Almora is a beautiful town with green meadows and tranquil environment in the lap of Uttarakhand. Today I will take you to one of the most famous and celebrated temple of Almora which is Chitai Golu Devta Temple. Golu devta is believed to be the incarnation of Gaur Bhairav (Shiva) and regarded as the god of justice by the devotees with extreme faith. Chitai Temple is located at approx. 9 km from Almora city on Jageshwar Dham Road.
After a long time I am revisiting the Chitai Golu Devta Temple with my family. We booked a cab and started around 8:15 am from home. Its always rejuvenating to be in almora away from the hustle bustle of big cities.
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| Chitai Golu Devta Temple |
We didn't realize how time fly away talking and listening to the horrendous songs played by the driver. We can't stop laughing on the songs played by him. As we reached there Ma and me purchased Prasad thali from the vendors outside the temple. Ma took the prasad thali and watching me so afraid of monkey the shopkeeper gave me the prasad for offering in a paper bag instead of pooja plate. I know its sounds funny. Ma covered her plate with her saree's pallu.
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Vendor's outside the Chitai Temple
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| Shoe keeping and water facility |
After taking prasad we went upstairs and kept our shoes outside in the shelves on the left side of the stairs and washed our hands and feet. One thing to be aware of are the monkeys in the temple. If you are taking prasad with you for offering to god just hide the prasad/ pooja plate with a cloth or newspaper to keep it safe from monkeys. There are so many monkeys in the temple premises so be aware of them. As we entered the temple premises we saw a long queue of devotees. We didn't expected such a queue as there was no auspicious occasion. Later I thought might be it is tuesday that's why !
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| Monkey peeking from the roof of the main Temple |
Looking upon the above pic you might be thinking why there are so many bells and letters hanged in the temple premises? Devotees write their wishes and problems in the letter to get them full filled and problem solved. One interesting thing I have noticed that some of the devotees write their problems/whishes in a stamp papers also. Its a way to communicate with the god and when their wishes get full filled devotees offer bell as a gift to Golu Devta. I know its hard to believe all this in the modern world of scientific facts but we should not forget India has long been known as spiritual country with diverse religious beliefs and practices. I am visiting Chitai temple from my chilhood days and believe me the number of letters and bells is increasing year after year. I remember my chilhood days when we used to get super excited to try our hands on the bells and feel happy on listening the echoing of bells. There are bells of different sizes hanged in the temple premises.
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This pic is taken by my baby brother(I am afraid of monkeys as such but I really find this pic of Mumma monkey and baby monkey adorable.. Isn't it ?)
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| Different sizes of bells |
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| Number of letters tied in the temple from devotees (Pic taken by my baby brother) |
There are two new things which I noticed while standing in the queue were :
- Devotees with their letters were going to pandits sitting alongside the queue for applying teeka and chandan to their letters and then hanging the letter. For this pandit was taking Rs 10.
- Some devotees were also taking a white and red coloured triangular flag with small bells attached on the sides and swastik sign made on it for offering to the god.
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| These are the pandits of whom I was taking about |
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| White and Red coloured flags |
It took us around half an hour to get the darshan of the almighty Golu Devta. After darshan of Golu devta we came out of the main temple and went to the small temples around. Camera is not allowed inside the main temple.
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| Temples of Mata Rani and Shiv ji around the main temple |
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| Agarbattis are blown here not allowed inside the main temple |
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| A person playing Dohl (Pic taken by my baby brother) |
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| Make a wish and tie the Chunari |
After the pooja we clicked photo and selfies in the temple premises. Our plan was to visit Jageshwar Dham next, so we went ahead towards our destination tolerating the lovely music played by our driver (sarcasm).
How to reach Almora:
- Nearest Railway station for almora is Kathgodam.
- Nearest airport for almora is Pantnagar.
- Almora is well connected by roads.
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