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In News: International travel magazine Conde Nast has chosen Goa as the best leisure destination in the country overtaking Kerala.
This year 2013, Feast of St Francis Xavier will be celebrated at the Basilica of Bom Jesus, Old Goa on December 3.
Panaji is the state's capital, while Vasco da Gama is the largest city. The historic city of Margao still exhibits the cultural influence of the Portuguese, who first landed in the early 16th century as merchants, and conquered it soon thereafter. The Portuguese overseas territory of Portuguese India existed for about 450 years, until it was annexed by India in 1961
The people of this state are strong, prudent and very hardworking. It is civilized, having famous orchards and water. It is the coolest place in India and it is the most plentiful in foodstuffs.
‘The white people make a practice of going to the kingdom of Goa to enjoy the shade and the groves of trees and to savor the sweet betel.’ Goa also celebrates Goa Carnival every year which is 3 day festival of fun, music dance and lots of Masti (merry making).
These revealing remarks on Goa come not from the hippies or ‘flower power’ generation of the sixties and early seventies who thronged the beaches of Anjuna, Vagator and Arambol in search of salvation and ‘peace’. These remarks were made over five centuries ago by the Portuguese Ambassador to China who visited Goa around the year 1511. They serve as a vivid precursor to the generations that followed in our times to the fabled land of Goa.
In those tumultuous and rebellious times in the sixties, it was then not the ‘sweet betel’ that was the prime attraction but a different kind of ‘weed’. But Goa, since those days of the angry generation, has moved on to attract a multitudinous, peaceful and cosmopolitan school of visitors from all around the globe.
Down the corridors of time Goa has been different things to different people. To the Portuguese conquerors it was ‘Golden Goa’, the El Dorado, the ‘Rome of the East’. Such was its beauty and grandeur, that a traveler was moved to remark: ‘Whoever has seen Goa, need not visit Lisboa’—Lisbon, which was then the grand epicenter of the Portuguese dominions.
Some decades later, the early 17th century French traveler Francois Pyrard wrote: ‘Whoever has been in Goa may say that he has seen the choicest rarities of India, for it is the most famous and celebrated city, on account of its commercial intercourse with people of all nationalities of the East who bring there the products of their respective countries, articles of merchandise necessaries of life and other commodities in great abundance because every year more than a thousand ships touch there laden with cargo.’
Pyrard continued with near prophetic veracity: ‘…as for the multitude of people, it is a marvel to see the number which come and go every day by sea and land on business of every kind…One would say that a fair was being held every day for the sale of all sorts of merchandise.’
magnificent beaches, to parasail or swim with the tide of fellow visitors from all around the globe, to savour its unique cuisine and imbibe its spirits, to take a long and invigorating trek in its unexplored interiors, to marvel at its majestic temples and churches, in short, to be at one with the most friendly people in the country.
In the sixties and seventies, it was, as we have remarked, a haven for the hippies. Since then Goa has moved on to full fledged Statehood, its own Council of Ministers, a magnificent new Assembly complex, its citizens among the most literate in the country with a per capita income the highest in the land.. At the hub of this prosperity, is the Tourism industry. At the Goa Tourism Development Corporation (GTDC), we take a humble bow in acknowledgement, in some small measure, of putting Goa on the tourist map of our country.
But we also acknowledge that Goa does not require a massive sales drive.
Goa is a multifaceted jewel in the crown of India
‘The white people make a practice of going to the kingdom of Goa to enjoy the shade and the groves of trees and to savor the sweet betel.’ Goa also celebrates Goa Carnival every year which is 3 day festival of fun, music dance and lots of Masti (merry making).
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| Goa Carnival(Photo source- Freezethemoment.in) |
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| Goa Carnival (Pic courtesy: Dupinder Bains) |
These revealing remarks on Goa come not from the hippies or ‘flower power’ generation of the sixties and early seventies who thronged the beaches of Anjuna, Vagator and Arambol in search of salvation and ‘peace’. These remarks were made over five centuries ago by the Portuguese Ambassador to China who visited Goa around the year 1511. They serve as a vivid precursor to the generations that followed in our times to the fabled land of Goa.
In those tumultuous and rebellious times in the sixties, it was then not the ‘sweet betel’ that was the prime attraction but a different kind of ‘weed’. But Goa, since those days of the angry generation, has moved on to attract a multitudinous, peaceful and cosmopolitan school of visitors from all around the globe.
Down the corridors of time Goa has been different things to different people. To the Portuguese conquerors it was ‘Golden Goa’, the El Dorado, the ‘Rome of the East’. Such was its beauty and grandeur, that a traveler was moved to remark: ‘Whoever has seen Goa, need not visit Lisboa’—Lisbon, which was then the grand epicenter of the Portuguese dominions.
Some decades later, the early 17th century French traveler Francois Pyrard wrote: ‘Whoever has been in Goa may say that he has seen the choicest rarities of India, for it is the most famous and celebrated city, on account of its commercial intercourse with people of all nationalities of the East who bring there the products of their respective countries, articles of merchandise necessaries of life and other commodities in great abundance because every year more than a thousand ships touch there laden with cargo.’
Pyrard continued with near prophetic veracity: ‘…as for the multitude of people, it is a marvel to see the number which come and go every day by sea and land on business of every kind…One would say that a fair was being held every day for the sale of all sorts of merchandise.’
While the contemporary traveller may not come to modern, thriving Goa ‘for the sale of all sorts of merchandise’, the ‘fair’ is still very much on. The traveller is here to find something different: a balm on the busy mind, to enjoy days of freedom on Goa’s
magnificent beaches, to parasail or swim with the tide of fellow visitors from all around the globe, to savour its unique cuisine and imbibe its spirits, to take a long and invigorating trek in its unexplored interiors, to marvel at its majestic temples and churches, in short, to be at one with the most friendly people in the country.
In the sixties and seventies, it was, as we have remarked, a haven for the hippies. Since then Goa has moved on to full fledged Statehood, its own Council of Ministers, a magnificent new Assembly complex, its citizens among the most literate in the country with a per capita income the highest in the land.. At the hub of this prosperity, is the Tourism industry. At the Goa Tourism Development Corporation (GTDC), we take a humble bow in acknowledgement, in some small measure, of putting Goa on the tourist map of our country.
But we also acknowledge that Goa does not require a massive sales drive.
Goa is a multifaceted jewel in the crown of India
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