”On earth there is no heaven, but there are pieces of it.“
- Jules Renard
When you wander into the nature in search of the unknown, you often stumble upon something beautiful and spectacular. Chandra Taal is one of those magnificent places which comes out of nowhere to surprise us. Chandra Taal is a crescent shaped lake situated at an altitude of 4300m above sea level, surrounded with mighty peaks and meadows. It is around one km long and half a km wide with around 42m depth. Swimming in the lake is banned as this is a holy lake with religious importance for many people. Best time to visit is Aug - Oct. Chances are that the roads remain closed during rest of the year due to snow. You would need a 4WD car to reach here as the last few km to reach here is an off-road drive. The roads to reach here are adventurous and nature is surreal. The breathtaking views of snow-clad glaciers, arid mountains, green hills, river, and lake, leaves you spellbound and compel you to stay back. Chandra Taal‘s magic is so enchanting that you will wish to visit again. This crescent-shaped, high altitude glacial lake is for every traveler and adventure enthusiast.
Not only that its beauty is spectacular, it has many folk lores attached to it which makes this place even more magical. We have accumulated a few stories for you here.
Story of Yudishtra - According to Hindu mythology, Chandratal is the place where Indra, the King of Gods, came down on his chariot to transport Yudhishthira, eldest of the five Pandavas, in his mortal form to Swarga (heaven).The locals still believe that the lake is blessed and revere it with high spiritual relevance.
Srory of fairies - it is believed by the locals that fairies visit this lake at night and dance here on full moon nights. This story is of a local villager who reached Chandertaal while he was grazing his cattle. Mesmerised by its beauty he took a halt there and started playing flute. while he was engrossed in the music a fairy emerged out of no where and expressed her love for his music and him. She tasked him to be with her. The shepherd agreed to it And not revealed that he was already married. For years they would meet there and spend time On one such occasion, he inadvertently revealed to the fairy that he was married, and his worst nightmare came true. That was his last encounter with her. The fairy never returned, and the shepherd went insane waiting for her, eventually dying by the lake. It is said that if you visit the lake at night, you can still see the shepherd’s spirit walking by the banks, calling out to his long-lost love.
Story of two Lovers - Chandra & Bhaga - Chandra was the beloved daughter of Moon god and Bhaga was the son of Sun god. They once had met at Bara la cha and it wa solve at first sight . They wanted to marry but heir parents disapproved of this alliance. So both of them decided to elope and get married. They were supposed to meet at Bara la cha but Chandra reached a bit early than Bhaga. So she wandered off in search of Bhaga towards Kunzum and at Tandi she saw Bhaga coming from another route. So they finally met at Tandi where the celestial wedding took place. Chandratal is believed to be named after Chandra and Suraj Taal after Bhaga, him being the son of Sun God.
UFO Sitings - On September 24, a team of scientists in Samudra Tapu spotted a white object resembling a "snow man" on top of an adjacent mountain ridge at around 6:45 a.m. Anil Kulkarni, a senior ISRO scientist who has been mapping glaciers for a quarter century, and his team members saw what appeared to be a robot floating a few inches above the ground, approaching the camp along the mountain slope. Kulkarni and his co-researcher, geologist Sunil Dhar, pulled out their digital cameras and began shooting the object even as the team raced towards the mountain to investigate.The oblong object, between 3 and 4 ft high, kept moving down the slope towards the team. It had a cylindrical head with two balloon-type attachments, a body, hands and two legs. The Object manoeuvred on ground and in air, defying gravity and wind direction, changed colour and took off vertically. The pictures taken from the scientist confirm that there was indeed something and they were not suffering from high altitude hallucinations.
I hope you enjoyed these stories as much as we did....
We hope you have a great time at Chandra Tal !!