Chandelao Garh

Chandelao Garh has been the ancestral home of the Kumpawat Rathores since 1744. Its owner is the sixteenth Thakur of Chandelao, from a line entrusted before independence with the governance of Chandelao and neighbouring villages on behalf of the royal family of Marwar. He began a careful restoration in 1995 and opened the gates to travellers for the first time in 1996, the first guests arriving in 1997 as an Australian biker group on a pan India tour.

Twenty rooms are split between two parts of the house. The Courtyard rooms were the family's stables and look onto the pool and courtyard; the Old building rooms occupy the mardana, the former men's quarters, and give onto garden and terrace. Both sets hang family photographs. The original stonework, jaalis and courtyards were kept where possible. The property uses solar power, water conservation and organic produce, and Sunder Rang, a social enterprise founded here in 2007, trains and pays rural women artisans. Chandelao sits 40 km from the airport and 45 km from the railway station, with birdwatching from October to March and jeep trips out to Olvi Lake and Bishnoi country.