Hadimba Devi Temple

What it is

A temple that looks like nothing else in the valley: four roofs stacked one above the other, the lower three of timber shingles and the top a small metal cone, standing on a stone base in a grove of old deodars above the town. It was built in the sixteenth century under the Kullu raja and is dedicated to Hidimbi — Hadimba in the local telling — the wife of Bhima from the Mahabharata, whom the valley keeps as a guardian goddess.

The sanctum is small and the doorway is carved; you enter a few at a time. The grove is the larger experience. Walk the loop through the trees behind the temple and you understand why the shrine is here rather than in the town below.

Getting there

The temple is at Dhungri, above the western edge of Manali — a minute from the bus stand by road, or fifteen to twenty minutes on foot up through the town. Walk it: the lane climbs past old houses and the museum, and the top has no parking worth the name. From Old Manali it is a short walk across the Manalsu and up.

When to go

Before nine or in the last hour before dusk. Between ten and four the queue for the sanctum stretches down the lane and the stalls outside — yak photographs, angora rabbits, fur hats — take over. The festival in May, when the deity is carried and the valley comes, is worth seeing if you are here, and impossible to hurry.

Around it

Two minutes from the gate, the Museum of Himachal Culture and Folk Art has the house models, masks and tools that make the temple's timber-and-stone building easier to read. The path into the Manali Sanctuary starts nearby for an hour among the deodars. Old Manali is the walk on for lunch. Our stays and cafés pages show what is within ten minutes on foot.

Plans that include this

All 26 plans that stop here →

Day plan · First visitClassic

One day in Manali — the first visit

A one-day Manali plan for a first visit: Hadimba's cedar-grove temple, the Manu shrine, the Vashisht hot springs and the walk to Jogini Falls — no car till two.

Best Mar–Jun · Sep–Dec

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1 night · 2 days · Slow travelCafés & food

Old Manali — two days of cafés, lanes and one forest walk

Two days in Old Manali without a car: long breakfasts on the lane, the Manu temple, the riverside lawns, the forest walk, the Hadimba grove and the hot springs.

Best Mar–Jun · Sep–Nov

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1 night · 2 days · First visitClassic

Manali in two days — the first time

A two-day Manali plan for a first visit: the temples and Old Manali on foot, then Solang in the morning and Naggar Castle after lunch. No permit, no pass.

Best Mar–Jun · Sep–Nov

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2 nights · 3 days · FamilyClassic

Manali with parents — three gentle days, short walks, no altitude

A three-day Manali plan for travelling with parents: everything by car with a short walk at the end — the grove, the museum, the meadow, the baths, the castle.

Best Mar–May · Sep–Nov

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2 nights · 3 days · FriendsRoad trip

A Manali weekend from Delhi — two nights, one overnight bus each way

A Delhi–Manali weekend by overnight bus: the town on foot the first morning, Solang and Sissu through the tunnel on the full day, Naggar on the way to the bus.

Best Mar–Jun · Sep–Dec

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2 nights · 3 days · FriendsRoad trip

Manali weekend from Chandigarh — two nights, one snow morning

A two-night Manali weekend from Chandigarh: 264 km up on Saturday, hot springs and the Mall, the tunnel to Sissu on Sunday, the temple before the drive home.

Best Mar–Jun · Sep–Dec

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