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| St. John's church Dharamshala, HP. tribuneindia.com |
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| St.John's wilderness Mcleodganj Flickr |
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| Tomb of Elgin,St. John's church Dharamshala, HP. commons.wikimedia.org |
Above image: Tomb of James Bruce, 8th Earl of Elgin (Lord Elgin) (1811-1863), a former Governor-General of the Province of Canada and Viceroy of India. He was the first to use the stylish building Peterhoff in Shimla as the official residence of the Viceroy. It is located at St. John in the Wilderness Church in Dharamshala, Himachal Pradesh, India. After his unexpected death in this place in the wooded area, lord Elgin's wife Mary Louisa Lambton had donated stained-glass windows to the church as the grave yard here became Elgin's final resting place.The paintings depict the meeting of John the Baptist with Jesus. When the sun’s rays filtering through the deodar and cedar trees around the gray-stone church hit the stained glass windows they make the interior light up brilliantly.
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| well-lit interior St. John's church Dharamshala, HP. Flicker.com |
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| Lord Elgin memorial, Dharamshala. upload.wikimedia.org |
Lord Elgin who suffered heart attack and died at Dharamsala in 1863 AD wanted to be buried there. Being Scottish he had a special liking for mountains. Death occurred while crossing a swinging rope and wood bridge over the river Chadly, the lap between Kullu and Lahul near Dharamshala and the long strenuous journey was too much for his age. The church has numerous graves and is being protected by the Indian government. ...................
The church of St. John in the wilderness, an old Anglican church situated in the beautiful valley of McLeodganj ( a small hilly town in the Kangra District) of Himachal Pradesh, northern India, a distance of about 8 kilometres from Dharamshala, is located in a serene wilderness area at an elevation of of 5742 feet above mean sea level at Forsyth . The church miraculously survived a big and powerful earthquake in 1905 in which more than 19800 lost their lives. Considering the severity of the earthquake and aftershock waves that how this old church had survived the heavy impact is a mystery
This Gothic-style church was built in 1852 using available stones mined nearby. The carefully spaced Belgian stained glass windows on the stone walls that retain the stone look both indoors and outside, no doubt add extra spendor to this humble church with no embellishment that appears like an English church in a far removed English village. Well polished wood of the altar railing, age-old brass oil lamps (imported from Germany, were earlier used to illuminate the church instead of candles; now not in use). and the church bell (weight 600 quintals) cast by by Mears and Stainbank and brought from England to this place in 1915, are main attractions that take us back to the colonial era.
ttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._John_in_the_Wilderness_Church
http://thelandofwanderlust.com/st-johns-in-the-wilderness-mcleod-ganj-himachal-pradesh/
https://www.tribuneindia.com/2000/20000805/windows/main4.htm
http://www.navrangindia.in/2018/04/historical-anglican-church-st-johns-in.html
