogra from Billawar near Jammu he was bought up in Mandalay in what was then Burma. He completed both his primary and secondary education in Mandalay and got his Medicine degree from Rangoon and went onto join the British Indian Army as a Doctor.

dalhousie

Colonel Saab served in the Second World War as well as the 1948 War and in the 1950's was stationed in Shillong. As it so happened a certain Lady Lawrence, who had a large Estate in Dalhousie, right below the Sacred Heart Convent, was looking at selling off her Estate as her husband had passe away and she wanted to go back to England. Colonel Saab was fond of the mountains and Dalhousie was close to his native place of Billawar. They struck a deal and Colonel Saab bought the whole Lawrence Estate.

Along with the Estate came two beautiful Cottages, one at the op of the Estaste and other one on the bottom of the Estate as it straddled a hill. The one on top was called Wisbeck and the lower one was called Beckules. From the upper Cottage one got a grandview of the plains of Punjab on one side and the Pir Panjals on the other side.

dalhousie

Having bought the Estate the Cottages were renamed as Parijat and Tapovan. Colonel Saab after retirement intended to grow Apples and Strawberries and Almonds on the Estate. But since he was still serving the Cottages were let out to the first wave of Tibetan refugees who came into India. Parijat, the cottage on top became the residence of one of the top Tibetan Lamas and his whole entourage took up residence in the Cottages.

After his retirement in the early 1970's Colonel Saab started working on his dream project of growing Apples in Dalhousie. But Dalhousie because of its location gets a lot of hail storms and hail destroys Apples. The Apple crop was always spotted as hail leaves its spots on Apples and they are no longer marketable. Even the Strawberries and the Almond didn't do very well. Anyways Colonel Saab did his best getting saplings all the way from Shimla in the winters and planting them before the snows came in.

dalhousie5

A lot of time has passed since but the Cottages are both there but a lot of surrounding land has been sold off by the Colonel Saab's family and many Hotels have now come up in what used to be called the Col. Jagatram Estate.

And I happen to be married to a Grand Daughter of Colonel Sahib

In Himalayan History Tags himalayas, dalhousie, apple orchards, doctor indian army
← Heating Systems in the Himalayas : Caution AdvisedBritish Museum Kashmir Collection Part II →

Order Authentic Pahadi Products from our Whats App Catalog

https://wa.me/c/919205892288

POWERED BY SQUARESPACE