Sikh Beards, Flowers, and Pilgrimages for Believers and Skeptics Too

THE NEW YORK TIMES
By Michael Benanav

INDIA---Ghangaria is the base for visiting the legendary Valley of Flowers National Park — where some 300 varieties bloom in peak season — and Hemkund, a lake and sacred Sikh pilgrimage site in the Garhwal Himalayas. Ghangaria can be reached only by foot, hoof or helicopter. The route is about eight miles long and climbs some 4,000 feet, to 10,006 feet above sea level. When I was there in late September, it flowed with people eager to worship at one of the holiest places in the Sikh religion. I hiked into Valley of Flowers National Park, just a couple of miles upstream along the Pushpawati River. The trail passed through a narrow canyon, which opened up into a landscape so sublime — and so different from the Ghangaria side of the slot — that I felt like I’d been transported to another world. Maybe not purification but peace, and a sense of contact with something far greater than myself: the Himalayas. [link]