Kumaon Part 7 - Kausani - Baijnath - Apr 2023

April 30, 2023

See the other parts of this journey - part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6. 

From our native village we went to Kausani. Kausani is a small hill station with a good view of Himalayas - trishul and Nanda Devi peaks, tea plantations and hilly spices. Kausani is half split across Almora and Bageshwar districts. Those who are familiar with Hindi poet and writer Sh. Sumitranandan Pant will also know that it is also his hometown. 

Kausani village

We stopped by the Anasakti Ashram. The highlights of our trip had been the tea stops everywhere and this was no different. Pahadis usually drink extremely high sugar in tea so we always had to ask to lower the levels. 

Mahatma Gandhi called Kausani as Switzerland of India after his visit. 

We then went to the lodge we were staying that night. Another cup of tea in somewhat cold weather didn't hurt. After some rest, we went to the nearby shawl factory. The artisan was on leave that day so we ended up just visiting the shop outside. There was also buransh drink in the shop but since we had already bought a bottle back home, we didn't buy another one. Buransh is a Himalayan flower and its sharbat is popularly used in the hills and near by areas. It has medicinal properties as well. 

Buransh

Later that night, we visited another nearby shop which had local foods and products made by tribal women. Kumaon has its own food collection like any other place. Munsyari rajma is famous, so is the collection of various Himalayan spices like jambu, gandhreni, dun, jakhiya etc. 

Our lodge also had some tea plantation and variety of fruit and spice plants. 

Tea

Fruit and spice trees included pomegranate, peach, shahtoot (mulberry), apricots, kiwi, tej patta (bay leaf), figs, walnuts.  

Pomegranate

Peach

Mulberry

Apricots

Kiwi

Tejpatta (bay leaf)

Fig

Walnut

Our plan next morning was to wake up early at 5:30am and watch the sunrise while the sun illuminates the Himalayan peaks that were hidden behind the clouds that day. Looking at the sun rise in itself is a beautiful thing to watch. The hazy mountains added to the morning fun in the cold. 

Trishul parvat

The beauty of this small village is worth watching. 

Baijnath

After the breakfast, we started for Baijnath which is 20km north of Kausani. It comes under the Bageshwar district and is also known for Swami Vivekananda spending his time here. There is a groups of temples also called Baijnath in the village. 

This Shiva Parvati temple is at the bank of river Gomati. The group of temples has around 18 temples with a main temple in between. This kind of structure is common to most temples built during that time by Katyuri kings. 

Baijnath

The main temple has a Parvati sculpture with 26 images on it all around. There is also a stone idol of Kala Bhairav outside in a peaceful meditative pose along with Shiva lingas. It was beautiful to say the least. There are fish in the artificial lake on one side of the temple.

Bhairav

A little further and we would have reached Gwaldam in Chamoli district that connects Kumaon to Garhwal. But this was the last destination for us before we took a u-turn back to Almora. 

Kumaon Part 6 - Nakot (our native village) - Apr 2023

April 30, 2023

See other parts of this journey - part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5. 

From Katarmal Sun Temple, our plan was to go straight to Someshwara and then to our native village, Nakot which is 10 km from Someshwara. We arrived at Someshwara around 11:20am. After making a quick stop at the market we started for our native temple of Goljyu at Chaura. 

The temple is located along side of water stream in a somewhat open field. It's a short 2 min walk from the main road. I was surprised to see that there is street view (picture below) for a stretch of the village in the area. 

All my memories from my childhood visit came to surface. There has been some construction since then to make it more accessible but the main temple remains pretty much the same. The simplicity of the people and culture is much visible in the temple itself.

Golu dev temple

The temple is by the side of a river stream. Since this wasn't the rainy season, there was less water flowing in it. Long ago, there wasn't a proper concrete bridge to reach the temple crossing the river and one had to use the narrow bridge made of wood poles. I have vivid memories from the time when I was 5 yrs old and the fear a child can have crossing this bridge. 

The view from the temple courtyard was awesome as one can see the village around. 

The village around the temple

From the temple we went to our native village home which is 2.5 km from the temple. There is a trail that takes one from the main road to the home. 

Way to our native home

It is a typical village home built long time ago with whitewash and blue doors and windows. There are around 100 houses in the village each with its own space for some farming and storage. Some of the newer houses are cemented and look like typical city houses. I didn't take a picture of our native house but they all look similar. The neighbor's house that was visible from far is below. 

The house reminded me of childhood memories of bringing back bags full of apricots and kaphal. The state of villages is now much different as there are more wild animals which trouble the people and also causing people to think of migrating. The houses on the other side of village were visible from our village house. 

 

Our next destination was Kausani town which is about 18km from the village. It is famous for its scenery and also a destination from where you can see many Himalayan peaks closely.  More here. 

Kumaon Part 5 - Katarmal Sun Temple - Apr 2023

April 30, 2023

This is in continuation of the Kumaon experience. See other parts of this journey - part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4.

We had covered Dol Ashram, Jageshwar, Chitai and Almora so far. Our next destination was the Katarmal Sun temple 17km north of Almora. We had planned to stop at the Kosi river first and eat breakfast as it would be late by the time we reach the temple and there aren't that many places to eat after that. Kumaon isn't complete without its aloo ke gutke and rai ka raita. You can find them at the eateries by locals in the hills. The simplicity and hospitality of the locals never fails to amaze me. 

Aloo ke gutke and Pahadi rai ka raita

Katarmal Surya Temple

Most of us may have heard about the Sun temple of Konark but not about Katarmal. Katarmal is the second most significant sun temple in India. 

Katarmal temple is at the top of a hill but there has been a proper road to reach the temple in the recent years. There is a short hike through the staircase from the parking area. One can see some typical houses of the hills while climbing up to the temple. 

Village home on the way to Katarmal temple

The beauty of the temple is worth seeing. There wasn't any crowd at the temple, we were the only ones so it was quite calming to be there in the morning. Katarmal temple is also called badaditya temple and was built between 9th-13th century by Katyuri king Katarmalla of Kumaon. The main deity of the sun temple is Surya – called Vraddha Aditya (Old Sun God). 

There isn't much around the temple except a few houses owned by locals which makes it an even more peaceful place to spend time at. The view of the hilly landscape is mesmerizing around the temple. The temple is of national importance currently.

The temple is facing east and there are around 44 smaller temples along with the main temple. Most Kumaon temples are built using stones instead of bricks and it is hard to imagine the skill and the effort it would have taken to transport the material to the place and build the beauty. 

The temple is designed in a way that the rays of the sun fall directly on the deity on certain days. Since the main idol of 10th century was stolen, the wooden doors are kept at the National museum in Delhi. All remaining idols are kept in the main temple along with the Surya Dev idol from the 12th century. The Sun deity idol is in sitting position. 

The damage to the temple structure is clearly visible from the pictures. It's sad to see but the reality was in front of us. 

From Katarmal Sun Temple, our plan was to go straight to Someshwara and then to our native village, Nakot which is 10 km from Someshwara. More here. 

Kumaon Part 4 - Almora Town - Apr 2023

April 30, 2023

This is in continuation of the Kumaon experience with Chitai being our last stop for the first day. See other parts of this journey - part 1, part 2, part 3.

We stayed at hotel Shikhar which is one of the oldest hotel in the town of Almora. 

The hotel is a 6 floor building on a mountain slant. Hotel lobby on the Mall road is on 6th floor while everything else is on the floors below so one has to take the elevator and go down to get to the room on lower floors. This is a basic facility with hot water and thick comforters available (much needed in Almora even in April nights). After some rest we started to see the town and bazaars (market). 

Almora has many bazaars, closest to us was Lala bazar. If you know the famous Kumaoni song 'bedu pako..' you will remember the name of this bazaar. Bazaar street is narrow and almost feels like walking in the housing neighborhood. 

Lala bazar

There are shops on both sides housed in old traditional buildings with wooden doors and windows beautifully carved by artisans. Windows are painted in bright colors primarily light blue but one can also find others such as bright green, red, brown etc. This gives a very traditional feel while walking in the bazar. 

After walking a bit in Lala bazaar the road picks up elevation and is known as Patal bazaar due to the patal (specific type of rock stone that is used for flooring of houses in the hills) on the road in olden days.
These days patal has been replaced with other stone tiles which can be slippery. One can find traditional kumaon cultural aspect in the bazar. Below is the picture from the small shop we bought some morepankh (peacock feathers). The chaukis here are traditional Kumaoni culture, used in various rituals like pujas and wedding each with predefined design specifics. 

The same bazaar is later called Karkhana bazar and then Thana bazaar near the police station (thana). There is a good Jalebi specific shop in Karkhana bazar (it is marked as 'Famous Jalebi' on the internet but I don't remember seeing a name board above the shop). One can plan to taste jalebi here. 

Jalebi

In between, my father asked us to come to a narrow alley off the bazar at the end of which was an old house almost unmaintained. It was the house where my father and their family spent a few years of his childhood while my grandfather spent a longer time. It felt like no one was living there at the moment. From there we started to head back towards hotel through the bazaar. We used another narrow alley to get to mall road from bazaar and stopped at a small tea shop. Co-incidentally the tea shop owner turned out to be the one living in the same old house my father's family lived before. A joyous exchange of memories and we reached back to the hotel.

Papa's childhood home

Later in the evening we just spent some time looking at the city and the lights around from the hotel terrace. The hilly landscape of the town makes the night pictures beautiful. 

Almora at night

Our stay at Hotel Shikhar in Almora was comfortable. Night was cold and the thick razai did the work. We needed to move forward the next day for our onward journey. After enjoying the morning views of the town, we started for our next destination. 

The same Almora in the morning

Here are some pictures of the boards outside the hotel that are helpful to gain broader sense of various locations and their distance etc. - 

After visiting a few other places up north of Almora (part 5, part 6, part 7), we visited Kasar Devi temple on our way back to Almora.

Kasar devi
Some 100 or so stairs take one to the main Kasar devi temple from the road. There is usually more rush at this temple compared to others. It is famous amongst foreigners as a number of foreigners as well as Swami Vivekananda visited and meditated at this temple. 

Kasar Devi Temple

That night we stayed at the Kumaon Mandal Vikas Nigam Holiday Home. 

Kumaon Mandal Vikas Nigam guest house

Later that evening, we were all a bit exhausted (even though the journey through the hills is pleasing, it can be tiring to travel through the winding roads). After some tea, we decided to do another walking tour of Almora. My father was our tour guide as Almora is his birth place and this is where he spent his childhood. We were able to watch the sunset on our walk to the market. 

Sunset

Since we were walking on the Mall road and were close to the south end of the town, we had to walk up a tall staircase to get to the market street (thana bazaar). 

Stairs connecting 2 roads :)

By the time we reached up, we were exhausted after the long day. This was the same market we visited the first day but were just walking from the other end. I couldn't help but stop and enjoy looking at the colorful windows and doors in between. There is something about them that was attracting me. 

In between we stopped to eat jalebi and then stepped down onto Mall road from the other end to buy the famous Baal Mithai of Kumaon. Kheem Singh Rautela ji's shop is famous for Baal Mithai since ages and so we decided to pack a few boxes of Baal Mithai, Chocolate and Singauri with us before heading back. All sweets are made of milk. Baal Mithai and Chocolate are more or less same (made of roasted khoya to run into chocolate) except that Baal Mithai has small sugar coated roasted poppy seeds stuck on them. Singauri is another sweet made of roasted khoya and is wrapped in green maalu leaf. 

Famous for Bal Mithai

Bal mithai-singauri-chocolate

On our way back to Kathgodam/Haldwani, we decided to make a stop at Sat Tal in between.

See the in between spots in part 5, part 6, part 7.