Abode of Gods- Himalayas (Kinnaur)

Let’s start with the history and origin of Himalayas. The Himalayas is considered among the youngest mountain ranges of the world. It passes through five nations: India, Pakistan, Bhutan, China and Nepal. The Himalayas are a range of mountains and not just a geographical feature. Himalayas were created due to collision of India with Asia. There were powerful earth movements between Indo Australian Plate and Eurasian plate and their collision raised the deposits which lay down in the shallow Tethys Sea which is on the present location of the mountains. The Himalayas are said to be still active and the earth movements raise the height of Himalaya range by 5mm per year.

Himalaya is considered to be Abode of gods in Hindu Mythology. I don’t know why we call it mythology in English when in Hindi we call it Upanishads which means the greatest truth. Anyways, Himalayas is said to be the home of Lord Shiva and there are lots of beliefs about Himalayas and lord Shiva. Whether these beliefs are true or not I will quote here an old quote “ Beauty lies in the eye of the beholder” so the truth totally depend on the belief of the person and anyways belief will always remain a myth until you experience it yourself.  And I think once you experience Himalayas you will realize that there must be some truth in all these beliefs, it surely does look like the abode of gods. Beautiful is too small a word for this place and together with ancient beliefs, make this place all the more interesting.

I have been to Himalayas before but I have never been to these heights earlier and being at this height and experiencing Himalayas make me want to explore them more and also to store my memories in the form of blog. 

I recently went on holidays to Himachal Pradesh and we covered Naldera, Sarahan, Sangla Valley and Chitkul.  Chitkul is the last village of India and after this there are no roads and it is at 11,320 ft above sea level and what a beautiful place I mean it gives beauty a new meaning. 

Chitkul

Let me start my trip from the beginning. Well we started from Delhi by Shatabdi express till Kalka and from there hired a taxi. Our first stop was in Kasuali where we had our lunch and then we started for our trip to Kinnaur. Our first stop was in Sarahan where we stayed in Hotel Srikhand which is Himachal Tourism hotel and situated in front of the great Srikhand Mahadev Mount.

Srikhand Mahadev Mountain is very sacred and it is one of the seven abodes of Lord Shiva. There is a story behind this mountain.

The story goes like – One of the Daityaraj( it’s a kind of human classification according to Hindu philosophy) Bhasamasur did very hard tapasya of Mahadev and Mahadev got very happy and gave him Bhasma Kangan which will destroy the person on whim this kangan is used. Now Bhasmasur being a Daitya thought of using the Kangan on Mahadev himself and ran after him to destroy him. So Mahadev disappeared in a cave and appeared on Srikhand hill and the hill got Khandit (parted) and due to this that hill is worshipped as shivalingam and is called Srikhand Mahadev.

Srikhand Mahadev

It is said that there are seven Kailash mountains (Abode of Lord Shiva)

  1)      Mansarovar Kailash in Tibet

                                2)      Adi Kailash in Pithoragarh district of Uttrakhand

3)      Amarnath Kailash in J&K

            4)      Kinner Kailash in Kinnaur District

            5)      Mani Mahesh Kailash in Chamba

            6)      Srikhand Kailash in Simla district

              7)      Boorah Kailash still to be located

It is said that these mountains can be climbed by only those who are ordained to.

Then we went to Sangla valley, which is on the shore of BASPA river. On the way we also saw Jaypee Karcham – Wangtoo Hydro power project which was under construction and in its later stages. This construction work had created havoc with the environment there. This makes you realize that development has it costs in loss of nature. Whenever we change anything for our benefit we lose out on something else.

 Baspa River

Sangla valley was beautiful with snow- covered mountain all around. We stayed in tents here which were on shore of the river Baspa. This river is said to be very violent sometimes. We were talking to some locals they said that sometimes they can hear big rock coming down the mountains with the river water but mostly it is gentle. The view from our tent was beautiful. When I woke up in the morning and came out of the tent and saw the view all around I felt like I have really woken in the abode of gods. Mountains and pine trees all around.  Very funny thought came to my mind when I was taking a walk in the morning. Well actually where we were staying there were mountains all around but one side there was a mountain full of pine trees and another side there was huge mountain without a spot of green on it. It was so vast and solid, it looked like the father of the valley and the green mountain looked like the mother and the valley their child J well what would you expect out of a romanticJ.

Daddy of the valley :)

Then we went to Chitkul which is the last village of India on Indo- Tibetan border and the road as they say ends here. Chitkul was as beautiful as one can imagine but freezing cold too. We saw the people there and they were like these are summers for us and we were like freezing in two sweaters.  There were all happy people around what else could be there with all that beauty around. 

But with all the beauty there is harshness too. The life is hard in Himalayas, when we were climbing up the hill some places were really dangerous with steep fall and the roads too narrow and local people who stay there have to go through that every day.  Life is so unpredictable there that people need to have their beliefs. People there believe in Devta (Power) and it gives them strength and mind set to tackle all type of dangers. When we were going uphill and we had just started the journey our driver used to say small prayer at all the temples we used to pass and there is temple at every corner in Himalayas, earlier I used to think why so many temples but as we went up and saw the heights then I realised that may be these temples are necessary as they give people strength and as it is said that with faith person can go anywhere and those people have faith in their devtas and ultimate powers. The pureness of the environment makes you believe in everything there.

This trip has just awkened my curiosity for Himalayas and now I want to explore more let’s see how it goes. Will keep you posted.