Photos

Uttarakhand is packed with mandirs. From the immensely popular char dham (Gangotri, Yamunotri, Badrinath, and Kedarnath) to small temples such as these, pilgrims visit Uttarakhand with devotion in their hearts.


Uttarakhand is also packed with "adventure-seekers". Satisfying the hordes of tourists spilling over from Himachal, Uttarakhand's natural beauty is now a commodity. Sadly, few of these tourists ever truly care about the people or the environment.


Uttarakhand is even attractive to neo-tantric drug-abusers of every species - willing to shell out three rupees for a trip to fuzzy-land. All fueled by the bogus sadhus wandering around in fuzzy-land themselves. If I ever catch the nitwit who spread the word that fuzzy-land equals spirituality, I'll send him to the other fuzzy land.

(For those of you utterly confused, fuzzy land is the drugged state, and the other fuzzy land is the unconscious state - the two are similar)



Anyways, back to the mandirs. This one, located in the eastern province of Kumaun, was probably constructed by the 8th century A.D. Katyuri Dynasty. It probably never had a pujari, and in fact, it is most likely also the samadhi, or grave of a prominent sadhu (this one didn't wander in fuzzy land). The nearest village is 1 kilometer away - few people even notice this small roadside shrine. However, as I was walking down this road in the proverbially beautiful post-monsoon weather, I saw the dappled green sunlight illuminating this mandir, in soft contrast with the background. Unfortunately, I forgot to include the bottom corner of the mandir.

(And by the way, that top stone isn't levitating - it's precariously positioned on another in the shadow).



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