Smell the coffee and spirituality at Coorg

Lalit Mohan

Jaggery coffee may not be your cup of tea but expect the brown brew to be presented as a welcome drink at a resort in the middle of a large coffee plantation, such as the Cottabetta bungalow in Pollibetta, Coorg, south Karnataka. Nearly 130 years old, this plantation resort was once the residence of British planters. Owned by the Tatas now, it consists of a Kerala-style house with the bedrooms around the inner courtyard, offering the old-world charm and comfort.

On the hillsides, a dense forest of short and stunted trees bearing this exotic berry, in the shadow of the taller trees on which pepper creepers climb high, abounds. The soil here is good for a host of other spices, too. That’s what the traders from the west came looking for, and then settled down to rule our country.

A tour of this particular plantation gives an insight into the process of producing coffee. According to a tour guide, Udhav, a coffee plant starts yielding berries after seven years, and then goes on doing it for over 75 years. Initially the berries are red, but turn brown once they go through several stages of drying, pulping, roasting and grinding before landing on our tables as the brew with a heady aroma. Robusta is the variety that grows here. It’s the favourite of the elephants, too. Most plantations are surrounded by an electric fence to protect them from pachyderms (animals like elephants, hippopotamus and rhinoceros) but, says Udhav, “sometimes they find out how to switch it off. Generally, it is the matriarch of the herd who knows how”!

Monastery

In another direction from Madikeri, about five kilometres off the Bangalore road, lies a Buddhist monastery, Namdroling. This seminary imparts education in the Nyingmapa tradition of Buddhism. Over 3,000 students from the primary to postgraduate level, from the Himalayan regions and abroad, “chant and study, work and practice” here. His Holiness Penor Rinpoche set up this monastery in 1963.

He “attained Mahaparinirvana” in 2009. The Dalai Lama consecrated it and christened it as Namdroling, though its full name is Thegchog Namdrol Shedrub Dargyeling (Land of increasing practice and teaching of the utmost yana that achieves spontaneous liberation). The centre is also known as the Golden Temple because of the three 40-feet high, gilded statues of the Buddhist icons. The entire complex has been elaborately decorated with the Tibetan-style paintings, murals and religious figures. Bylakuppe, a small town where this is located, is a far cry from Tibet in terms of climate and culture but it houses the second largest Tibetan settlement after Dharamsala.

Around 40km from Madikeri is Talakaveri, on the Brahmagiri hill, the source of the Kaveri river. A tank marks the source of the river, and a nearby temple is a popular place for pilgrimage. Not too far from Madikeri lies the Dubare elephant camp. It is located on the banks of Kaveri. Apart from watching big animals, one can do some still-river rafting close by. The best time to visit Coorg is soon after the rains when water cascades down the falls and mist rises up to shroud the mountains. Perhaps, that’s why it’s also known as the Scotland of India.