In the quiet hamlet of Pangan, away from Manali’s tourist rush, an architect named Sherab Tharbus built something with mud walls, reclaimed wood, cow-dung plaster, and clay plate ceiling lights — and the result was published in Architectural Digest India and then covered by Condé Nast Traveller. Hunzuru doesn’t just offer a view. It offers a new perspective, grounded in stillness and shaped by soul.
The word wabi-sabi describes a Japanese aesthetic philosophy built on the acceptance of imperfection and impermanence — on the beauty that exists in the aged, the weathered, the hand-made, the asymmetrical, and the incomplete. It is not a style that can be purchased wholesale and applied to a building. It emerges, when it emerges genuinely, from the materials used and the intentions behind them, from the willingness to let things be what they are rather than what they should look like.
In the hills of Pangan, a small hamlet just outside Manali’s tourist belt, architect Sherab Tharbus of TharbusDesigns built Hunzuru — and wabi-sabi is the appropriate description not because the design references Japanese aesthetics but because the philosophy was applied honestly to the Himalayan context. Mud walls. Reclaimed wood. Cow-dung plaster on the surfaces. Clay plate ceiling lights. Hand-plastered textures throughout. Wide glass windows that bring the outside world in with the same generosity that a Himalayan home has always offered its landscape. Wooden flooring in natural colours. The imperfections that emerge when a building is made from materials that carry their own histories.
Hunzuru was published in Architectural Digest India and then covered by Condé Nast Traveller. It stands like a poem carved into the hills, in the words of those who have described it — a quiet sanctuary where wabi-sabi aesthetics meet Himalayan warmth.
The Village and the Location
Pangan is the decision that makes Hunzuru possible — the choice to be outside Manali’s busy centre, in a hamlet where the mountains are the dominant presence and the tourist infrastructure of the Mall Road is far enough away to feel irrelevant. This is Manali before it became the city it has become: a village in the Kullu Valley, apple orchards on the slopes, the Beas River audible somewhere below, the Himalayan peaks above on all sides.
The hamlet sits just outside Manali — close enough to access the valley’s attractions and infrastructure without being subject to its crowds and noise. The surrounding landscape of orchards and forest provides the context for the guided nature walks that the host family offers: a walk through the orchards, an introduction to farm life, the journey from plantation to pollination to harvest that most guests have never witnessed in its actual physical form.
The Architecture
Hunzuru was designed by Sherab Tharbus of TharbusDesigns as a considered act of sustainable design in a landscape that the Himalayan building tradition has understood for centuries. The structure spreads across three levels. The ground floor presents an open concept: a spacious common living and dining area with scenic windows that frame the mountains with the deliberateness of someone who has thought carefully about what belongs in that frame. This is where leisurely conversations happen, where quiet moments of contemplation are available without agenda.
The upper two floors house five bedrooms, each a cosy sanctuary dipped in a palette of natural colours. Wooden flooring. Oversized windows. Private balconies with uninterrupted views of the Himalayan landscape. Each room is a study in the wabi-sabi principle — not bare but minimal, not decorated but curated, not perfect but entirely considered.
The outdoor patio extends the living space into the mountain air, offering the breathtaking vistas that the Pangan hillside commands. A sun-drenched bench for morning tea. The particular quality of Himalayan light in the afternoons, when the sun angles across the slopes and the shadows lengthen through the apple orchards below.
The Materials
What makes Hunzuru architecturally significant — beyond its considerable beauty — is the honesty of its construction. Mud walls: traditional, thermally intelligent, responsive to the mountain climate in a way that no synthetic insulation system can replicate. Reclaimed wood: old timber with its own grain and history, repurposed into beams and surfaces that carry the accumulated character of the trees they came from. Cow-dung plaster: the traditional Himalayan finishing technique, odourless once dried, smooth and luminous, carrying the warmth of a material that has been applied to mountain homes for centuries. Clay plate ceiling lights: handmade, local, the practical expression of the aesthetic that governs every other choice in the building.
Each nook has been thoughtfully arranged to encourage intimate exchange and exploration. This is architecture that respects the intelligence of the people who will inhabit it: rooms that suggest how to be in them rather than dictating it.
The Host Family and the Life
A warm host family lives on the property and is present throughout the stay. Their knowledge of the surrounding orchard landscape, their willingness to take guests on guided nature walks through the apple orchards and farmland, and their investment in making the Hunzuru experience genuine rather than merely comfortable set the tone of the stay.
The meals are home-cooked, using produce from the farm and the surrounding valley. The kitchen at Hunzuru is not a restaurant kitchen. It is a family kitchen, operating with the seasonal intelligence of people who know what is growing in the orchard and what the market has that morning.
The fire in winter. The tea on the sun bench in the morning. The stories that emerge in the open ground-floor common space when five bedrooms of guests share an evening over food in the mountains. These are the components of a Hunzuru stay that exceed any description of the design.
What to See and Experience
From Pangan, the full Manali and Kullu Valley circuit is accessible: the ancient Naggar Castle (30 minutes) and the Nicholas Roerich Gallery, the Hidimba Temple in Old Manali, the Solang Valley, the Rohtang Pass for those who want the high-altitude snowfield, and the Beas Kund trek for serious walkers. The Kullu Valley’s apple orchards are accessible directly from the property in season — October, when the harvest is happening and the air smells of ripe fruit, is the most atmospheric time to visit.
The Tirthan Valley, accessible from the Kullu Valley, offers trout fishing and the Great Himalayan National Park for those who want a day in one of the most biodiverse protected areas in the Western Himalayas. Manali’s Mall Road, Vanvihar, and the old village are within easy reach for those who want a contrast with the quietness of Pangan.
Why It Stays With You
Condé Nast Traveller’s description of Hunzuru is precise: it doesn’t just offer a view, it offers a new perspective, grounded in stillness and shaped by soul. The mud walls and the reclaimed wood and the clay plate ceiling lights and the cow-dung plaster are not stylistic choices applied from outside. They are the building’s character — the expression of an architect who understood the Himalayan context and the wabi-sabi philosophy well enough to bring them together in something genuinely new.
Time dissolves at Hunzuru. On the sun bench with tea. By the fire with a book. In the common space with the mountains in the windows and the host family’s cooking arriving from the kitchen. In the five bedrooms on the upper floors, where the wooden floors and the oversized windows and the private balconies and the natural colours combine into the particular quality of rest that only places built with genuine care can produce.
This is Manali before the crowds. A poem carved into the hills.
Plan Your Visit
Address: Pangan village, Manali, Kullu District, Himachal Pradesh Booking: Hushstays (hushstays.com/hunzuru-luxury-cottage-pangan-manali) · Also on Airbnb (search Hunzuru Wabi Sabi Villa Manali)
Architect: Sherab Tharbus, TharbusDesigns Recognition: Architectural Digest India featured · Condé Nast Traveller featured
Property: 3 levels · Apple orchards and farm surroundings · Outdoor patio · Sun-drenched bench · Garden Construction: Mud walls · Reclaimed wood · Cow-dung plaster · Clay plate ceiling lights · Hand-plastered textures · Natural wooden flooring · Eco-conscious throughout
Accommodation: 5 bedrooms (upper 2 floors) · All with natural colour palette, wooden floors, oversized windows, private balconies, Himalayan views Common area: Ground floor open-plan living/dining · Scenic windows · Fire in winter Host family: Warm resident family · Guided nature walks through orchards · Farm life introduction
Meals: Home-cooked · Local and seasonal farm produce · Family kitchen
Experiences: Guided orchard nature walks · Farm-to-table kitchen participation · Fire evenings (winter) · Patio tea and mountain views · Naggar Castle and Roerich Gallery day trip · Manali circuit · Solang Valley · Rohtang Pass · Beas Kund trek · Tirthan Valley
Getting There — Bhuntar Airport (Kullu-Manali): approximately 45 km from Pangan — around 1.5 hours by road. — Manali Mall Road: approximately 5–8 km from Pangan — around 15–20 minutes. — From Delhi: approximately 570 km — around 12 hours by road, or overnight Volvo bus to Manali (10–12 hours) then taxi. — From Chandigarh: approximately 310 km — around 6–7 hours. — Pangan is a hamlet just outside Manali — coordinate exact approach with the host family via Hushstays on booking. The final road is village access; standard vehicles manage it.
Nearby — Manali Mall Road: 5–8 km · Naggar Castle: 30 min · Nicholas Roerich Gallery: 30 min · Hidimba Temple: 10 km · Solang Valley: 20 km · Rohtang Pass: 50 km · Bhuntar Airport: 45 km · Tirthan Valley: 60 km
Best Time to Visit: October for the apple harvest — the valley at its most aromatic and colourful · November to February for snow and fire evenings in the wabi-sabi interior · March to May for spring and the apple blossom · June for the pre-monsoon green · Year-round — each season changes the mountains outside the oversized windows
