The age of ice and gravel

 

Credit: Gktambe

I admit I never heard of the Amarnath Cave Temple before. It´s a quite literal cave at a high altitude in the Indian-controlled part of Kashmir where Hindu pilgrims worship a gigantic ice stalagmite, believed to be a natural manifestation of the god Shiva. 

The pilgrimage is rather large. It´s also rather dangerous. Thousands of Indian soldiers and police officers try and protect the pilgrims, who are attacked by Islamist terrorists on a semi-regular basis. Kashmir is majority-Muslim and the jihadists fight for the entire area to be merged into Pakistan.

None of this will be a problem if climate change simply melts the glaciers in the Himalayas, but I´m digressing. 

Find Shiva within you, ye pilgrim brethren!