Rabindranath Tagore's Boyhood Himalayan Journey with His Father

When Rabindranath Tagore was a boy of eleven, his father Debendranath took him on a very big adventure.

It was the first time the two of them spent so much time together.

Before they left, Rabindranath went through a special ceremony called upanayan, which marked him as a “grown-up” boy in his community.

Then they rode a train from Calcutta to a quiet place called Shantiniketan, where there were almost no buildings — just red soil and wide-open sky.

Rabindranath said that here he was free to move about as he chose.

Next, they went to Amritsar, where they lived near the beautiful Golden Temple for about a month, and Rabindranath wrote his very first song.

Finally, they climbed high into the mountains at Dalhousie and stayed in a house called Bakrota.

Every morning his father taught him lessons, but he also let Rabindranath explore the mountains all alone with just a staff in his hand.

Rabindranath never forgot that gift of freedom, and it later shaped the school and university he built at Shantiniketan.