A secret little village nestled near Kollegal with lush green forest adjoining the Sathyamangalam wildlife sanctuary is Dhondenling. Not many know that a place like this ever exist. Once we were travelling from Bangalore, took the forest route via Kollegal and Hasaanur rather than the conventional highway via Salem.

While driving through the forest reserve just before Germalam suddenly what gained our attention was couple of Buddhist monks on the road and also few people going about their daily routine with Tibetien look alike. While searching online i found that a Tibetien settlement exists in Dhondenling. People who came to India as refugees during the Chinese occupation of Tibet were given different places to stay by the government,  one among those is Dhondenling.

  After few days i was curious to know more about this place and set out to explore. Reached Germalam a small village bordering Tamilnadu and Karnataka via Dhimbam ghat. After the border crossing, 10 minutes drive took us to Dhondenling. We saw a board mentioning it as refugee camp and entry permitted only for Indian Nationals. The road took us to a village where one could find Tibetien prayer flags, wheels and stupas as well. This felt we were in a different country altogether.

 

We drove through a road which had a Tibetien school, restaurant, bank, etc. There were quite a lot of monasteries around. Started exploring them one by one. First monastery was called the Dzogchen monastery.

We had a good time talking to the monks about Buddhism and about the monastery, how they moved here from their home town.

Later on took different roads exploring this settlement. Had Momo and Thukpa (soup noodles) for lunch in a Tibetien restaurant .

 

There are 22 villages here. Since this place has lot to offer as a traveler i started visiting it quite often. Once i came here during the Tibetien new year(Losar). Visited Tana monestary for early morning prayer 0n Losar day. I was the only outsider and all others were either locals or Monks.  Lama ji called me and asked how come i’m here? Told him, “i like exploring and know a bit about Tibetien Buddhism as well”. Had a long discussion with him regarding various subjects.  Then he invited me to have breakfast along with him. Also i was given with a bag full of candies. 

As part of Losar celebration they have prayer on Sundays, were all the villagers get together on this occasion for a group prayer and food is also served for everyone. Each village is allocated a space where they sit. Monks, Lamas were seated in the front rows.  We also joined them on one Sunday for the prayer session. Butter tea was something to relish