Kamakhya Temple

Rising over Guwahati on Nilachal Hill, Kamakhya is one of the most important centres of Shakti and Tantra worship in the world, and the foremost of the 51 Shakti Pithas. Unlike almost any other major Hindu temple, the sanctum holds no image of a deity. Instead, devotees worship a natural cleft in the bedrock, kept moist by an underground spring, revered as the yoni, or creative source, of the goddess Kamakhya, the mother.

The temple you see today, with its distinctive beehive-shaped shikhara and hemispherical dome, was rebuilt in 1565 by the Koch king Naranarayan after an earlier structure was destroyed; it blends the indigenous Nilachala style with Mughal-era elements. Below the main shrine lie cave chambers where the actual worship takes place, reached down worn stone steps, always crowded, always charged with a sense of the ancient.

The temple's most extraordinary event is the Ambubachi Mela in June, when the goddess is believed to undergo her annual menstruation. The temple closes for three days, and on reopening, one of the largest congregations of tantric practitioners, sadhus and pilgrims in eastern India gathers here, drawing lakhs of visitors from across the country and beyond.