Hinglaj Mata

Hinglaj Mata Shakti Peetha is situated in the Makran coastal range of Las Bela district in Balochistan, Pakistan — in one of the world's most geologically dramatic landscapes of mud volcanoes, coastal cliffs, and canyon gorges. It is considered by many traditions to be the foremost Shakti Peetha of the western tradition, where Sati's brahmarandhra (the crown of the head, the highest point) fell.

The temple is inside a natural cave in a canyon, with a mud volcano named Chandrakup nearby. The Hindu community of Pakistan — primarily Sindhi Hindus — organises the annual Hinglaj Yatra every April (the month of Chaitra), when approximately 100,000–250,000 pilgrims from Pakistan, India, and the diaspora make the 4-day pilgrimage through the canyon. The yatra is one of the largest Hindu pilgrimage events in Pakistan and one of the most extraordinary in the world — through desert, canyon, and river-crossing. The site is also revered by Zikri Muslims and local Baloch communities, making it a rare interfaith sacred site in Pakistan.

Sati's brahmarandhra — the crown of the skull, the Sahasrara chakra, the point of supreme consciousness — fell here at the furthest western point of the subcontinent. The highest point of the divine body descended to the westernmost extreme of the sacred land. The goddess Hinglaj (from Hingol, the nearby river) is the primal form — Kottari in ancient texts. She is worshipped as a natural rock form in the cave, without human artistry, as the raw geological power of the earth itself.