A Divine Hike to Surkanda Devi Temple (2754m)

Winter has arrived in the entire Himalayas, snowfall has occurred on the high peaks and now the lower range is waiting for fresh snow. The temperature in the Trans Himalayas has gone down to -8 degrees while the minimum temperature in the plains has gone down to 4-6 degrees. Several feet of snow falls on the Himalayan mountains in winters, so hiking, trekking, everything stops here in winters. I travel a little smart in winters, like I go to such places where snow falls in inches and not feet. Such a place can be reached and one can also return without any problem. So let's go on such a hike.

Yesterday I wrote about how two of us friends reached Surkanda on a scooty, we covered a distance of about 60 km in 03:30 hours and saw amazing views on the way. Today we have to walk on a trail from the road to the temple and reach the temple. The temple is not far from the road, we have to hike only 1.5 km to reach the temple in which there will be an elevation gain of 252 meters. Let's start.

While sitting on the scooty, my hands had become as cold as ice, which are now slowly warming up as we walk. The path to the temple is not very long, there is no fear of getting lost as there is only one trail that leads to the temple. Also, red dupattas have been tied on trees at various places on the way so that no one gets lost from the path and maintains their faith in the goddess.

The gate of the temple is red in color where a brass bell is hanging, which we are ringing loudly and moving ahead while talking, while traveling on the scooty we needed sunlight, whereas now we need shade because we have started sweating while climbing the hill. It was good that we brought sunglasses, otherwise it would have been very difficult for both of us to see in such strong sunlight. We are walking on a cemented trail and above us, trolleys hanging from the ropeway are going down and some are going up carrying devotees.

Because we like to walk, we do not use the ropeway, although the fare of the ropeway is 200 Indian rupees per person. Surkanda Devi is shining amidst the blue sky and forests on the top of the mountain in front from below, and looking at the temple from below, it seems as if there is some treasure there which we have to reach as soon as possible. After about 700 meters, there is a small temple on which red colored dupattas are tied, Hanuman and Shivling are installed inside. We move forward with folded hands.

The wild trees have made a cave from which sunlight is filtering, looking back, we get a wonderful view of the valley. Terraced fields are visible in the valley far and wide where there is no crop these days. Now farming will be done when the snow melts. After about a kilometer, we get a view of the snowy peaks. I get mesmerized by this view and try to identify these peaks. And after 15 minutes we enter the temple premises.

After taking off our shoes outside the temple, both of us reach the temple premises by touching the stairs of the temple. Both of us ring the brass bell on the gate and chant “Jai Maa Surkanda” in unison. We read the board present here on which the history of this temple is written;

*“Surkanda temple is situated on Surkut mountain and its height is 2754 meters. According to history, the king of Kankhal performed a yagya in which all the gods and goddesses were invited but Lord Shiva was not invited. Sati, who is Shiva's wife, decided to go to the yagya without Shiva's permission. After reaching the yagya, everyone spoke negatively about Lord Shiva due to which Sati jumped into the yagya kund. Later Shiva kept wandering from one place to another with her dead body. The other Hindu god Vishnu could not see Shiva's pain so he destroyed Sati's body with his chakra. In this process, the pieces of the body fell at different places in the Himalayas but the head fell here on the Surkut mountain and that is why Sati's head is worshipped in this temple."

Photography is prohibited in the temple so there are no photos inside. There is a statue of the goddess inside the temple, we sit in the sanctum sanctorum for about 15 minutes and come out of the temple at the time of afternoon bhog. There are many people outside in the courtyard to have darshan. The temple is made of stone, wood and cement. I don't know which style it is but it was not good to put tiles on the floor. Walking barefoot at such a height made the feet as cold as ice.

Outside the temple, there is a Shivling of Lord Shiva, there is an orange statue of Hanuman, there is a Pritam of Krishna and there is a Dhuna which is burning. There is a 360 degree view from here and many snow-covered peaks are visible. I am trying to identify it but I am not able to. But the atmosphere here is very religious and the cold wind coming from the snowy mountains is touching the face as if blessing.

We sit at the temple for about 2 hours and fill ourselves with the energy of this place and finally after bowing in front of the temple once again we start descending where our scooty is parked. The descent is quite easy, once again we have to hike 1.5 km. We descend slowly and after reaching near the parking, we have lunch at a restaurant and wear helmets for the return. So this was Surkanda Devi Temple, I hope you liked the blog. See you in the next post till then enjoy.

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 Sony a7iii and Canon 77D (55-250m) and edited in deskstop software adobe lightroom. Thumbnail created in dekstop adobe photoshop.

[//]:# (!worldmappin 30.41130 lat 78.28909 long A Divine Hike to Surkanda Devi Temple (2754m) d3scr)