We have made and cancelled many plans to visit Chindi in Himachal Pradesh, sometimes because of a lack of knowledge about this area, and sometimes because of the presumed distance. Yet, this is how it started.

We saw a tiny photograph of the Shikari Devi temple in Chindi in a newspaper article many years back. This place didn’t look like a usual Himachal tourist destination. It looked more like a Swiss hill station or something… a place untouched by commercialisation and spared by Delhi NCR-Chandigarh tourist invasion. We started for Chindi many times but landed at Fagu, Chail, and Dharamshala. We could never reach Chindi mostly because of the lack of awareness. Even taxi drivers at Shimla were not forthcoming about this place. They kept asking each other confusing us even more!

In such circumstances, during a visit to the Himachal Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation (HPTDC) office, we spotted a poster about an HPTDC property in Chindi. Looking at the slice of lush green surrounding the quaint bungalow, we had a hunch that we were going to like this place immensely. Chindi in Karsog Valley falls under the Mandi district of Himachal Pradesh which is now famous for mostly Prashar Lake and trekking there. At the next available opportunity, we booked a room at HPTDC Hotel Mamaleshwar in Chindi.

It took us 8 hours to reach Shimla by HPTDC bus and another 6 hours from Shimla to Chindi by local state transport bus. The last 6 hours were extremely tiring and felt never-ending. We checked in to our hotel and just like all other HPTDC properties, be it Renukaji, Khajjiar or Dalhousie fell in love with huge rooms, well-maintained lawns, the best location in the valley, and above all, the old world charm.

Chindi completely lacks any touristy things associated with a typical hill station – there are no mall roads, western cafes, ropeway,s or lakes to enjoy boating, etc. No wonder it’s not popular with a family crowd that needs to visit places that justify the summer vacation with kids. We just thank the Almighty for this. We love places where there is not much to do. Therefore, one can take long walks and get lost on the way back, visit the local temples if there are any, take a round of the apple orchards, and basically just soak in nature.

But then, we were looking for this place that looked like what we saw in the old newspaper cutting. Surprisingly that place was nowhere to be found. We did not see any boards or notifications about Shikari Devi anywhere. We asked around the locals and hotel guys and realised Shikari Devi is quite far from our hotel and it is somewhat tedious to cover. We were told there is one road that is almost 100 km and may take us very long. There was another route which is smaller but not in great condition and should only be done with expert local drivers.

Also Watch:

No matter what, we were determined to visit that dream place for so long and hired a car for Shikari Devi temple. The driver was confident about taking the shorter route. We took a leap of faith and trusted him. Though we saw beautiful valleys, broccoli farming, huts, water bodies, etc, given the kuccha or broken or even non-existent roads at many sections, the drive was scary. It took us at least an hour and a half to cover about 30 km and reach the foothill on which the temple was located. From there, it was a climb of approx. 500 steps to reach the temple.

We started trekking and were breathless and thirsty soon. We took off clothing layers one by one as we were sweating profusely. We hardly saw any tourists along with us on the steps. Almost all the devotees were locals from this region. Sadly, we still couldn’t see that stunning location we saw in the newspaper clipping that got us excited about Chindi.

We took a few breaks while climbing up and the breaks became longer and more frequent as we reached closer to the hilltop. Gasping for air, we reached after climbing for about 40-45 minutes but one look around us and we forgot the sweat and toil that went into reaching here.

From this place, we could see the point that matched exactly with what we saw in the newspaper article. This was it. We finally found it!!!!!

The lush green hills looked like a green carpet with the almost surreal play of light and shadow falling upon them. The air was cold, fresh, and free of any toxic chemicals that we city people are used to. What made this sight even more heavenly was the mixed sound of fluttering flags and the kirtan coming from the temple. Oh yes, this was the temple with no roof.

Legend had it, all attempts to construct a roof on this temple had been unsuccessful. We also heard from the locals that during winter months the whole area was covered with snow but snow never fell inside this roofless temple. In old days, the local hunters (Shikari in Hindi) would come here to pray to the Goddess before going on hunting expeditions – hence the name Shikari Devi or the Goddess of the Hunters.

There had been a tradition of offering of animals (Bali) here, which, we were told had been discontinued officially. There was, however, some animal sacrifice arrangement somewhere in the vicinity as we spotted a goat being carried up for this purpose. And no, we don’t endorse this.

We did a parikrama or circumambulation, around the temple, prayed, and offered prasaad to the deity at the temple. Thereafter, we spent some time listening to the kirtan sung by a group of devotees here and soaked in the almost hypnotic beauty of the hills around Shikari Devi Temple.

The climb down was much easier and we saw beautiful horses grazing in the meadows near the foothill.

This could be straight out of a locale in, let’s say, the classic novel Heidi by Johanna Spyri based on the life of a girl growing up in the Swiss Alps.

It still seems so surreal – like a dream. We feel extremely blessed to have finally visited Shikari Devi Temple in Chindi. Not to mention that this was another beautiful destination in Himachal Pradesh ticked off from our overflowing bucket list.