Some travelers are finding places in the Himalayas that you will never discover on the present map. Small himalayan shrines, Stone temples, Cave altars. These were at some point in the time of local life. During grazing trips people have actually gone to them. Travelers who have gone there feel more blessed, as now they are vanishing due to natural calamities.
Mountains in the Himalayas are such that they make their rules. Rivers shift. Clouds burst. Slopes crack open. In the course of time, a good number of these himalayan shrines would just fade away. Others were swept away by landslides. Some were sealed by a rockfall. Others were lost due to the migration of villages.
All such vanishing himalayan shrines are discussed in this blog. It is a monument to the temples that disappeared and the memories that have been left behind.
While on your Char Dham Yatra of Haridwar or the Do Dham Yatra of Haridwar, you observe the beauties of the mountains. They are standing here to protect the temples and shrines. But at the same time, these mountains have seen their fair share of calamities as well. This was the reason why some of the himalayan shrines disappeared over time. This included:
The Himalayas are weak during the monsoon. Soil loosens. Slopes fall. A landslide may entrap a whole shrine within a few minutes.
Severe rainfalls cause strong water flows that erode buildings that are located on the bank of the river or weak ridges.
Some of the rivers, such as the Mandakini and the Alaknanda, change direction. When this occurs, shrines that are safely standing on the bank are washed away during the night.
The mountain cliffs of the Himalayas usually roll boulders. One rockfall is enough to destroy a centuries-old shrine in a few seconds.
A village may also occasionally slide down the hill to access more water or to become secure. Gradually, the old shrine was abandoned. Having no shepherds, nature prevails.
These are not mere occurrences of nature. They are the remembrance of the precariousness of the relations between people and the Himalayas.
There is a legend to every shrine that has disappeared. Some are mystical. Some are emotional. Some are deeply spiritual. These tales have not been recorded in tourist books. You can hear them in your local tea shops, winter get-togethers, or at the guides who are also aware of the best Char Dham Yatra packages.
Let’s look at a few such shrines and the stories people still share.
This was a little hill shrine dedicated to Lord Shiva. It lay across a grazing path. One time when there was a strong monsoon, a vast landslide engulfed the whole construction with soil and fallen trees.
According to the villagers, you can still hear a faint bell ringing somewhere indoors on the slope when the mountain winds are rising in the evening. Nobody knows whether it is reality or a game of the wind. But the legend has remained vivid over the years.
This shrine was tucked inside a dense forest near an old shepherd trail. It was not a big structure. Just a stone platform and a small idol of Yogini Devi.
When a rockfall closed the slope, the route to the shrine was lost. The temple disintegrated with time. Still, locals believe that the Devi continue to bless travellers. The older people tell them that no one who goes walking in that forest without being disrespectful of wild animals will be harmed by them.
It was a natural cave where a small stone idol was put. It was a stopping point for many pilgrims who came to Kedarnath.
One season the big rocks fell down and blocked the entrance of the cave entirely. The temple was lost. Today also you will find flowers planted on the cliff. This is their way of offering their prayers to the deity.
The river has an older Gauri Kund shrine developed many years back before the modern route was developed. The shrine had been caught by the river when it changed its course.
Even nowadays, they place diyas at the same bend where the shrine used to be. They indicate that the light shows lost souls and bless travellers who are on their Char Dham Yatra or Do Dham Yatra.
