Up On Crank’s Ridge: Where It’s Always 1969

Memory is a funny thing. There are some places one has visited that bring back fond memories. Then there are a few places one has visited that one would rather forget. Lastly, there is a special category of places where one feels like one has somehow gone back in time. This blog is about a place that is as much a geographical location as it is a state of mind. I blogged about it in passing a couple of years ago, but this particular blog is fondly dedicated to Crank’s Ridge, the old hippie hangout tucked away in the foothills of the Indian Himalayas, where it always feels like 1969.

Every time I go back there (and I try and go back every year), the old hippie song “Something In the Air” starts playing in my head. Crank’s Ridge, six kilometres above the Himalayan town of Almora in the Indian state of Uttarakhand, is known by several names; Kasar Devi (the traditional name), Crank’s Ridge (a tribute to the assortment of famous eccentrics from across the world who have lived there) and Hippie Hill (from the time in the 1970s when it became a haven for hippies and mystics).

There is something special about Crank’s Ridge. Apart from some of the best Himalayan views anywhere in the world, there is something about the quality of the air here – a sort of golden, hazy sepia-tinted glow that I have never seen anywhere else in the world. Standing by the side of the single lane tarred road that passes through the ridge, one can see the Himalayalan foothills roll away into the distance, and beyond them, three hundred kilometres of the mightiest mountain range in the world, with the summit of the 25,600 foot Nanda Devi Peak front and center. The view is breathtaking, and I guarantee that no matter how jaded a traveller you are, it will leave you speechless. The great Himalayas shimmering in the distance, sunlight glinting on a butterfly's wing, rolling meadows and tall, evergreen trees. As a nature lover, you could not ask for anything more.

Yet Crank’s Ridge is not just about astonishing natural beauty. It has a reputation for being a spiritual “power centre” and has played host to a number of famous (and occasionally eccentric visitors). This is as good a place as any to mention some of them. The first was Indian mystic Swami Vivekananda who lived and meditated at the Kasar Devi temple up on the ridge back in the 1890s. In the 1920s, it became a haven for Buddhist mystics, famous artists and poets. D.H. Lawrence spent two summers living here as did artist Earl Brewster, Buddhist scholars Alfred Sorensen (a.k.a Sunyata Baba) and Lama Govinda (a.k.a. Ernst Hoffman). Lama Govinda was the world’s foremost authority on Tibetan Buddhism. Indian Nobel Prize poet laureate Rabindranath Tagore, Uday Shankar, dancer Zohra Sehgal and sitarist Ravi Shankar also lived here in the 1930s and 1940s.

In the 1950s and early 1960s, this remarkable and remote place became a haven for beat poets such as Allen Ginsberg and future hippie guru Timothy Leary. Timothy Leary lived here for several years in the 1950s and wrote part of the book “The Psychedelic Experience” here. But the true boom in Western visitors came in the 1960s and 1970s. Crank’s Ridge is supposed to be a deeply spiritual place. The marijuana plant also grows rather liberally on the lower slopes of the ridge, which is also a big draw for many. The 1970s saw many celebrity visitors – including Cat Stevens, Bob Dylan and George Harrison. There are unconfirmed rumours that all of the Beatles may have made it here back in 1968 or 1969. This is very possible, since they spent substantial amounts of time in Rishikesh, on the other side of the mountains. Also, the Beatles were very good friends with Timothy Leary, who lived on Crank’s Ridge.

Western tourists came in droves in the 1970s, as many people (not all hippies) came up to Crank’s Ridge as part of their spiritual search. Apart from the hippies, there were many distinguished visitors as well. Dr. Robert Thurman, noted Buddhist scholar, professor of Buddhist Studies at Columbia University and father of actress Uma Thurman came and spent a summer on Crank’s Ridge in 1971 to write his thesis and study with his guru Lama Govinda. Thurman brought his family with him, so the infant Uma Thurman also probably lived here!

Another distinguished visitor was Dena Kaye, the daughter of Hollywood actor and star Danny Kaye. She opened a state-of-the-art hospital in this beautiful rural part of India, named the Dena Hospital. The Dena Hospital is still very much in existence, and is staffed by doctors from Mumbai and Delhi. The last time my parents visited the area a few years ago, they were astonished to find that some of the doctors at the hospital were their students from the G.S. Medical College in Mumbai (Bombay).

Much has changed in the last thirty years I have been visiting Crank’s Ridge. In the 1970s, there was only a dirt track that wound its way up through forests of oak and pine, from the town of Almora a thousand feet below. There were very few houses, no electricity and almost no tourists, except for the visiting hippies who had “freak-outs” and dances on summer nights.

Today, there is a tarred road, several expensive hotels and a four-star resort that have come up there, offering everything from local treks to exotic Indian Ayurvedic massages and power yoga. There also is a settlement of Tibetans who live here and a serene Buddhist monastery. The tiny local restaurants now offer pizza and burgers as part of their menu. There are several Internet cafes, and the locals rent out their village homes to visiting Western tourists in search of nirvana. There are a couple of hundred aging Western tourists who came here in the 1970s and decided to live here permanently. There is also a settlement of Israeli kids, who come here to relax and unwind after serving their time in the military back home.

But the aura of the place remains unchanged. The Himalayas still watch over the little town, silent yet awe-inspiring sentinels. And every time I visit, I still walk up to the top of the windswept ridge, where Swami Vivekananda meditated a hundred and twenty years ago, where one can still hear the eloquent roar of the blessed mountain silences.

For me, Crank’s Ridge still conjures up visions of flaxen-haired hippies in tie-dyed clothes dancing joyously in the meadows to the strains of “Something in the Air”. To quote the lyrics of the song:

“Call out the instigators
Because there's something in the air
We've got to get together sooner or later
Because the revolution's here, and you know it's right
We have got to get it together now”

I was never a hippie. The whole hippie thing always seemed too naïve and well-intentioned to work. The promised revolution came and went and very little in the world changed. But somehow, up on Crank’s Ridge, everybody pitches in and everyone seems happy. So call out the instigators, because the revolution is here and I am going back up to Crank’s Ridge where it still feels like 1969.

Care to join me?