Church of St. John in the Wilderness, Upper Dharamshala

Church of St. John in the Wilderness, is located in Upper Dharamshala, at Forsyth Ganj. ( 8 km from Kotwali Bazar, Dharamshala, and 1 km from McLeod Ganj )

Church of St. John in the Wilderness

 St. John's in the wilderness is an Anglican Church, which was built in 1852 to serve the British troops and their families stationed at Dharamshala. Constructed of hand cut local granite, it is one of the only buildings in Dharamshala area known to have survived the devastating 1905 earthquake, and remains one of the finest Anglican Churches in Himachal Pradesh.

In 1863, the second Viceroy of India, James Bruce, the Eighth Earl of Elgin, was buried on the Church grounds having expressed a wish to be laid to rest here. In a letter detailing his death, Arthur Stanley, Dean of Westminster, wrote " Lady Elgin with his approval rode up to the cemetery at Dharamshala to select a spot for his grave, and the gently expressed pleasure when told of the quiet and beautiful aspect of the spot chosen, with the glorious view of the snowy range towering above and the wide prospect of hill and plain below." 

Grave memorial of James Bruce, 8th Earl of Elgin, Viceroy of India (1862–1863)

Governor Gerenal of the Province of Canada, Governor of Jamaica and High Commissioner of China, spend the last month of his life in Dharamshala, drawing his terminal breath in the nearby Army Officer's Mess. Inspite of his rapidly deteriorating health, Lord Elgin developed such affection for what would become his final resting place, that he had three Dharamshala Deodar tree send back to his family home, Broomhall House, near Edinburgh, where they still grow today. 

After his death Lady Elgin, donated in her husband's memory, two Belgian stained glass windows depicting Jesus and John the Baptish, from whom the Church takes it name. 

The church suffer extensive damage during the deadly Kangra Earthquake on 04 April 1905, during which the upper part of the building, including its spire and roof were reduce to rubble. An appeal for funds to rebuilt the church, which appeared in British newspaper, The Times in June 1911, stated that, "The station church of St. John in Wilderness is still in ruins, although temples throughout the district have been rebuilt."

As the original bell suffered damage in the earthquake, in 1915 a new bell was built by the White chapel Bell Foundry (then trading as Meats & Stainbank), which is listed in Guiness Book of Records as the oldest manufacture company in Great Britain. The bell was shipped in 1915 from England to replace the original bell, however its considerable weight prevented it from being raised to the bell tower, and it was hung from beams resting between supporting walls in the church grounds. On a clear day, the bell was said to have been heard as far as Yol, 18 kilometers away.

Church Bell

In 1994, thieves attempted to steal the bell, but once again due to its weight, they were unable to carry it away. The famous bell was subsequently encased for its safety in the current structure and inaugurated by Prince Richard, the Duke of Gloucester, in October 1995.

Font, used for baptisms

 Other point of interest include the original font, used for baptisms (found and restored by Indian Army in 2013) the graves of a number of earthquake victims are memorial plagues commemorating soldiers who fell in the battle fields....

See also: Church of John in Wilderness, Palampur.

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