In the last 2 posts written on Pinmapple, you read that I went from Delhi to Haridwar where I spent a few days in the 'Mahakumbh Mela' and reached Gopeshwar. After spending 2 days at the feet of Gopeshwar Mahadev, I set out towards the difficult path to Rudranath temple for which I had to cross Sagar village and climb 12 km on foot on the mountain. During this climb, I had to face heavy storm as well as snowfall. Now I had no hope that I would find someone so high up the mountain...so let's know what happened next.
I reached the temple of Lord Rudra amidst snowfall, it was almost dark here and I could not see anyone. I was very hopeful that I would find someone here, I was completely drenched due to snowfall, so first of all I have to take off my wet clothes and wear dry clothes and quickly get into the sleeping bag. And before doing all this, I have to look for a place to pitch the tent, but it was good that the gate of a hut was open here, in which I found some blankets, I spread them and got into the sleeping bag after changing clothes.
The sound of very strong wind kept coming throughout the night, on top of that the gate of the hut was jammed and did not close, cold wind kept coming from the door the whole night. Believe me, when the wind blows at 3600 meters, it jams every part of the body. In the morning, my eyes opened at 5 am and when I got up and saw the view outside, I kept looking at it. The snowy mountains visible in the distance are colored red and pink in the redness of the sun.
After clicking 2-4 photos, I go back into the sleeping bag because there is very cold wind outside, I wait for the sun to come. As soon as the sun came, it forced the snow that fell yesterday to melt. When the sun came, I strolled in the temple premises and inspected the place. There is no one here and the doors of the temple are closed. I gaze at the mountain peaks visible in the distance and tell my heart's desire to 'Nanda Devi'.
Rudranath Temple (3600 meters) is located in Chamoli district of Uttarakhand, to reach here devotees have to climb a difficult 12 km climb from one side in which there is an elevation gain of about 2900 meters. This temple is dedicated to Hindu God Shiva and this temple is a part of the famous Panch Kedar. Talking about Panch Kedar, first there are Kedarnath, Tungnath, Kalpeshwar, Madhyamaheshwar and Rudranath temples.
This temple is located in a cave but later it was covered by building walls. Here in the sanctum sanctorum, the face of Lord Shiva is worshipped. According to beliefs, the Pandavas built this temple 5000 years ago. There are also some small temples built around the temple which have been dedicated to the Pandavas. The gates of Rudranath temple remain open every year from the Sankranti of Jyeshtha month to the Sankranti of Kartik month.
There are footpaths to reach the five Kedars of the temple, for which one has to walk for several days. Today I was alone here, let's see who knows if any traveler comes here today. I am afraid of bears alone because they attack even without any reason. That's all for today, now I will write to you about tomorrow in the next post. Till then take care of yourself and keep smiling.
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 Canon 77D and thumbnail photo edited in adobe photoshop.
[//]:# (!worldmappin 30.51929 lat 79.31851 long Visited 5000 years old temple (Rudranath Temple) d3scr)