On a mountain spur above Mandi, Rewalsar holds a lake, a gurdwara, monasteries, temples, floating reed islands, and one of Himachal’s rare sacred landscapes where three traditions meet without needing to become one. Some sacred places are famous because one story...
In Parvati Valley, the cold river rushes past stone and prayer flags while, just beside it, the earth releases boiling water for worship, langar, and old stories of Guru Nanak, Shiva, and Parvati. Some sacred places belong clearly to one tradition. Manikaran does not....
Long before the sword and the Khalsa, there was a sixteen-year-old on a riverbank who would later write that these were among the happiest years of his life — and the town that grew up around that memory still carries his footprint in its name. Most places tied to...