Yamunotri
About the city
Yamunotri, the source of the Yamuna (Delhi's river), is held to be a frozen lake at 442 m. Access to this is difficult, so the temple is a little lower down. The temple is built right under a rugged cliff at the head of a long flight of steps. Pilgrims cook their food in hot springs and offer it to the goddess before eating it themselves.Yamunotri (3150 m) is a pilgrimage site near the source of the Yamuna, a river sacred to the Hindus. Hundreds of thousands go up the 6 km path each year from the settlement of Janaki Chatti. Most walk up but some get carried up by others - the poor mostly because they are unable to walk themselves, the wealthy mostly because they are unwilling (couch potatoes).
The hike culminates at the temple to the river goddess followed by a dip in the freshly melted waters of the Yamunotri glacier. Recent years have seen a sharp rise in the number of visitors due to package tourism and higher incomes of the great Indian lower and middle classes. They come from far and wide, driven by unexamined beliefs and a relationship to nature that - with its self-absorbed devotion and ignorance of the natural world - many postmodern atheists would consider an impoverishment. A veritable human drama unfolds, combining scrawny porters who slog for $8/day, saffron clad sadhus ranging from crooks, cranks, to mellow potheads, traffic jams and jostling crowds, spontaneous dancing and singing, and makeshift eateries and chai stalls along the rugged mountain path laden with mule droppings. Stories of pilgrims and migrant workers abound, which (often simultaneously) attract, amuse, instruct, and repel, amid the not infrequent kindness and humanity of strangers.