The city of Jaisalmer in Rajasthan, also known as the Golden City of India, draws both international and home tourists for its strategic location in the Thar Desert. It is situated close to the international border between India and Pakistan. A reason why home tourists flock to this city of sand is the Tanot Mata Temple, which is now being developed by the district administration as part of a tourism circle, in coordination with the Border Security Force. In conversation with Indian Masterminds, District Collector of Jaisalmer, Mr. Ashish Modi, spoke about the plans to make Jaisalmer a tourist hub by focusing on border tourism along with religious tourism.
BORDER TOURISM
Tanot Mata temple is a center of devotion not only for the local people of Jaisalmer but also for tourists who come from all parts of the country. The temple is situated near the Indo-Pak border, with the border just 20 km away from it. District Collector Modi said, “By promoting tourism here, our aim is to raise awareness and educate people about our county’s international border and the security forces that man the border day and night.”
He went on to say that many tourism plans are afoot centering around the international border. “Our plan is to start border safari, inauguration of retreat ceremonies where, along with BSF personnel, tourists can also participate and perform, development of tourism Infrastructure and making border visit documentation online to make the process easy.” For now, to go beyond the temple campus, special permission from district administration is required.
The officer further informed that “the budget of the whole project is Rs. 2 crore and it was sanctioned after a lot of discussions and meetings chaired by the CEO of Neeti Aayog himself.”.
TANOT MATA TEMPLE
The Tanot Mata temple was established by Bhati Rajput King Tanu Rao in 828 AD. It is said that Tanot Mata is the incarnation of Hinglaj Devi. The goddess is worshipped by Bhati Rajputs and the people of Jaisalmer.
The village where the temple is situated near the border with Pakistan and is very close to the battle site of Longewala of the India-Pakistan War of 1971. The village was attacked by Pakistan army in 1965 and around 3000 bombs were hurled towards the temple but not a single bomb exploded. People believe that it was the miracle performed by Goddess Tanot Devi herself that saved the soldiers as well as the villagers from the bomb attacks. After that, in 1965 itself, BSF took the whole place under its control, and since then, the temple is maintained, and all rituals conducted by priests of the BSF.
Tanot was attacked again during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, but this time, the attacking enemy tanks got stuck in the sand, allowing the Indian Air Force to destroy them. People consider this as a miracle of the goddess as well. After the 1971 war, the Indian Army built a Vijay Stambha (Victory Tower) inside the temple compound to commemorate the victory in the Battle of Longewala. The Bollywood movie, Border, is picturized at the same place. The diffused bombs can be still seen in the temple campus. The temple is also known as Rumal Wali Devi mandir as rumals (handkerchiefs) are tied with wishes by the devotees.
TANOT WINDMILLS
The location of the temple is around 120km from Jaisalmer and takes 2 hours to reach by road. As the place has high to average windspeed, a lot of wind-based renewable energy projects can be seen here. The road to Tanot is surrounded with miles and miles of sand dunes and sand mountains.
ABOUT JAISALMER
Jaisalmer is named after Rawal Jaisal, a Bhati Rajput ruler, who founded the city in 1156 AD. Jaisalmer means the Hill Fort of Jaisal. The main fort of Jaisalmer is situated on Meru hill and IS named as Trikoot Garh.It has been a place of many historic battles.
A 1974 movie, Sonar Kella, directed by Satyajit Ray, is also based on this place. The musicians and dancers of this place have made their own place in history, the Manganiyar musicians and the dancing desert drag queen, Queen Harish, to name a few.
