Tens of thousands come each year, from ash-smeared Hindu holy men to housewives and prosperous professionals, driven by a deep faith to trek to an icy shrine high in the Himalayas in Indian occupied Kashmir.
Uttering cries of "Hail, hail Shiva," they travel along glacier-fed streams and through frozen mountain passes, climbing to 12,500 feet (3,787 meters) above sea level to worship a glistening phallus-like ice form they believe symbolises Lord Shiva, one of Hinduism's most revered deities.
Even the elderly and the infirm seek to make the daunting 50-kilometer (31-mile) trek known as the Amarnath Yatra to high altitude air.
"Faith is what brings us," Ram Prakash Das, a half-naked, bearded Hindu sadhu, or world-renouncing ascetic, told AFP as he set out from the base camp of Nunwun that lies amid breathtaking scenery south of Indian Kashmir's summer capital Srinagar.
"This is one of Hinduism's holiest pilgrimages and Shiva rewards those who come here," he said, walking barefoot, as a stiff breeze whipped his body, bare to the waist and wrapped only in a thin cotton cloth below.
Many Hindus believe the pilgrimage will lead them to a state of nirvana or salvation.
Around 12,000 soldiers, paramilitary troops and police were guarding the icy route to the Amarnath shrine during the pilgrimage season that runs from mid-July to the end of August.
Some 150,000 Hindus from India and around the world, many with ash smeared on their foreheads in honour of Shiva, traditionally depicted as covered in sacred ash, are expected to travel along the route this year.
The cave was found by a Muslim shepherd in the 16th century. Situated near the top of a mountain, it was pronounced by a Hindu priest to be the abode of Lord Shiva, the destroyer who paves the way for creation of life.
The cave houses a naturally formed ice stalagmite to which Hindus pray as a representation of Shiva. According to legend, Lord Shiva recounted to his consort, Parvati, the secret of creation at Amarnath.
"I'm here on a obligatory religious duty," said 40-year-old housewife Radha Sawant.
"As a matter of faith and to please Lord Shiva, every Hindu should undertake this pilgrimage," she said, clad in a saffron sari and accompanied by two elderly female relatives.
Inside the cave, guards control the flow of people who get only a brief glimpse of the three-meter (yard) high ice form. Devotees sing bhajans or hymns and a priest invokes Shiva's blessings.
For the less athletic, there are sturdy-legged porters to ferry elderly women and heavy-set pilgrims in lawn chairs tied to tree limbs. Others are carried on the backs of ponies.
For some 200 years, only a few thousand people made the pilgrimage but by the late 1980s the number had swelled to 40,000.
There were no attacks on the devotees last year. But in 2002, militants raided a pilgrim camp, hurling grenades and firing weapons and killing 11 people.
Ten pilgrims died in a militant ambush in 2001 while 32 were killed in 2000.
But for many, faith overrides fear.
"We're not afraid at all. We have faith in Shiva," said Gopal Gupta, 24, as troops frisked him before allowing him to start the trek.
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