A Day Trip to Naina Devi Temple & Rewalsar Lake — Exploring Spiritual Harmony in Mandi, Himachal Pradesh

Hi there,

Back on 24th August 2013, a holiday and a perfect excuse for a road trip, we decided to explore two of Mandi district's most iconic spiritual destinations — Naina Devi Temple and Rewalsar Lake. Both places hold significance not just for Hindus, but also for Buddhists and Sikhs, making this trip a beautiful blend of history, mythology, and faith.

Our group included Prince, who generously offered to drive, and my friends Shankar, Rahul, Sanjay (my namesake), and I, all starting from our homes in Sunder Nagar.

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The Journey Begins

Prince called me around 7:00 AM, asking me to get ready. I was ready within half an hour but, in classic style, he showed up only around 9:30 AM. Maybe he underestimated my punctuality!

While waiting for Rahul, we grabbed a hearty breakfast of paranthas at a local dhaba near Rest House Chowk in Sunder Nagar. Only Rahul, Shankar, and I dug in. Sanjay, who joined us at Bhor, wasn’t feeling hungry, and Prince skipped breakfast as he was busy behind the wheel of his trusted Tata Nano — lovingly called his Blue Beauty.

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Our Three Destinations for the Day

☑ Naina Devi Temple at Sarkidhar
☑ The Cave of Padmasambhava at Sar Ki Dhar
☑ Rewalsar Lake

The plan was to visit the temple first, explore the cave next, and then end the day by the tranquil Rewalsar Lake.

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Naina Devi Temple — A Sacred Hilltop Shrine

Front View of Naina Devi Temple, Sarkidhar — Located in Mandi District, Himachal Pradesh. Clicked on 24th August 2013

The Naina Devi Temple, perched atop Sarkidhar, is dedicated to Goddess Durga, also known as Sati or Shakti. The temple follows three daily prayer sessions:

🕓 Morning: 4:00 AM to 5:30 AM
🕐 Afternoon: 1:00 PM to 2:15 PM
🕢 Evening: 7:00 PM to 8:30 PM

From Left: Sanjay, Rahul, Prince, and Shankar at Naina Devi Temple, Sarkidhar, Mandi District (H.P.). Clicked on 24th August 2013

A View Worth the Climb

From the temple's verandah and surrounding area, we were greeted by panoramic views of Sunder Nagar, Kol Dam, Bilaspur, and the hills near Sarkaghat. The drive uphill is scenic, with seven small lakes visible on the left side of the road.

The Legend of the Seven Lakes

Lake view in front of the Cave of Padmasambhava at Sar Ki Dhar, Naina Devi, Rewalsar, Mandi (H.P.), with Sanjay Kumar. Clicked on 24th August 2013.

As per local mythology, when the Pandavas were in exile, Arjuna couldn’t find water for his mother. He struck the ground with an arrow, and water sprang forth — forming these lakes. The springs remain active to this day, feeding the freshwater lakes.

The Cave of Padmasambhava — Where Faith and Legends Meet

Statue of Guru Padmasambhava inside the sacred cave at Sar Ki Dhar, near Rewalsar, Mandi (H.P.). Clicked on 24th August 2013.

At the base of the hill carrying the Naina Devi Temple lies a revered natural cave, associated with Guru Padmasambhava, regarded as the Second Buddha in Tibetan Buddhism.

A small settlement of Buddhist monks surrounds the cave area, with individual living spaces marked as Cave No. 1, 2, and so on.

Photograph of His Holiness the Dalai Lama inside the sacred cave at Sar Ki Dhar, Naina Devi, Rewalsar, Mandi (H.P.). Clicked on 24th August 2013.

Inside the main cave stands a statue of Padmasambhava, alongside a photograph of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, symbolizing the deep-rooted Tibetan Buddhist traditions here.

A Tantrik with Himalayan Roots

Local beliefs suggest Padmasambhava was a devotee of Goddess Kali/Shakti, trained in Tantra, and instrumental in spreading Buddhism to Tibet, which explains his revered status among Tibetan Buddhists.

While monks often sit outside the cave entrance to greet visitors, they typically communicate in their own language — so don’t expect detailed conversations in Hindi or English.

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Rewalsar Lake — A Symbol of Spiritual Harmony

After exploring the cave, we descended towards our final stop, Rewalsar Lake, known for its spiritual significance, calm waters, and scenic beauty.

Scenic view of Rewalsar Lake amidst greenery, Mandi (H.P.). Photo taken on 24th August 2013.

The History of Rewalsar Lake

History of Rewalsar Lake explained on an information board for visitors — Mandi (H.P.). Photo taken on 24th August 2013.

The lake is central to Buddhist mythology, especially tales of Padmasambhava. It is believed he was born in this region, adding to the area’s religious importance.

Surrounding the lake is a harmonious mix of Buddhist Monasteries, Hindu Temples, and a Sikh Gurudwara, symbolizing peaceful coexistence among different faiths.

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The Giant Statue of Padmasambhava

Majestic Statue of Guru Padmasambhava at Rewalsar, Mandi (H.P.) — A revered landmark for Tibetan Buddhists. Photo taken on 24th August 2013.

The highlight for many visitors, including us, is the magnificent 37.5-meter tall statue of Guru Padmasambhava, recently constructed and now a proud landmark for the region.

Tourists flock to capture photographs with the statue — and we couldn’t resist doing the same!

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More Than Just a Lake

Prince feeding the holy fishes at Rewalsar Lake, District Mandi (H.P.), with locally available fish food. Clicked on 24th August 2013.

The lake is home to countless fish, considered holy, and fishing is strictly prohibited. We bought some local food to feed them — watching the fish gather in anticipation was simple yet satisfying.

Nearby, there's also a small zoo, which we skipped this time, but it could be an option for families visiting with kids.

The area boasts 3 to 4 Buddhist monasteries, where monks in their traditional robes can be seen going about their day, adding to the tranquil atmosphere.

Beautifully crafted entrance gate of a Buddhist Monastery at Rewalsar, Mandi (H.P.). Clicked on 24th August 2013.

Hindu Temples & Sikh Gurudwara

Lord Shiva Temple beside the sacred Rewalsar Lake — A symbol of spiritual harmony at Mandi (H.P.). Photo taken on 24th August 2013.

Alongside Buddhist sites, we also visited the Lord Shiva Temple adjacent to the lake. The Gurudwara, established in memory of Guru Gobind Singh Ji’s visit to Rewalsar, further reflects the region's deep-rooted spiritual diversity.

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Final Thoughts

This trip to Naina Devi Temple, Padmasambhava’s Cave, and Rewalsar Lake turned out to be a perfect blend of breathtaking landscapes, mythology, and cultural unity. From Hindu legends to Buddhist traditions and Sikh history, this pocket of Himachal truly celebrates India's spiritual diversity.

If you ever plan a visit, keep in mind:

✔ Carry snacks and water — options are limited on the hill routes.
✔ Respect the silence at monasteries and temples.
✔ Be prepared for basic facilities, especially at the cave area.
✔ Don't miss feeding the holy fish at Rewalsar Lake!

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Thanks for reading! I’ll update this post with more photos and details in the future. Feel free to suggest additions or share your own experiences in the comments below.

9 Famous Explorers from India

Here are the names of the famous Indian Explorers who explored the world and showed it to others in their own way.

• Sarat Chandra Das(born 1849- 1917) - Most noted for his two journeys to Tibet in 1879 and 1881-82

•  Mandeep Singh Soin (Born 9 March 1957) - Fellow of Royal Geographical Society, UK; An adventure traveler and Eco-tourism expert, Founder President of Eco-tourism Society of India.
•  Suresh Biswas (Born 1851, Nathpur, Bengal, British India - 22 Sept. 1905, Brazil)-  Famous 19th century adventurer from India - First Indian to migrate to Brazil and retired from a rank of Colonel at same.
• Nain Singh Rawat (1830-1895) - Explored the Himalayas for British; Mapped a route through Nepal to Tibet,  Located and found the Altitude of Lhasa for first time. Worked in Great Trigonometrical Survey.

• Krishana Singh Rawat  (Cousin of Nain Singh Rawat) :  Followed the Northern trade route from Lhasa, Xinjiang and China up to Dunhuang. On way back explored the eastern Tibetan border region. 

• Charu Sharma - power woman( born March 24, 1992) - Explorer, Athlete, Performer & Writer. Expeditions to all 7 continents, 5 national awards and a chapter in 11th class in the English Textbook.

• Joydeep Sircar( born 1947) - Mountain traveler and historian ; published - Himalayan handbook in 1979.

• Mani Singh Rawat(Elder Cousin of Nain Singh Rawat) - worked for the exploration of the Central Asia.
• Bimal Mukherji (1903- 1996 Bengali) - First Indian to travel the world on bi-cycle from 1926 to     37.

(Ref : Wikipedia)

Kullu- Manali-A place to visit for its natural beauty and adventurous sports

Kullu-Manali is a hill place in the district Kullu of Himachal Pradesh(India) which is famous throughout the world for its natural beauty, peaceful environment and adventurous sports like, river rafting, trekking and many snow sports. There are a numbers of old temples and holy places which are linked with the Hindu mythologies like Mahabharata, naming few such places, Manu Temple, Hadimba Temple,  Manikaran, Kheer Ganga, Bijli Mahadev &  Seolsar lake etc.

Me at Van- Vihar -Manali- 07-10-2011

Venice(Italy)-A City of beautiful canals, islands and glass

11 Aug- Punjab Kesari

I was looking for something exciting in the Sunday's newspaper and my eye lenses focused on this beautiful article written in Hindi(Punjab Kesari)  about a city of canals. Venice a city in Italy is famous for its beauty throughout the world mostly for the beauty of the canals in this city. It is a group of 118 small islands, interlinked with 400 bridges together. Name of the city is derived from the ancient Veneti people who came to live here around 1000 B.C.
Canals of this city are still used as a mode of transport of the life and the goods. There are long boats which are run on the water for the thousands of the visitors each day. It is one of world's top city in numbers of the visitors to this city famous for its beauty as well as for its arts. Venice is also famous for the beautiful things made of glass which are also famous as "Venecian glass".
That is all I got know about the city from this article. I will share and upgrade the article when I get to know it more. Here is the picture posted along with the article.

A visit to Chandigarh- The City Beautiful and City of Peace

I went to Chandigarh on 31st December and stayed there until 5th January at NITTTR(National Institute of Technical Teachers Training and Research) Chandigarh, in 26 sector. I will put here some information about Chandigarh which might be enjoyable for you to read.

Me sitting at a cafe near to Sukhna Lake

Chandigarh is an Union territory which also serve as the capital of the two states Punjab and Haryana.
Longitude:76.78 deg East
Latitude: 30.75 deg North
Altitude: varies 304m to 365m from MSL
Language: Punjabi and others.
 Best time to visit: Any time of year

How to reach?

Chandigarh has all the facilities to reach at, like Airport, Railway station and a numbers of NH connect Chandigarh to other areas of the country.
Airport: Chandigarh Airport is situated at the Chandigarh industrial Area Phase 2.

Railways: Chandigarh Railway station lies in the Northern Railways zone of the Indian railways. It connects the following major cities of the India through the railways:
Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Indore, Amritsar, Jaipur, Bhopal, Lucknow, Panipat, Ambala, Kalka.

Bus servies: It is connected with NH-21 and NH-22, and buses run from the 2 ISBT(Inter State Bus terminals) one at sector 17 and other at sector 43. Chandigarh Transportation Undertaking runs a numbers of bus services withing Chandigarh and to many parts of the country. You may not need any vehicle in the day time to travel Chandigarh because their bus services are very nice.

A brief History of Chandigarh:

Open Hand - Le Corbusier mark- near to Sukhna Lake

Chandigarh derived its name from a Goddess Chandi temple located near to the site chosen for the city. The architecture of the city was planned by a French Architect, named Mon Le Corbusier.

It was the first planned city after independence. Its need arose after the partition of the Punjab after the independence in 1947, whose earlier capital was Lahore, which is now in Pakistan. Pt. Jawahar Lal Nehru wanted a city which could be a symbol of the free India, unfettered from the past tradition of India.

After the selection of the site the architectural planning work was given to the committee headed by the Mon  Le Corbusier. The city is planned in a rectangular road pattern, and roads are classified into 7 categories, known as 7V's. Buses are allowed only in V-1. V-2. V-3 and V-4 roads.

He planned this city similar to a human being, sector 1, being the head and City center Plaza sector 17 being its heart. It is divided into sectors numbering from 1 to 63 but 13, 57,58,59, 60 and 62 are not constructed, each sector is 800 m * 1200 m (1/2 mile * 3/4 miles).

To save the city from pollution, in industrial area only such industries should be allowed which run on electricity. Landscaping was done with the selected shrubs, and trees for the climate and soil of the site. 26 different types of flowering species and 22 evergreen tree species were selected for the
plantation and landscaping of the city.

Other famous spots to Visit at Chandigarh:

Rock Garden: Rock Garden is also known as the rock sculpture garden or Nek Chand Rock Garden. Nek Chand was born on December 15, 1924 at Sarkagarh(British Empire) now in Pakistan but they shifted to Chandigarh after the partition in 1947.
He was a govt. employee and secretly worked to form the sculptures of the dancers, musicians and animals using the city's waste material from the demolition sites. He chose a site near to Sukhna Lake and his work was illegal so he did he secretly.

His work was discovered after 18 years in 1975, and it was liable to demolition but after getting public support saved it and in 1976 this park was inaugurated as a public place. Nek Chand continued his work and he was now given salary for this work and also he was provided with a labor force. Rock Garden society  took over its administration after 1996 when he left for a foreign lecture tour. Rock Garden gets more than 5000 visitor in a day.

 Zakir Hussain Rose Garden:
This garden is named after our former vice president Zakir Hussain was established in 1966 under the guidance of first Chief commissioner of Chandigarh Late Sh. M.S. Randhava.

 It is situated in the sector 16, Chandigarh. This Garden is Asia's largest rose garden spread over 17 acres land, containing about 17000 plants, and representing 1600 varieties of roses.

Chandigarh is famous for other gardens in Chandigarh like, shanti Kunj in sector 16, Terraced garden in sector 33, TOPIARY Park sector 35, HIBISCUS Garden in sector 36 and Garden of fragrance in sector 36.

Sukhna Lake:

Sukhna Lake after the Sun-set

It is an artificial lake and a very lovely gift of Le Corbusier. It is a rain-fed lake and a dam was constructed to catch the water from a Sukhna Choe, a seasonal stream coming down from the Shivalik hills. Sukhna Lake is adjacent to sector 5,6 on south and sector 1 on west. It also acts as a wild life sanctuary for many species of the birds.

The road on the top of the dam is prohibited to vehicular traffic, and so the place is best suited for evening walks, and the joggers for staying fit.
There is yet so much you have to find about chandigarh, this article is not sufficient to describe everything here. 

A visit to Shri Naina Devi- (Bilaspur) H.P.

an eye toward the top on the way through foot-steps

Shri Naina Devi Temple

Longitude: 76.53 E   Latitude: 31.30 N

Altitude: 1100 m. 

Best time to visit: All time of the year.

A top view of the base of the Naina Devi Temple(bilaspur)

How to reach Naina Devi:

Nearest Air port: Chandigarh (135 km) , Bhunter (131 km)

Railway:Broad gauge at Kiratpur Sahib  and narrow gauge at Shimla 

Road: You have to take a link road to Naina Devi from the NH-21, which is a curved road around a hill and reaches at the bottom of the concrete footsteps to the temple situated at the top of the Naina Devi Dhar. There is a cable car facility also if you don't want to rise through the footsteps.

History of the temple:

India is famous for a numbers of holy places, because the numbers of Hindu DemiGods is about 33 crores, and people generally make temples to worship them. They all are the ways to describe one God. You will find a temple in every smallest village of this country.

Together standing at the Yam-Dwar(at Naina Devi Temple)

 There are so many places which are called holy places due to some historical holy power linked to that place. Generally people construct a temple at such places and they started to go to worship to these holy places.

Some says that the temple was built by Raja Bir Singh in 8th century AD. Some other story says that temple was built by a shepherd(Gujjar) named "Naina".

Naina used to come here every day, with his cattle. One day he observed that when his cattle come under the Sacred Peepal(Ficus religiosa) tree, they started to give milk.

After digging in, he found the Durga shrine at the bottom of the tree. Goddess told him to construct a temple at that place and put his name behind the temple, so the temple is known as "Naina Devi".

 It is one of the Shakti Peeth ( A place where the Goddess Sati's body organ fell) in India.  It is one of the five Shakti Peeths in Himachal pradesh.

Bajrang Bali (Inside the cave)

Famous Shraavana Fair: 
A fmous fair is held here each year on the Shraavana asthami(8th) of Shukla Paksh of Hindu Calender.Thousands of pilgrims can be seen here coming everyday on such occasions.

Where to Stay?

You can stay at any nearby places like Bilaspur, Swarghat etc. where there are a numbers of hotels.

Nearby Famous Places:

• Bhakra-Nangal dam: There are famous sites like Bhakra Dam(Concrete Gravity Dam) constructed on Sutlej river on 22 October 1963, which is the second largest reservoir storage forming dam in India after Indira sagar dam in Madhya Pradesh. This is second tallest Dam(225.55m) after Tehri Dam 261m in India. First prime minister of India Pt. Jawahar Lal Nehru called it the "New temple of resurgent India". 

Dam construction has resulted in the formation of the Govid Sagar lake, which is spanning almost 90km behind it. It is a famous spot for the tourists for the boating and other water sports.

People: Naina Devi is a town and municipal council in Bilaspur District of Himachal Pradesh . According to 2001 population census its population was 1161. Almost all people are Hindu and they eat simple north Indian food. Temple has provided the people the opportunities of doing their own businesses, and some are Govt. employees. 

Thanks!