Cranks' Ridge

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Cranks' Ridge, sometimes called Hippie Hill, is a pine-covered ridge located on the way to Kasar Devi temple, above the town of Almora, Uttarakhand, India, the ancient capital of Kumaon.

Crank's Ridge
Vivekananda once came to meditate[1][2] in the late 19th century. The place, got its popular name, Crank's Ridge, ever since Timothy Leary streaked on the ridge in the 1960s, when it became part of the Hippie trail, during the peak of hippie movement.[3]

History

The remains of Alfred Sorensen (Sunyata)'s cave, near Crank's Ridge in 1999

The ridge became a haunt for bohemian artists, writers and spiritual seekers in the 1920s and 1930s, including notable western Tibetan Buddhists,

Binsar where he stayed and used his horticultural skills in the garden, while still travelling during the summer.[6] It was while staying with the Nehru family that one of their friends offered Sorensen a piece of land where he could live on Crank's Ridge, near Almora
.

In the 1960s and 1970s, luminaries of the

Richard Alpert (Ram Dass), visited the ridge as a part of his own pilgrimage. Scottish psychiatrist, R. D. Laing spent some time there in the early 1970s; as did Robert Thurman, the Buddhist scholar, who spent six months with his wife Nena von Schlebrügge and family, including their 3-year-old daughter Uma Thurman, studying with Lama Govinda as a part of his doctoral dissertation over the summer of 1971.[9] Lama Govinda's ashram was visited by many other spiritual seekers. Physician Karl-Heinz Gottmann, composer Peter Michael Hamel and the philosopher Volker Zotz visited his ashram.[10] In the mid-seventies Alfred 'Sunyata' Sorensen was taken to San Francisco by the Alan Watts
society.

The village of Kasar Devi has now become a cult destination, many incognito celebs visit frequently and it also has a small community of

Van Allen Belt
above the ridge, a perception arguably strengthened by the free and easy availability of hemp on the slopes.

There is also a Buddhist meditation center on the ridge. This Center is in a Buddhist Ashram (Bodh Ashram), originally the estate of Evans-Wentz, then of Lama Anagarika Govinda, then of a Tibetan-Ladakhi family. The Center is affiliated to the Drikung Kagyu order of Tibetan Buddhism.

See also
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Crank's Ridge.

References

  1. ^ Address of Welcome at Almora and Reply
  2. ^ Dutta, Julia No Pain No Gain : Almora Visited Archived 12 December 2010 at the Wayback Machine Boloji.org, 14 October 2007
  3. ^ Where stars shine brighter Margaret Turton. news.com.au. 23 June 2007.
  4. ^ Alfred Sorensen - Cranks Ridge Archived 22 April 2009 at the Wayback Machine Alfred Sorensen Biography.
  5. ISBN 1884997198
  6. ^ Binsar[permanent dead link]
  7. ^ Baker, Deborah (2008). A Blue Hand: The Beats in India, Penguin.
  8. ISBN 0-15-100500-1
  9. ISBN 978-0-553-37850-4
  10. ^ "Arya Maitreya Mandala - Order of Lama Anagarika Govinda - International Network". www.arya-maitreya-mandala.org. Retrieved 16 October 2015.

External links

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