Manikaran is only a small town, beautiful situated around the Parvati river. The locals we met here, were very friendly. Because of the fact that the place is a significant pilgrimage center for multiple religions, most tourists visiting are both Sikhs (mainly from Punjab) and Hindus.
Our suggestions for a visit:
1. Have a stroll around town
.. to get to know the place, smell the sulphur damps from the natural hotsprings, look at the steaming river, have a chai and a chat at one of the local dhaba’s.
2. Sleep at a guesthouse run by locals
We didn’t want to spend too much money on a sleeping place, and that’s how we ended up in a small guesthouse inside a traditional wooden house, run by a local, very hospitable family.
Because of the force of the water, you can still hear the flow of the river when you’re inside the house – a nice sound to fall asleep with.
The name of our homestay was O-Rest and the best (surprise) was that they even had a natural hotspring inside their home!
3. Check out the Gurdwara Temple, Gurudwara Singh
When visiting the temple you have 2 options: enter via the tunnel-like corridor from the small shopping labyrinth at one side, or over the bridge/ parking lot from the other side of the river. From this side you can first check out the hot water kund (reservoir) outside this most prominent place of worship for the Sikhs. Then cross the bridge, go inside the temple and visit the common dining area. Like other Sikh temples, here everyone is welcome to join for a free meal.
Go upstairs to visit the diwan hall, the prayer hall and main room of worship. Here the Sikh priest recites from the holy book (the Guru Granth Sahib). Don’t forget to walk up to the upper level. On this floor you find a couple of Sikh women are baking fresh chapatis. Moreover, you have a beautiful view over the temple, the bridge and the town.
4. Visit the Shiv temple Teerathraj Shri Manikaran
In this temple you also find the hotsprings, with temperatures rising up to 88 to 94 degrees Celsius. The water has a medicinal value for patients of rheumatism, gouts and several skin diseases. As you can see in the pictures, inside this temple the water is used to cook food (sachets with rice and chapatis).
With Mani meaning ‘jewel’ and karan ‘ear’, Manikaran translates as ‘the jewel of the ear’. The story goes that Lord Shiva and Parvati stayed at this place as long as 11.000 years in meditation.
5. Have a bath in one of the hotsprings
We had hotspring in our guesthouse, so that made it a bit easy. There are a lot of hotels and guesthouses with a hot spring bath apparently. And also some outside in nature and in town. Or you can choose to take a dip in one of the baths in the temples.
6. Hike from Manikaran to Kasol
This lovely hike through nature takes about one and a half hour. The walking path is situated on the other side of the main road.
You can also choose to hike to one of the other, surrounding villages further up on the top (f.e. Beertunga, or Challa). Also very much worthwhile, we heard.
#6 Tips in Manikaran – shortlist to screenshot
- Have a stroll around town
- Sleep at a guesthouse run by locals, (f.e. O-Rest)
- Visit Gurudwara Singh (or Sri Guru Nanak Dev Ji Gurudwara), the Sikh Temple
- Check out the Shiv temple Teerathraj Shri Manikaran
- Bath in one of the hotsprings (f.e. in one of the hotels, or inside the Sikh temple)
- Hike from Manikaran to Kasol
Tips @breuhuys
Manikaran, Himachal Pradesh 175105, India
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