Madhyamaheshwar
— — the meadow where the navel of the bull is said to have risen.
Not only on a wall.
“Madhyamaheshwar sits at about 3,497 metres above sea level on a meadow ridge in Rudraprayag district, the fourth of the five Panch Kedar shrines and the one held to mark the navel of the bull-form Shiva. The temple is reached only on foot, a climb of roughly 16 kilometres from the road-head at Ransi through Gaundhar and Bantoli, along oak and rhododendron forest that opens onto pasture. Chaukhamba stands directly above. The priest comes from the village of Mansuna in the valley below, and the shrine is open only during the open-pass months, roughly May through October. from the studio
Madhyamaheshwar, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Madhyamaheshwar stands at roughly 3,497 metres in the Garhwal Himalaya of Rudraprayag district in Uttarakhand, within the larger Kedarnath Wildlife Sanctuary. It is the fourth of the five Panch Kedar shrines, the cycle of Shiva temples that follow the Mahabharata tradition of the bull-form Shiva surfacing in five places across the Garhwal. Madhyamaheshwar marks the navel. The temple is reached on foot only, a climb of about 16 kilometres from the road-head at Ransi through Gaundhar and Bantoli, with the great peak of Chaukhamba rising directly above the meadow.
The meadow sits high enough that weather changes by the hour: morning gives clear sight of Chaukhamba at 7,138 metres and the Kedar group to the north-west, midday brings cloud up the valley from Bantoli, evening leaves the ridge quiet and cold. The path climbs through banj oak and dense rhododendron forest before opening to alpine pasture above about 3,200 metres. The Himalayan monal, the state bird of Uttarakhand, lives in this band, and shepherd families from the lower villages graze sheep on the meadow through the summer.
Madhyamaheshwar follows the seasonal rhythm of the high Garhwal shrines: the temple opens in May after the Akshaya Tritiya rituals and closes in November, when the deity is carried in procession down to its winter seat at the Omkareshwar temple in Ukhimath. The priest, as at Kedarnath, traditionally comes from the village of Mansuna. The pilgrimage is typically completed across three or four days from Ransi, with overnight stops at Gaundhar and Bantoli, both of which have simple GMVN rest houses.