Temples, unlike shrines, carry the baggage of civilizations – through the elaborate nature of their façade, the document evolution of subsistence and beliefs, the balances of power and associated antics… with shrines, especially those in the high mountains, one observes a relatively restricted role… as a placemark, they signify vantage points, as conservators they are embellished within areas of high conservation value… a rest stop to collect providence for safe passages, a humble overture to elicit sympathy from the elements…

These shrines, shirking mutedly in their challenging environs, forego the luxury to gloat in the elaborate realms of art and architecture of their brethren downstream, an ethos that is mirrored in the lives and livelihoods of humans inhabiting these landscapes… a naivete disposition content to blend into its surroundings and appreciate the vistas around it rather than revel in its own opulence…

In a way shrines in the high mountains seem rather diametric… place them near a human settlement and people climb their pedestals to seek solace from societal humdrum, find them in the hinterland and one sees the wayfarer gratified to discover signs of human presence… their spiritual power derives from a sense of reclamation, the toils of those deceased repeated by the living, sometimes only for the sake of it, so that they can one day inform posterity of its history…

Stoic, is probably what’d come to mind if one were to ascribe a quality to these shrines, but it goes deeper… looking down from lofty heights or basking in the valleys, their seeming indifference is in fact a kaleidoscope – of human resilience that got them rooted in difficult terrains, and at the same the time of human fragility that felt the need to seek comfort in its companionship amidst wilderness… yet they are a manifestation of purity, so untainted that even the gods in their folds remain agnostic…

Musings on high-altitude shrines in the Himalaya…