My Monpa Hosts in Tawang

This goes as the craziest thing I have ever done of my list of crazy stuff and like every other crazy thing I had done it turned to be awesome fun and rewarding.



My Monpa Hosts

We were standing around a corner of an obscure road in Tawang and deliberating how to go the tawang monastery and one middle aged man local man came and inquired us about it. He happened to be a cab driver and that was a taxi stand. So after a bit of negotiation on places and rates, we got in. Little did we know that this will change our tawang holiday experience. Our Cabwala Mr.Rinchin Tashi Achee soon became our self-appointed tourist guide, took us through the monastery museum and the two levels of the monastery and explained the local culture and the madhubani paintings in there.


Then Rinchin took us to the war memorial and another round of local gyan. We were deliberating on going with him to the Ptso and Madhuri lake the next day and he casually mentioned that we are welcome to stay at his home and even cook if we want. We thought thought though and then packed our bags, checked out and left with him. WE LEFT WITH SOMEONE WE MET LIKE A COUPLE OF HOURS BACK: p

Viji got a bit nervous after getting into the cab not sure what was waiting for us. I told her it’s too late to think about it, let’s handle whatever comes our way….Surprise surprise…a beautiful farm house in a little hillock just below Tawang in Khimney Village awaited us. It just looked like the home stay that we wished we got and were deliberating in the morning…talk about dreams do come true.

Rinchin Uncle (yah…) even paid for our lunch on the way and refused to let me pay for the fuel refill as well or for any of the additional grocery that we bought on the way for us. We were lovingly greeted with tea by his wife, and his daughter who lived a block away and two cute dog. After a little friendly banter, Rinchin Uncle took us to the Khminey Monastery by walk and we explored monastery with a staunch Buddhist, saw Lamas in their dance practice, took pictures with them, met their Guruji who they believe to be an incarnation and got his blessings and even had tea with him.
We were greeted with a sumptuous dinner and even given warm water and a tub to wash to our hands inside their kitchen which was kept with a chulha stove and were asked to watch TV with warm blankets. They sternly refused my offer to help with washing utensils.

Next day early morning we got up to go to the Ptso and Madhuri Lake. Little did we know Aunty got up as early as 3:30AM to cook the breakfast and lunch for us as nothing is available on the way. Aunty was surely love personified in more ways than I can count. Aunty had the picnic basket ready with tea in a flask, warm water in another, roti, subji and anda.

Madhuri Lake, Tawang, Arunachal Pradesh

I was given the preferred front seat and there we set crossing 5 mountains, several breathtaking views, and numerous army outposts. Our first stop was this breath taking Ptso Lake and what a beauty it was. We were spellbound by the beauty of this place and we were quite speechless. After some photo sessions and oh my god!!! Moments. The route was full of several other beautiful lakes on the way, but we hardly saw any tourist vehicle.

A few hours drive later came what we could have never been prepared to see, the Madhuri lake. We learnt later Koyla movie was shot here and the lake was indeed named after Madhiri Dixit.

It was quite a family picnic lunch at least another 3 hours was spent strolling around the lake with no sense of time. We were told china was probably two hours away.

We set off to another small monastery nearby, met the Guruji, got his blessings and tried some experimental photography and then set on our way back and bid adieu to the beautiful Madhuri lake.
It was the last day in tawang…our Sumos have been booked for the next day, backpacks packed, our last dinner with this lovely couple who hosted us during these two days and treated us like family. We knew what a beautiful experience the leap of faith on a stranger had brought us… we felt blessed, grateful and for some reason uncle and aunty felt the same way about hosting us.

I wanted to try out Aunty traditional monpa dress and she not only gladly gave me one from the rack but also put on my neck a special necklace that she was wearing which was reportedly …hold your breath …20 Lakhs cos of the heavy precious stones and the tusker. My travel partner  for the trip wore the a monpa dress as well and we took turns taking snaps with each other. They were so happy to see me in my traditional dress and said I looked so beautiful in that dress and looked just like a localite from arunachal and it would be difficult for anyone to believe that I was from south. They asked us to send the snaps so that they could put a huge framed one of mine in the traditional dress in there. Uncle suddenly said I wish I marry his son and come and be with them forever… (OMG!!! I wasn’t prepared for that!!! That poor boy was still in college and I had fished grad school ages back :P) but they didn’t seem to care for any logical reasoning then: P

Rinchin uncle has asked me to plan a longer stay in tawang next time around and has already listed out all the places that he has to show me next time around.

Rinchin uncle repeatedly said it was destiny that we met in taxi stand on that day and said if they had done anything wrong in the food or driving or in taking care of us that he apologizes for the same. In my broken hindi I told him that our greatest blessing in tawang was to have met them rather than the Guruji or seen those wonderful places.

I didn’t know if I deserved to get so much love from this couple but then I realized it’s just that they are so full of love that it would have been impossible for them to act in any other way. Tawang, Rinchin uncle and Tsongee Aunty…We love you and miss you and of course we’d be back 