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| It's greener than it looks |
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After breakfast we booked a car and driver to take us into the foothills and up to the Kujapuri Temple. This small Hindu (Shaivite) shrine sits atop the highest peak in this section of the Himalayan foothills and overlooks the plains below. It is about an hour’s drive through some very steep hills and tall granite folds in the land, where deep valleys are jeweled with rich green tea and rice terraces.
The drive itself, although beautiful, can be quite terrifying. The roads are not very wide, have many switch-backs, and are barely wide enough to accommodate the high flow of buses, jeeps, cars, mules and pedestrians. Driving on the outside of the curve is the worst. When you are forced to the edge by oncoming traffic, your heart races a bit when you look over the side to see a thousand foot, almost sheer drop!
At the top there is a small parking area, then you must climb 308 steps to the temple itself. However, once there you have a panoramic view extending as far as the clouds and haze will allow. On clearer days you can see the white caps of the Himalayas to the north (we were able to make them out in the distance, but the haze made it difficult to get a decent photo). The temple is believed to house the location of Purusha’s (or the primordial man’s) breast. After he was cut into many pieces by the gods and sages as a sacrifice, each piece landed somewhere around the Indian subcontinent to become its many rich resources – in this case, the source of the Ganges which gives life to the rest of India’s fertile plains and valleys. |
| The Kunjapuri Temple (typical Indian courtyard - unfinished, no railings, and exposed rebar) |
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| The mountains are back there, I swear |
After a while we returned to town, in the valley far below, and enjoyed some dinner at a restaurant overlooking the river.
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