Ukhimath

Himalayan town on the Mandakini
River in the hills of Uttar Pradesh,
across the river from Guptakashi.
Ukhimath is the winter seat of
Kedarnath, a form of Shiva whose summer home is a temple in the village of
Kedarnath, high in the mountains at the
Mandakini’s headwaters. The village is
at such high altitude that it is only accessible between late April and October,
after the snows have melted; in October
the temple is ritually closed until
the next spring. When the temple at
Kedarnath has been closed for the
winter, the deity (symbolically represented by a movable image) takes
residence in Ukhimath for the winter
and then moves back to Kedarnath the
following spring.