A Walking Tour Around Mukhba Village

In October 2022, my friend K Srinivasan and me had made a brief visit to Mukhba village (2620m of altitude), the winter abode of Maa Ganga. There is a Maa Ganga temple, almost a replica of Gangotri temple. Due to paucity of time, we decided to make our return journey from Harsil to Uttarkashi via Mukhba village, a 3-km detour from Sundar Homestay where we had stayed. During our 30-minute visit, we realised that there are lots to see around Mukhba village such as trek to Thui Top, walk to Bheem Ganga waterfall and to Markandeya temple etc. Even exploring Mukhba village itself which has some old wood-carved houses, will require at least one hour.  One can also visit Dharali village across Bhagirathi River by crossing the suspension bridge to see 'below the ground level', Kalp Kedar temple and spend watching the wide riverbed of Bhagirathi with water flowing close to the shore. Hence, those who are interested in exploring Mukhba village and its surrounding areas would require sparing at least 5-6 hours of their time.

When I got an opportunity to make a re-visit to Uttarkashi-Harsil-Gangotri in April 2023 with my son, I planned the schedule to give one full day to Mukhba village at the cost of sacrificing the trek to Lama Top in Harsil. The reason was that in April, the Lama Top would be snow bound making the trek risky especially the top 100m of trek. When we reached Harsil, we came to know that the snowfall in this season was the lowest during the last 10 years! Even on Sukhi Top which is at 3000m+ altitude, there was no sign of snow anywhere on road or in the valley. My son became interested in attempting Lama Top trek. We enquired from our homestay caretaker about the trekking condition on Lama Top trek. He cautioned us that though there is no snow on Lama Top, the continuous rains during the last two weeks have made the trekking path slippery which makes the steep descends on return from Lama Top trek riskier.  We gave up doing Lama Top trek and our planned schedule of a day visit to Mukhba village remained unchanged.

On the third morning of our stay in Harsil, we proceeded to Mukhba on Harsil-Mukhba road on the true right of Bhagirathi River. From the road one gets spectacular views of snow-capped mountains and Bhagirathi River valley. The weather was fine for a walk and the sky was free from the cloud. The two weeks of continuous rains and snow on the upper reaches have cleared the haze on the mountains with well spread-out snow than what I had seen in October last. This time, we took a short climb from the road end to enter the Maa Ganga temple premises (as against the short climb to the main gate which we took in last October visit). With snow-capped mountains and the blue sky forming the backdrop, the views of temples from all the angles were spectacular.

View of Bhagirathi River valley from Mukhba road.

View of Maa Ganga temple from the entrance to Mukhba village from road-end.

In Maa Ganga temple complex.

Idols of Gods and Goddesses inside Maa Ganga temple with priest.

Side view of the Maa Ganga temple complex.

Since the priest had come with the holy water to conduct pooja of Maa Ganga and other Gods inside the temple, we followed him and watched for a brief moment the pooja conducted by him. This was followed by Arati along with the sound of dole. We spent some time in the vicinity of the temple complex admiring the spectacular views of snow-capped mountains and Dharali village across Bhagirathi River.

Mt. Srikanth (middle) seen from Maa Ganga temple complex, Mukhba.

Dharali village across the Bhagirathi River with snow-capped mountains in the background. On the right is the suspension pedestrian bridge over Bhagirathi River connecting Mukhba with Dharali on Gangotri road.

The display board at Maa Ganga temple showed the distance to some of the tourists/religious places around Mukhba. The distance to the Thui Top was shown as 1.5 kms.  The pathways were through the Mukhba village. So, while trekking to Thui Top, we are also going to explore Mukhba village. On the way to our ascend to the upper Mukhba village, confusion prevailed as to which was the correct path which would lead us to Thui Top because there was more than one diversion on the way. The problem was that there was hardly anyone on the pathway to guide us. Many of the inhabitants of Mukhba village have shifted to either Uttarkashi or Dehradun. Most of them visit their village during the summer. We got a couple of people on the way, but they were confused with the place 'Thui Top' as if the place they heard for the first time. We proceeded ascending on the pathway without knowing whether the path we had taken was correct or not. Finally, we met one gentleman who appeared to be educated by his talk in pure Hindi which only a person staying in the town could speak. He told us that 'Thui Top' is pronounced by the local villagers as 'Shui Top'. He said that the distance of 1.5 km shown in the display board was wrong. He told us that it would take at least 3-4 hours to reach Thui Top and comeback. Instead, he suggested to visit Bheem Ganga waterfall which is about 1 km of walk and thereafter to Markandeya temple on return from the waterfall. Of course, we had planned for Markandeya temple trek after Thui Top trek. So, after halfway to Thui Top, we dropped the idea as we were not fully prepared for 3-4 hours of trek which required packed lunch and water.

Houses in Mukhba village. The ruined wooden house in the foreground is the reminder of the good old days of a prosperous Indo-Tibetan trading family. The house is now used as a storage place.

A newly constructed house at upper Mukhba village with a large open space.

Climbing aimlessly in upper Mukhba village without knowing the correct path to Thui Top. The idea is to ask someone at the junction on the top for direction.

View from Thui Top pathway. Maa Ganga temple in the foreground, Dharali village across Bhagirathi River with Mt. Srikanth in the background.

We reverse out direction of trekking and walked towards Maa Ganga temple side. We took a left diversion (right diversion goes to the temple) and walked more or less on the plain pedestrian path which took us almost out of the Mukhba village with no houses in sight. We could see a waterfall from the distance. Because of dense forest cover, the top of the waterfall was not visible. It is only when dense trees are out of the way from waterfall, it becomes visible. The waterfall is not huge but certainly a long one. In rainy season, it must be making a roaring sound upon its fall on the ground. The water flows below a cemented pedestrian bridge which gets again converted into a mini fall to flows on the pathway to Markandeya temple.

Bheem Ganga Waterfall, one km from Mukhba village.

The waterfall finally flows through a pathway to Markandeya temple and further falls on the right side to meet Bhagirathi River.

By the time we turned back from the waterfall, it was almost noon. Our next and possibly the last one at Mukhba was trekking to Markandeya temple which is about 1.5 kms from Mukhba road end. Since we were already on the pedestrian path leading to Maa Ganga temple, we could join the pathway to Markandeya temple on the way near the back side gate of Mukhba village. After walking about 200 metre from the waterfall flowing point, a right descend in a narrow pedestrian path led to the main pathway to the Markandeya temple. The shaded route was more or less on descend. The entire route gets uninterrupted views of snow-capped mountains. The temple is located at the shore of Bhagirathi River. About 500 metres before the temple, a cemented gate welcomes the visitors, and the temple becomes visible. With a huge snow-covered mountain in the front, the temple looks dwarf. It was around 12.30 p.m. when we reached the temple complex. The temple was closed probably after mid-day Arati. we did not come across anyone in the vicinity of the temple. 

The shaded pathway to Markandeya temple. Photo by Sandeep Kamath

View from the pathway to Markandeya temple. Photo by Sandeep Kamath

About 500 metres to the temple on the left at the shore of Bhagirathi River. The huge mountain opposite the temple makes it dwarf.

Markandeya temple complex. One of these temples have Shiv lingam.

View from Markandeya temple complex (Photo by Sandeep Kamath).

The story of Markandeya Rishi is that he was born with Lord Shiva's boon with a short life of 16 years. He was devotee of Lord Shiva. When he attained 16th year, Markandeya continued to worship Lord Shiva in the form of a lingam. On the completion of his 16th years, a representative of Yama failed to take his life away due to his power of devotion to Lord Shiva. At last, Lord Yama himself came to take Markandeya's life even though he had embraced the Shiv Lingam. Yama encircled his noose around Markandeya's neck which also encircled the Shiv Lingam. Angered by Yama's action, Lord Shiva emerged from the lingam and killed Yama to save his devotee. On the request of Gods, Lord Shiva gave back life to Yama on the condition that Markandeya Rishi remains at the 16 forever. Markandeya Rishi is supposed to have embraced the Shiv lingam at this temple. Hence it is called Markandeya temple. In the complex, there is also a temple of Annapurna Devi.

Markandeya temple from an upper slope to get the full top view.

On the dry bed of Bhagirathi River.

A look of Mukhba village while returning from Markandeya temple path.

A last look at Mt. Srikanth as we entered Mukhba from the gate of the road end for onward journey back to Harsil.

When we were about to complete the Markandeya temple round, we saw a man perched on his small agricultural field. When my son asked him whether we can get some tea, he invited to his house to have tea with him. The house was not visible as it was perched on 10-12 steps above the ground. His wife who was working in the field, served us tea with chivda. He told us that during Chardham yatra season, he stays in Gangotri where he does the business of lending on hire the blankets and razaai (quilts). 

A good time pass on Markandeya temple vicinity is the closeness of the vast shore of Bhagirathi River. I guess, the River is the widest between Dharali shore to Markandeya temple shore. The River flows in two strips in the middle leaving the vast dry bed on either side. My son was tempted to walk on the dry bed of the river which becomes like a beach walk after a km or so. Then cross the river at its shortest width to reach Dharali village on the other side of the river from where we can get in our vehicle to return to Harsil. I did not evince interest in his suggestion. Later, a person from the village told me that even though depth of the river is low, the uneven loose and slippery stones underneath the flowing water can be risky. 

We returned to Harsil via Mukhba-Harsil Road by 2.30 p.m. and had lunch at one of the restaurants on the Harsil market for a change even though hour homestay tariff included breakfast, lunch and dinner.

With this, our 3 days of stay in Harsil was over. The weather was very cold during our stay with a maximum temperature of 12 degree Celsius and minimum temperature dropping to as low as 1-2 degree Celsius. But the cold weather did not deter our activities due to a good sunshine most of the days.