Chamba today is more interesting in history books than in reality. Still, there are enough reasons you should visit. Chamba provides a sharp contrast to Dalhousie, the colonial resort of rich Lahorians and the British, because of its uninterrupted ancient heritage and customs. However, over the years the influx of plains people has changed both the topography and ethnographic profile of this ancient Rajput capital. Its famed temples, stripped of their intricate wood-carved edifices first by the British and then by the Archaeological Survey of India, are mere shadows of their former selves. The growing town has also extracted its pound of flesh, crowding the temples into a maze of bylanes.