Tunganath - The Arms

Tunganath is the highest Shiva shrine of India. It is close to 12000 ft above the sea level. According to the Hindu mythology this temple is worshipped as the Arm of Shiva.

According to Hindu mythology, after the end of the great battle of Kurukshetra in The Mahabharata, the Pandavas felt ashamed of having killed their brothers and other relatives. They started worshipping Lord Shiva for his blessings. But Lord Shiva was not willing to give his blessings to the Pandavas and he disguised himself as a Bull. But somehow, Bhima recognised him as a Bull and hold the Bull from its back. The place where Bhima hold him is today’s Kedarnath. As soon as Bhima hold the Bull, it frozen and the other parts of the body appeared at four other places. These are, Madmaheswar, (the middle portion of the body is found here), Tunganath (arms), Rudranath (belly button & face) and Kalpeswar (lock). All the five places were worshipped by five different Pandavas. In tandem, these five places are known as Panch Kedar and one of the most holy places of the country. Few people say that Pashupatinath is also a part of these Kedars.

We had the chance to go there in Oct 2008. We reached Haridwar in the morning and immediately we hired a cab for the next one week and shown him our total route map. He gave us few suggestions and finally we fixed to one itinerary. We started at around 9:30 in the morning. We reached Rudraprayag in the evening. The next day morning we started our journey to Sari as we had plans to spend a night at Deoriatal.

The day after we reached Chopta, which is the starting point of the trek. It’s a moderate trek route which is just 4 km in length. But you will gain some 4000 ft in these 4 km which means a slope of almost 60 degree alngle. We started at around 8 o’clock in the morning. Initially it was feeling very nice. The road is made of concrete and it is through lush green forest. At around one and half km distance there is a grass land (Bugiyal in local terms). It is one of the most beautiful places one can see in a trek route. You would surely like to stop at this place and spend a few minutes here. There are small tea stalls and snacks corners all through the road. We did stop at the Bugiyal and had a round of photo session. Also helped ourselves with a cup of warm tea and then again started walking. The road is in very good condition (at least it was good in Oct 2008). You will have to give way for the ponies which carry both pilgrims and goods. It took approximately two and half hours for us to reach the temple. We didn’t have any plan to stay there in the night and we had the plan to go straight to Chnadrashila which is another one km trekking and offers a great view of the Garhwal Himalayan ranges. But the weather was not good at all and we understood that we won’t be able to see anything. So we just visited the temple and started walking back. Suddenly we heard one noise and we found that one Bengali family is calling us. We spoken to them and they were also from Kolkata. They asked us to stay in the night at Tunganath and we realised that all of us were actually thinking this but didn’t reveal it to anyone. We got a room in the Kalikamli Dharamshala and after transferring to hotel we visited the temple again to pay homage the Almighty. When we left the temple it was drizzling and within ten minutes the weather changed completely. Now it is raining quite heavily and after half an hour rain snowfall started. This was a new experience for all of us and in no time all of us were out in the road. But it was so windy and cold out there that none of us could resist ourselves from coming back to the warmth of the quilt inside the hotel room. It kept on raining for rest of the day and we had no other option but to spend the whole day inside the room. We had plans to go to Chandrashila next day morning to watch the sunrise. At 3 o’clock in the morning, our hotel boy, who was supposed to be our guide to Chnadrashila, came to us and suggested us to drop the plan as we were not at all equipped to walk on thick snow. This came like a thunder strike to us. We were silent for around a couple of minutes and the person who spoke was Rupam and his valuable suggestion was – “let’s get back inside the quilt guys” and surprisingly we all followed him! At around 4:30 in the morning we came on to the road and guess what was waiting in front of us…the great Garhwal Himalaya peaks – chaukhamba, kedardome, kedarath, nilkantha, nandadevi, and many more. The lodge personnel were kind enough to make a cup of tea for us. The Sun came out at an easy pace and the same old game started in front of us. The peaks, one by one, started to become red…first it was chaukhamba and then the others followed. The red shine became yellowish and after some 10-12 minutes all turned white. This was a grand sight and we witnessed it standing just in front of our room. The road was still covered with thick layer of snow and with the first ray of the sun the outer layer were melted and made it really difficult to get down. Almost all of us were fallen down on the road and then again stood up. And it was a bit risky as there was no barricade beside the road which means once you are out of the road you are straight into the gorge. Thanks to God, nothing happened and we all reached Chopta safe and sound. But the experience we had is something which is awesome and something which I will cherish throughout my life.