Uttarakhand is known to be the Land of Gods for its mesmerizing beauty throughout the state. It has 5 Shiva Temples on top of mountain peaks which are known as Panch Kedar. The highest of Panch Kedar is Tungnath temple, right before Chandrashila peak, sitting at 3680m altitude with breath-taking views – sometimes literally.
The trek to Tungnath begins at Chopta, where water in the pipelines remains frozen during most nights. These temperatures were very different from what I’ve been used to in my city, where average temperature of day remains above 31° C for 2/3rd part of the year. There was an adrenaline rush in veins and thrill drove us to not only live with the situations but enjoy them with all our heart.
The three of us - Suyash, Avinash and I - decided to go on a trip to explore some of the places amongst which Chopta & Tungnath were two on the list. After exploring a few sights, we reached Chopta for a night’s stay so that we can start our trek to Tungnath early morning next day. Temperatures in the evening were 4-5 degree Celsius and our punk asses could not care less, we went out to take photos and look around. Everything far was covered in snow and near us was all ice. We wanted snow, not ice - excited & waiting for the next day. Haha.
There were like hardly 50-60 residential houses which also allowed stays for tourists. Some 4-5 dhaba (restaurants) and a couple small tea stalls. The most expensive thing was water out of all drinks, because you need to drink it more and there is a shortage of it around the valley. Shortage because water freezes, even in the water supply pipelines.
Temperatures dropped below zero at night and we didn’t move an inch while sleeping in those warm blankets, the air leaking inside from the gaps in windows was totally the villain for all of us. We fell asleep while cracking jokes, grabbing our types of drinks and sharing stories about our lives. The morning came and we got ready, locked our room and headed straight towards the peak. It was a hard time getting fresh in morning for the three of us in that small bathroom with just 1 bucket of water and taps being useless. The scenes can not be compared to anything nor can be described so easily.
There are many stories behind how these temples came into existence and I learned about the most popular one later, it was an interesting story. A Hindu mythologic tale exists which speaks about how these temples came into existence –after winning the war against Kauravas, the Pandavas realized that they needed to atone for the sins which they’d done by killing their own brothers and priests in the war. They went to search for Lord Shiva’s blessings while Lord Shiva did not want to meet them so he went into hiding. These Panch Kedar are the places where Lord Shiva ultimately hid himself and the Pandavas found him after travelling mountains before finally being freed of their sins.
It is interesting how this story connects to what most travellers would feel in their own tales too, excluding the war and killing parts ofcourse. I had a tough year before deciding to go on this trek – Covid, job scarcity and family problems. When I overcame all these mentally and finally felt like I’ve won the battle against my problems – I went seeking peace and relief at Tungnath. The landscape beauty was evidently godlike and was visible throughout my journey towards the temple. It was a challenging task though, I fell and slipped – got ill but never skipped. Is this how peace and relief was trying to hide from me too?
The trek was not easy, we did not have enough water to begin with and then we donated whatever we had to a family on their way up because their kid fell ill. We knew that eating snow wouldn’t cut it but we tried that once or twice too. My shoes were pretty well suited for the trek overall and it was fun to watch people slip down the path after hard worked climb - am I evil? Maybe. LOL.
Just before reaching the temple, I was out of breath and out of determination to finish it. Avinash and Suyash kept calling me from ahead, I stopped only 50m behind but it seemed undoable at that moment. I finally gathered courage and picked myself back up (I was literally lying on the side of path for few seconds). We made it. We did it.
Upon reaching there, it felt like I’ve reached the top of world – a never-ending dose of confidence despite staying hungry for hours and running out of water earlier than expected. The happiness and calm on top overshadowed every other feeling that I had, it was a moment of pure relief when one can hear their own breath and winds around.
Call it the lords, call it nature or call it whatever you want – the stories from the past will always connect to you if you look at them through the right lens. Tungnath made me realize how beautiful and teaching my life has been, at the end of every chapter there is a new beginning waiting for us to join hands and move forward with new plans for life.
Until next trip people! :)
