मेरा पहाड़

Hanuman Chatti (7200 feet) is a small hamlet a few miles from Gaurikund, the name “chatti” indicates that it was at one time a night stop on the pilgrim road. Sanyasis from the Juna Akhara live there now during the pilgrim season, where they care for several small temples (the main one to Hanuman, shown here), where the passing pilgrims provide a steady stream of potential patrons (no one is here now because I took this photo in November). The flat platform to the left of the temple is the samadhi shrine of Himalaya Giri, a sanyasi who must have lived in that spot for many seasons. So at this site are two nodes of holiness for Hindus: a temple to a deity, and a memorial to a renunciant ascetic.