One of India's greatest pilgrimages: Uttarakhand State's Chota Char Dham Yatra

[Tripatini]

As in Islam, in the Hindu religion there are pilgrimages (yatra) which each of the faithful should complete once in a lifetime to cleanse themselves spiritually and achieve Moksha (salvation). The greatest is the Char Dham Yatra (Four Abodes Pilgrimage), to temples in Puri (Odisha state), Rameswaram (Tamil Nadu), Dwarka (Gujarat), and Badrinath (Uttarhand).

But there is also an important yatra just in Uttarakhand state,  India's northernmost, in the Garhwal Himalayas bordering Nepal and Tibet, and known for its mountainous natural beauty and also for its plethora of Hindu temples and shrines; its own "four abodes" - including of course Badrinath - are referred to as the Chotra Char Dham.  As such, every year they are visited by tens of thousands of pilgrims during a six-month period from spring through fall, with the peak months with the most pleasant weather being April/May and October/November (this year two of the yatra temples opened on April 26, but of course pilgrims have not been allowed to come due to the coronavirus lockdown - meaning the pilgrimage has this year been postponed until travel opens up again).

Many devotees embark on their char dham tour from the cities of Rishikesh or Haridwar, and according to tradition, it should be undertaken in the following order:

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