It's said that whomever makes the pilgrimage to this temple gets whatever they want.
Warning: This trek is not for beginners.
No, not because it's particularly hard. Yes, it goes 2km straight up, but it's only about 5km long. And the path is very well done.
But without having a friend who spoke Nepalese, I never would have gotten anywhere.
We had been hiking for several days in the mountains of Nepal... in the middle of December.
We didn't have a map.
Or cell reception.
(Not that a map would have helped -- the trails were trodden by the locals, and aren't marked on any map.)
All we had to go on was the advice and finger-pointing of local farmers, most of whom had never seen a foreigner before.
It was getting pretty cold.
And the light was going.
The first place the locals had indicated we might get a place to stay -- was locked tight as a drum.
Only stray dogs out front.
And then a 15 year old girl who happened to walk by -- mind you we are at 2000 meters altitude, on an obscure dirt road in the Himalayas -- pointed us at this place:
They were more than happy to make us some "Dal Bhat" and give us a place to sleep for the night.
And the cat was adorable.
For those who've never tried Nepali Thali (Dal Bhat)... it's rice and lentils, cooked in a pressure cooker, with miscellaneous ingredients (depending on whatever the local farmers have).
The main trick of dal bhat is it's almost bottomless.
If you eat it in a restaurant they will bring out second, third, fourth servings.
As a foreigner you are not used to eating so much -- in Nepal they only eat two meals a day -- and the restaurant owner will be surprised you can't have any more.
But after a hard day's trekking... that third and fourth serving of a GIANT PLATE HEAPED HIGH with ultra-organic locally grown rice and split peas and curry... tasted REALLY GOOD, let me tell you.
And, the view was amazing.
The next morning we started up the trek to Pathivara Devi temple.
It's said that whomever makes the pilgrimage to this temple gets whatever they want.
The goddess who lives here was a young girl on one of the farms in the area long ago.
After she died, tragically, a local shaman said she had become a goddess and taken up residence on a mountaintop, where she grants people whatever they want.
So they built a temple there in her honor.
Anyway...
After our night in the tin shack, we started the trek up to the temple early in the morning.
It's only 5km.
We'd probably get there really soon, right?
More on that in a second.
But the trail starts with goats.
And then there are lots of little mini temples.
It's a hugely popular pilgrimage site.
There are a lot of poor Hindus in the world.
The idea of going up to a temple and making a "puja" and getting what they want is quite interesting.
This temple sees thousands of pilgrims a day during the high season... which is definitely not when we were there.
But we did meet some very cool people.
Like this little girl.
According to the people who were with her, she is the human incarnation of some (other) goddess.
She knows things that she has no way of knowing, and has skills that no little girl in her position could possibly have.
So her father was carrying her up to the temple, I guess so she could chat with the goddess Pathivara Devi and learn.
A pretty devoted guy.
Since this is a Hindu temple it is also the site of animal sacrifices.
So we would meet people coming down (how early did they wake up??) carrying freshly sacrificed animal carcasses:
And at the side there were all these little shrines, like this "Shiva lingam"... lingam being, yes, a phallus, but it's more than a penis in the Hindu tradition.
The other thing that mystified me were all these strings:
People would buy a few kilometers of nylon thread... and then let it unroll as they trekked to the top.
The side of the pathway was covered with nylon thread, kind of like spider webs at Halloween.
By midday we were exhausted, thirsty (we didn't have nearly enough water with us) and... had finally reached the temple.
The temple yard is full of little statues and shrines, like this Ganesh:
The view over Kanchenjunga (the 3rd tallest mountain in the world) is pretty awesome.
And there are a lot of Hindu religious objects.
This is the main altar.
The man in the red jacket is the priest.
He's a pretty cool guy.
Very chill.
Happy to have a foreigner (and non-Hindu) poking around and taking pictures.
When pilgrims come, he leads them through the ritual of worshipping the goddess Pathivara.
Of course you have to take off your shoes before entering the temple area, regardless of whether you're a tourist or a proper worshipper.
You see the reddish color of the floor, especially over to the left of the altar?
That's blood from all the animal sacrifices. They're not required, but people do them anyway.
And there I was walking around barefoot taking pictures.
I stepped very carefully.
(See all the reddish color over the altar? It's paint, but symbollically... I guess the goddess Pathivara likes blood. Reminds me of a girl I dated in college.)
And here is the statue of Pathivara Devi herself.
The mountaintop is not exclusively Hindu.
In this part of the world people are quite tolerant.
There is also a Buddhist temple at the top.
As for the business of getting what you want -- well, we came pretty close to dying on the way back, but didn't, so I guess that counts.
Maybe I should post the story on my blog @traveladdict?
But I am going to post a bunch more that are even wilder soon.
So, let me know.
Beautiful photography dear... Keep posting
Thanks!
The first image wasnt that describing but you really are a good photographer. Such a great pics on this one! Upvoted.
Thank you! What do you mean by "wasn't that describing"?
A good post with a deep Message. A very special Place, what I will visit once!
Upvoted and followed!
Thank you!
Very interesting read I must say. Well done.
Thanks! I'll be posting some more stories from obscure, out of the way, never seen by ordinary tourists parts of Nepal on my blog @traveladdict in a few days
This post gets a 1.56 % upvote thanks to @traveladdict - Hail Eris !