Chitkul “In Summer”

Chitkul is one of the most scenic village of India, situated in the lap of the Himalayas also called the last village on the Indo-Tibet border. This place is a paradise for those who are looking for tranquility. Kinner Kailash in its backdrop makes it more mesmerizing.

I visited Chitkul during my Spiti solo trip in the summers of 2017. After a stay of one day in Sangla, we took the morning 08:00 a.m. bus to Raksham. Initially we decided that we will have a breakfast then will visit Raksham and later will take the 12:00 p.m. bus to Chitkul. As planned we had our breakfast, then we visited Raksham village. At that moment the watch was ticking at 10:00 a.m. and we still had 2 hours for the bus. So we decided to walk till Chitkul which was around 10km. In between we took proper breaks and reached Chitkul before the bus. During last 3km we took a lift from a local which was totally fun.

On reaching Chitkul we were greeted by Mother Nature with some snow-capped mountains covered with clouds.

Temple, Tea and Locals

We decided to visit “Mathi Temple” on reaching Chitkul. Unfortunately, it was closed at that time due to some ceremony and as a respect we didn’t click any pictures of the ceremony. The temple was named after Mathi the wife of Lord Badrinath. It houses an ark which is made up of walnut wood and covered with a tuft of yak tail along with some clothes. Apart from this sometime two poles were inserted into this ark to carry it.The locals sitting by the bonfire nearby the temple offered us tea and a local snack

Later we decided to visit the school. By the time we reached, the school was getting over. The kids were going to their homes with happy faces and it reminds me of my childhood.

In the end, we decided to take a stroll by the Baspa river to end our journey on a good note.