Welcome to the #winterchallenge organized by #worldmappin. You will get more information about this challenge on the worldmapping page. If you have not yet participated in this amazing challenge, then why wait. I am trying to write a post related to any topic every day in this challenge which will run till the month of December. Today I have brought an old post in front of you in which I decided to hike to the ancient temple of Winters Meek. Come on friends, let's go on this snowy journey.
It is December and in a few days the Krishmash festival will be among us. Because I do not like to stay at home on festivals, so I go on the track of Shikari Devi temple all alone. The tracks of the Indian Himalayas are neither maintained nor are there many facilities here. In winter, if you encounter a man-eating animal here, then you may lose your life, but ignoring all the circumstances, I go on the track of this ancient temple.
I take a bus from home which drops me to Mandi city of Himachal Pradesh, from here I take another bus to Janjheli. The walking path to Shikari Devi starts from Janjheli. Since snow has fallen in the high altitude areas of the Himalayas, today while walking I am going to face a thick layer of snow. The height of Janjheli is 2150 meters and the walking distance from here to the temple of Shikari Devi is 12 km, this will be a challenging track in which along with altitude gain, snow and cold will block my way.
I start my journey from apple orchards and empty fields. Here in Janjheli, snow fell and melted. After walking 2 km, only snow is visible on the trail. I am having difficulty searching the path and now I am walking on the trail buried under snow with the help of mobile gpx. After crossing a large patch of snow, I look back down in the valley and find out that snow has fallen on one side of the mountain and the grass is still green on the other side, I am surprised to see this amazing view and keep looking at this scene continuously.
The trail is not visible on the way due to snow but the frozen streams are clearly visible. I am walking keeping a little distance from the frozen toes but at one place I slip and fall, it was good that I did not get hurt and I did not fall down the mountain. I get up again and start walking, here the snow has fallen in the terraced fields of the Himalayas in such a way as if snow farming is being done in the fields. Looking at the top of the mountain, it is understood that the next 6 km are going to be very difficult, the time to test my legs has come.
While walking on the trail, there are two paths in the middle of the forest, I look at the mobile gpx without panicking and start moving forward on the left path. The thickness of the snow is increasing as I move forward from here. I am also thinking about getting stuck but I am not stopping. At some places the snow is more than knee-deep and believe me, I don't know what I am made of that without fear I am entering this sea of snow and using my unmatched strength to cross it. As I like to click photos on the trek, most of the time I keep a stick with me which helps me to click my photos even when I am alone.
Finally I reach Shikari Devi Temple after 7 hours of walking on the 12 km long trek. Shikari Devi Temple is situated at an altitude of 3313 m. As per my recording, the walking distance to Shikari Devi from Kamrunaag Temple is about 16.5 km. which includes a height gain of 1324 m. which took us 6 hrs 30 mins to cover. This temple is such a special place that many mountain peaks can be identified from here like, Griffon, Hanuman Tibba, Shikhar Bah, Mukhar Bah, Manali, Shitidhar, Friendship, Goh Kincha, Patalsu, Gehpn Goh, Rohtang Pass, Mulkila, Inder Kila, Diyo Tibba, Indrasan, Ratna Thadi, Papsura, Dharmasura, Shingrila, Kullu Makalu, Kullu Pumori, Shigri Parvat, Parvati Parvat, Manirang, Rio Purgyal, South Parbati, and Pyramid Peak.
According to the locals, many attempts were made to put a roof on this temple but due to the influence of the power of the mother, the construction of the roof of this temple could never be completed. Every time there were various obstacles regarding the construction of the roof but the work of construction of the roof of the temple could never be completed. It is believed that the Pandavas built the temple of Maa without a roof and they installed the idol of Maa in the open space in the temple.
According to the locals, “Markandeya Rishi had performed penance of Maa Durga for years at the temple site and as a result Maa Durga was pleased with his penance and appeared to him in the form of Shakti. Later, the Pandavas came here during their exile and they performed penance of Maa in the form of Shakti, pleased with which Maa blessed them to be victorious over the Kauravas in the war of Mahabharata.
This story is popular in the context of the name Shikari Devi: Regarding the naming of the temple, the people here tell that “many years ago there used to be a very dense forest here and this place was the home of many hunter tribes. The hunters used to worship Maa in this temple to get success in their hunting and when they started getting success in their hunting, as a result they named this temple Shikari Devi”. Another belief is that if someone has any eye disease, then artificial eyes are offered to the goddess and the eye disease is cured. Every year, many devotees offer silver eyes to the Shikari Mata temple when their eyes are cured.
I am having a wonderful darshan of the temple. There is a statue of the goddess installed here, I bow down in front of her and appeal to maintain peace in the world. Due to cold, my nose has started running, hands and feet have become numb. After about 2 hours, I start descending back to Janjheli. By now it is evening and the atmosphere in the sky is becoming absolutely magical. As soon as I clicked a photo, the battery of the camera switched off due to cold and altitude. Where I had to click thousands of photos, I was lucky to get these few photos. All the photos are in front of you after editing in lightroom. I hope you all liked my effort.
Disclaimer: This post is originally written in Hindi and I have used Google Translator to translate the Hindi text in English. All the photos have been clicked by me from Poco f1 android smartphone and edited in lightroom mobile app.I have used the photos of this post earlier in my Hindi blog. The name of my Hindi blog is www.himalayanavmb.blogpost.com.
[//]:# (!worldmappin 31.57379 lat 76.91902 long Shikari Devi temple, first snowfall visit (India) d3scr)
