While coming back from Spiti Valley, we took a halt at Kalpa which is a small town near Rekong Peo. While we were driving back towards Rekong Peo from the famous suicide point at Roghi Village, we noticed a beautiful temple building standing tall on right side and in the middle of Kalpa village. At that time, we planned to visit this temple and we loved this decision. This post shares about Kalpa village, it's beautiful lanes, Chandika Devi temple and some interesting shops to try and enjoy some local flavours.
There is a small road which goes down to Kalpa Village which has a small market. Some of the bollywood movies and music videos. One of the popular bollywood movies 'Highway' has plenty of shots from this village, it's lanes and small hikes around the tiny market. There is a small parking area in Kalpa market where we parked the car and started walking towards this temple. By this time, we didn't know about the name of the temple and how far it is.
Kalpa village is facing snow capped mountains and snow is there throughout the year. We were there in the month of May and snow was shining bright with thick layers on Kinner Kailash range of mountains. Because of that weather is pretty good here during the day with bright/clear sunlight & air with cool nip in it. The place is also decorated with these prayer flags around the hills in Kalpa. They certainly look more beautiful with the colourful background of snow covered hills & apple orchards.
Kalpa is a beautiful town in Kinnaur region of Himachal Pradesh and well connected through road via district headquarters of Kinnaur district. Nearest railway station and airport is in Shimla. One can also opt taking HRTC bus or private buses from Shimla. Driving in your car can be tiring as the roads are very curvy and risky, especially if you haven't driven in hilly terrains.
Address of this place is also known as Kothi. So when you search for Chandika Devi Temple in Kalpa, don't get confused it you see Kothi as name of the place in searched results. This temple in Kothi village of Kalpa is dedicated to Chandika Devi which is oldest daughter of Banasura. Banasura had 18 sons and a daughter. Chandika Devi is considered as one of the powerful godesses and especially in this part of Kinnaur in Himachal Pradesh.
This temple has beautiful architecture with significant use of wood and stones. The roof is mainly wooden with specific kind of slates which is produced out of local mountains of special kind in Himachal Pradesh. I have some of such mountains in Dharmshala/Mcleodganj area.
The wooden blocks of the temple have beautiful carving which you would find in most of the wooden temple in Himachal Pradesh, but this one is little special because of it's size and shape.
I didn't into much details about history behind this temple and some of the local beliefs, but my travellingcamera thoroughly enjoyed observing the architecture and finer details of the cravings around the whole campus of this beautiful temple.
And it's not only the temple which impressed us with the architecture, houses in this village are beautifully built. Above photograph shows one of the houses on the street which connects the market with Chandika Devi Temple.
While we are talking about Kalpa & it's beautiful temple, we should also share about other things to do around this place. So let's also talk a little about main things to visit or do around Kalpa town of Kinnaur, Himachal Pradesh -
1. Try Momos in this little market and you would certainly enjoy the Kinnauri flavour in pleasant weather.
2. There are some very interesting treks around Kalpa, including some long & difficult treks. E.g. - Kinner Kailash Trek, Chakka trek,
3. Suicide Point and the Roghi village
4. Narayan-Nagini Temple
5. Hu-Bu-Lan-Kar Monastery
6. Sapni Fort & Kothi
7. Kamru Fort
8. Basteri etc
If you liked this post and found it helpful, I would request you to follow these things when traveling -
1. Manage your waste well and don’t litter Use dustbins.
2. Tell us if you went to a place and found it hard to locate a dustbin.
3. Avoid bottle waters in hills. Usually you get clean water in hills and water bottles create lot of mess in our ecosystem.
4. Say big no to plastic and avoid those unhealthy snacks packed in plastic bags. Rather buy fruits.
5. Don't play loud blaring music in forests of jungle camps. You are a guest in that ecosystem and disturbing the locals (humans and animals) is not polite
.jpg)