Bhima Kali Temple at Sarahan

Temple are an esential part of a Hindu's life and almost every Hindu once in his life goes to a temple of other. Himachal Pradesh in the north of India is called as "Dev Bhoomi - The Land of Gods" and is famous for its scatered temples all over the state. Some are famous for its dieties where are others are more famous among foreighn tourists due to their legends and architecture.


Bhimakali temple at Sarahan is one of them. Perhaps this is the most beutiful temple among all in the Himalayas and attracts not only Indians but foreighn tourists also due to its architectural aspects, woodwork and its grand size. Perhaps there is no other tmeple that has the similar aspects and is so attractive. It is not only the building of the temple but also its placement, the surroundings, the snowclad peaks and its approach from Shimla to its main complex.
As per the legend this area, then called Shonitpur, was ruled by a Demon King called Banasur. He was devotee of Lord Shiva but was a crule king so the people of the area are scared of this Demon and would speak nothing against him. His daughter once saw a youngman, in her drea, approaching her for her hand. She narrated this story to one of her friend cum who found out that the handsome youngman was, Prduman, the son of Lord Krishana who was the ruler of Mathura Dwarika. She went to Dwarika and kidnapped the youngman and brought him here. When Lord Krishana came to know about the kidnaping of his son, he attacked this area and Killed Banasur and buried his head right at the gates of the main complex of the temple. Later Praduman ruled this area.
Since then this Kindom was governed uninterruptedly by the descendants of this dynasty till the end of the princely estates in independant India. This ruling family got constructed a splendid temple in the State Capital and recoganised Mother Goddess Bhimakali as the presiding deity of the ruling family.
A religious festival called Udyapan Jag is celeberated here after a gap of 100 years or more. Last time it was done in 1904 that lasted for 6 months. 600 goats were sacrificed and 11 Brahamins - The holy men had housed the fed. Navratras are celeberated twice a year, all over the country and it lasts for nine nights, during Chaitra and Ashvin months of Hindu Calender, April and October respectively. During these Navratras the dieties from all over the area are brought up here and thousands of local people also throng the complex.
How to Reach : Reach Shimla by rail or road and drive to Sarahan. Taxies are very easily avaiable at Shimla. Stay here overnight and next day start driving via Kufari, Fagu, Theog, Narkanda, Nogli, Rampur, Jeori and form here turn right to Sarahan. This place form Shimla is 175 kilometers and is 17 kilometers right uphill from Jeori after Rampur. The road to the temple is in excellent condition and the beauty of the Himalayan Forests does not give you any chance to get tired.
Where to Stay : The temple complex has a guest house with very neat and clean rooms with attached toilet and bath facilities, fitted with hot water gysers. There are a number of guest houses in Sarahan and a Hotel Srikhand Mahadev run and managed by Himachal Pradesh Tourism Department offers very good rooms with excellent view and a restaurant.

Visit to Moonland

Do you want to have Moon as your next holiday destination, Yes? But sorry you cannot go there. Right? Ok, then take my suggestion and go to Spiti Valley.

A drive of 350 km from Shimla through breathtaking scenery of Himalayan landscapes takes you to Spiti Valley. After crossing Narkanda, 64 km, and then driving opposite of River Satluj from near Rampur, 130 km, you stop for a night each at Sarhan, Kalpa and Pooh. Then you cross a bridge at Khab where river Spiti meets Satluj. Now you are in Spiti Valley.
Astounding, right? You may not be able to blink your eyes as the barren landscape, here, keeps you hold your tongue and your eyes wide open. You are above the tree line and standing at the elevation of nearly 13000 feet.
Spiti valley shares its borders with Tibbet, so has the Tibbetian influence with the oldest ‘Gompa’ - the Monastery called Tabo, famous as Ajanta of Himalayas. Tabo was established in 996 AD by a Tibetan Scholar Lotsawa Rinchen Tsang Po. He travelled all the way form Lhasa and established this monastery here in order to translate Indian Buddhist scripture to Tibetan Language. It holds the second position only to the Tholing Gompa in Tibet in the entire Himalayan region. It was developed as an advanced centre for learning by the great teacher and translator, the king of western Himalayan Kingdom of Guge -- also known as Lha Lama Yeshe O'd or Mahaguru Ratnabhadra. The Chos-Khor at Tabo remained one of the most important Buddhist establishments during the time of Lotsawa after the Chos-Khor at Tholing, the capital town of Guge. To date, it is the preserver of the Buddhist Legacy and is one of the most important Gompa of the entire Tibetan Buddhist world.
Every Morning a ‘Traditional Puja’ is performed here by the Buddhist Monks who live in the complex. A guest house, in the monastery, provides accommodation to the travelers at very cheap rates. Tabo is also famous for its 700 to 900 years old wall paintings, still preserved and they depict the meaning of Buddhism. Old scriptures are still preserved in the Monastery. Nearly 36 almost life-size clay statues perch on the walls of the assembly hall. Here again, the temple complex is a National Historic treasure of India and protected as such by the Archaeological Survey of India.

Next morning you drive to Kaza but do not forget to visit Dhakar Monastery on the way. The drive is through the breathtaking landscape and the effects of the air erosion can be seen all over here on the slopes and river side. A number of rocks have been carved, by air, to take a pointed shape. Take right from Shichiling and ascend towards Dhakanr Gompa. Dhankar means "A place in the mountains unreachable for strangers" Dhankar was traditional Capital of Spiti valley kingdom during 17th century and is set picturesquely on a clay hill above Shichilling village. There is a castle on the hill top, which was once under rule of Spiti kings. The Dhankar monastery belongs to Gelugspa School of order. Set against a lunar landscape of crumbling cliffs, the ' Lha - Opa Gompa' dates back to the 12th century. It has over 150 monks, some fascinating 'thangka' sculptures and a statue of the 'Dhyan Buddha'. Some of the Gompas were destroyed during a particularly harsh winter in 1989. The present monastery is under threat of the geographical calamities so the monks are fighting to save it.
A further drive form Dhankar takes you to Lalung Village where a small monastery in Lingti Valley is situated built nearly 600 years ago. Lhalung Gonpa was certainly founded by Lotsava Rinchen Zangpo in 10th century, as there are signs of Lotsava's paintings in the Serkhang.

From here, to stay overnigh, Kaza is your next destination. Kaza, a small town that saw development recently and still improving, is the headquarter of Spiti valley and has a number of hotels, guest houses, a bazaar, a petrol pump, all kinds of low budget restaurants, cyber café, telephone shops and vehicle repair shops. The old houses here are getting buried under the new concrete construction and a rain fed stream that flows through the town towards Spiti River to its south, when dried is full of plastic and other kind of rubbish. It has the influence of the empty packets of junk food, empty bottles of mineral water and soft drinks and other non bio degradable material.

If you want to enjoy the most breathtaking Moonlike landscaping, a half days visit to the villages of Komic, Langcha and Damul should not be skipped at any cost. Here you are at the elevation of 5487 meters and would be astounded to see people living here. Locales work in their field where they grow pea crop and village boys run towards you with age old fossils in their hands. They intend to sell them to you as a negotiable cost but it is requested not to buy them as this way you take an essential part of the wealth of this area, away.

While visiting Kaza one can enjoy a trip to Kibber Sanctuary. This sanctuary is about 20 Km away from Kaza and is linked with road via Lalung, Langcha & Kibber village. One can see herds of Blue Sheep, Ibex and panoramic views of Shila Peak, Parang La & many other enchanting views of sanctuary. On way to Kibber one must enjoy the glimpse of famous Kee Gompa.
Kibber sanctuary is the only sanctuary in the country which is situated in the cold desert area. The sanctuary is covering an area of 1400.5 sq km. There are about 13 villages situated outside the periphery of the sanctuary. Only two households in one village Kibber exist inside the sanctuary area.
Just above the, on a hill, village Langcha there is a small monastery and the view of peak ChaoChao dominates the entire region. Next to the Monastery a huge statue of meditating Buddha has been established. The barren landscape has some rare medicinal plants such as Junglee Lahsun, Ratanjot and Ginger.

Next morning a full day drive takes you to to Manali over Kunzon Pass (4600 meter) and Rohtang Pass (4090 meter). Before you ascend the Kunzum Pass declare your passport at Losar. On top of the pass there is a temple of Goddess Kunzuma. Everyone must register his/her presence here at the temple. You try to stick a coin to the idol of the goddess and if you are a clean hearted fellow the coin sticks to it. From here starts the trek to Chandertal - The Moonlake, 9 km. A dust road good enough for small jeep can also take you to Chandertal from the other side of the pass. You must have your tents with you, in case you plan to stay there overnight.

Manali is busy town that survives on tourists completely, Indians and foreigners as well. This is full of life’s humdrum and offers all quality hotels, restaurants, bus station, taxies, airport that is 50 km away, rafting, bazaars, sightseeing, clubhouse and much more.

Trek To Churdhar

A group of twenty executives of City Bank from Delhi office stayed in Himgiri Nature Resort near Rajgarh in Sirmaur – the southern most district of Himachal Pradesh in Northern India. Mr. Maninder Kohli, their Vice President an enthusiastic team leader and a keen trekker himself has made it compulsory for his every team member to go for a trek at least once a year. I think every corporate house must follow this rule. This time he was taking them to Churdhar peak, the highest peak of south Himachal.

I had already been informed by General Ugrasen Yadav, the owner of the resort, to guide his clients to the Peak. So I reached there a day before on my Motor Cycle from Shimla. The duty of transporting all the paraphernalia such as tents, kitchen equipment, sleeping bags, sleeping mattresses and utensils was put on the responsible shoulders of Sunil, the resort manager. It is impossible to complete the trek in one day so they were suggested to camp some where on the way for a night. The best place is Rohandy Nullah a wide meadow after eight kilometer and next stop is the starting end of Tesri.

Next morning things were transported by jeep to Nauradhar, 25 km from Didag and loaded on ponies. Sunil along with Govind – his cook, one camp boy - Satpal started their walk much before we reached Nauradhar by bus. Chandu, our locale guide was waiting for us in the market with his bag wearing in his arms.

Carrying our day packs filled with chocolates, water bottles and biscuits and lunch boxes started our climb and we also reached there. Nauradhar is a tiny town on Haripurdhar road where few buses stop after Rajgarh for a break. About five hundred people live here. Few locals have their own vehicles to transport sacks of vegetable
from surrounding villages to big markets and bring daily supplies to the shops in the market.

Initially for four to five kilometers we walked through few small villages. People have set up their small houses near the trail. These are small hill houses with tiled rooftops and mud plastered walls painted with lime stone water. The doors and windows are made of wood, painted green, brown or sometimes white. The houses are set up away from each other, surrounded by fields in which wheat was still green and Garlic was being sown. Here people do terrace farming and major part of the region is sunny as here we found hardly any trees.

Most of the houses face valley extending towards Garwal – the neighboring state.
We were surprised to see water taps out side the houses where women either washed clothes or taps were connected with plastic pipes taking water to the fields. Later we came to know that taps get water from the natural sources in hills.
As we advanced towards our destination we gained height and more and more open view of Sirmaur valley enchanted our eyes. It was second week of March so rhododendrons were in their full bloom. Green valley was decorated with red flowers everywhere.

‘Is this the flower whose petals are used to make squash?’ asked one of the party members to me.

‘Yes. It is available in the market’.

‘If I pluck all these flowers then how much money I shall earn?’ said some one.
They always want to spoil nature. Everything is business for them. In the name of development we are going to leave nothing for our coming generations.

Little more walk up side and we entered a mixed forest of oak and rhododendrons. The ground is moist and soft here. The view of the valley is obstructed by trees and the dense forest kept us away from the rest of the world. Few of the trees had been uprooted, perhaps due to heavy winds. They lied on the trail and we had to some times jump over them or go under them.

We occupied a slightly wide space on a rock near out trail and opened our lunch boxes. Govind, the cook at Himgiri Nature resort was kind enough to pack our lunch boxes with poori, chana, some pickle, a piece of fruit and salad. It was fun to enjoy lunch sitting on ground with our backs resting against oak trees. The space was surrounded by a dense forest, wind and silence. A doze on the rock with stretched legs after lunch was very refreshing.

Sunil was informed to stop and set up camp at Rohandi Nullah where a wide meadow welcomes travelers. Before we reached Rohandi Nullah a giant size rock was an attraction for all. From this rock Rohandi Nullah is not very far and before we entered meadow we encountered the first small patch of snow a few feet long. Some of them pulled their cameras to click photos.

‘You shall find more snow further?’ I told them but they were not ready to listen to me. Rohandy Nullah was the last destination, every one thought. The wide meadow is surrounded by thick cedar trees. I was the first one to reach with a group of five executives. Rest of them were slow walkers so they took some more time.

The meadow had a large patch of snow where many of them played in snow and got some photographs clicked.


‘Have we reached?’ every one asked me as they saw us stretched on the grass of meadow.

‘Yes, but I do not see any camp here. Sunil must have gone further’.

Why did not he stop here?’ they were tired.

‘He must have not found any water here’ answered Chandu.

‘We have to walk for another two kilometers’. I added to him.

‘That’s ok. We are ready to walk’ said Maninder. After some time we started again.
Sunil had setup camp at a round shaped flat ground in the mid of the forest. Before we reached camp there were enough sources of fresh water. We filled up our water bottles from there got refreshed and reached the camp site. Govind welcomed us with hot tea and biscuits and then we occupied our tents with two members in each tent with sleeping bags and mattresses provided.

As the night fell bon fire was set up in the middle of the camp and everyone sat around the fire. After couple of drinks it was time to sing and dance. Ajit an executive and Rajat - their assistant manager were good singers to make the evening exciting.
Dinner was ready at 08:30. Every one slept early as we had another walk next morning.

After breakfast few of them decided to go back where as Maninder and others walked further with me. The walk from this overnight campsite to the other end of Tesri is monotonous. Much of the area was packed with snow. As we advanced further more snow was found. It was dirty and melting. Tesri offers the view of valley behind Sirmaur from where panoramic view of snow clad Himalayan peaks from west to east can make anyone to take out his camera. Here we experienced two to eight feet snow at some places. The trail to the Churdhar Peak was covered with snow and we saw no foot steps on it.

In spite of our very sincere efforts we could touch only the bottom of the hill from where the trail to the peak was blocked due to snow. At last we were left with no option but to return to Himgiri Nature resort. Unfortunately we came back from a kilometer before the peak.

‘Perhaps the local God – Shirgul Devta, whose temple crowns the peaks was not happy with us so he does not permitted us to reach his temple’ said Chandu, our local guide.

Deities from surrounding villages are brought here when route to the temple opens. They are given a fresh wash, worshipped and taken back to their respective villages.
‘It is always next time. We had a good climb and I am happy that my team was able to make it till this point’ said Maninder and we walked back to Nauradhar where our bus waited for us to take us back to Himgiri Nature Resort.