Darjeeling, April 23: The Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council
has added a dollop of culture to its spread of natural bounties to
woo more tourists to the hills.
Branding it a `cultural jewel`
in the crown of the queen of hills, the DGHC tourism, information
has chalked out plans to make the visitors stay wonderful:
a month long cultural festival. `Darjeeling has enough tourist
spots to keep the visitors busy throughout the day. But the favourite
evening haunt for residents and tourists is Chowrasta. We wanted
to reach out to the biggest audience and the rendezvous point was
our immediate choice,` said Bhupinder Kumar Ghising, assistant
director, (programme) information and cultural department.
The project, he added, was `our chairman's brainchild`.
Apart from entertaining the tourists, the cultural programme will
also highlight our traditions, he said.
On the opening night yesterday, the spectators were treated to
traditional songs and dances of the various Gorkha communities,
which left them yearning for more. Chaprung, a fast fading dance
form of the Limbu community and the famed Tamang dance Selo, accompanied
with the madal and dhamphu, traditional musical instruments of the
tribesfolk, will also feature in the one hour tourist carnival.
`Even chutkha, a lively dance form, which originated in eastern
Nepal and a great hit with the soldiers, will be performed at the
festival,` said Ghising.
The DGHC initiative has won it a lot of praise from the tour operators.
`As far as scenic beauty is concerned, few can match Darjeeling.
If such initiatives are taken, Darjeeling will once again rank among
the tourist hotspots,` said Rupendra Pradhan of eh Chowrasta
Tea Stores, a tea-outlet at Chowrasta. `The festival will bring
in more tourist to the hills, which, in turn, will benefit the economy.`
The Welcome Home campaign, a move made by a handful of entrepreneurs
and Darjeeling police, to welcome the outstation students studying
in Darjeeling after the winter vacation was, the first step in novel
methods of promoting the hill station.
This was followed by the Hill Transport Joint Action Committee,
which appealed to political parties to stop calling strikes during
tourist season. Even hotel touts have been asked to stop `shadowing
tourists` and set up offices instead.
Scoring additional points on security, the police have stepped
up vigilance and deployed a large number of tourist assistant mobile
vans in a bid to ensure that the touts do not harass tourists.
The DGHC has also hinted on holding similar cultural functions
during the next tourist season, which begins in October. |
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