Kailash 2010 Day 12 : At Dongma past Paryang, Tuesday, July 06, 2010

Phone booth at Paryang

We started the journey from Chiu Gompa in the morning at 3 am, to reach Paryang before road blocks were put up by construction crews. Beyond the excitement of getting into a car that early in the morning, there was nothing outside the car to sustain my interest. It was too dark for me to see anything. And maybe I should have thought of lowering the glass. No idea how the drivers drive on these unmarked trails in pitch dark, but I slept most of the way, comfortable with their expertise.

We had to stop at Paryang around 2pm because our supplies truck slowed down, or got stuck, or whatever it is that happens to trucks that size. In the sweltering heat, in a non-air-conditioned car with windows closed to avoid sand from coming in, I took the opportunity to get some fresh air. The car had stopped near a telephone booth. I made my call to Anish after 10 days of non-communication - "Do not cash in on the insurance, I am coming home". He took it very well, considering it was 1:30 am in Dallas.

Finally, we got news our truck was doing OK, and the cars moved another 500 yards, and stopped in a meadow. The temperature difference between the town and the meadow was amazing - there was a cool breeze, people sat on the grass and chatted. Why we could not have waited here for the truck remained a mystery. A group started antaakshari - a song contest, with bhajans - hymns. I moved fast as far as I could from the spot, they were enjoying the game, they didn't need tone deaf people like me. I used the time to take pictures.

Magical afternoon outside Paryang, on way to Dongma

Unforgettable afternoon outside Paryang, on way to Dongma

Moments of sheer bliss outside Paryang, on way to Dongma

The scenery was out of this world - the green meadow, the clear water running in the stream, vast expanse of sand beyond which was the snow, clouds all around like cotton candy and the blue skies beyond. Suddenly, two tall birds were seen in the far distance, walking on sand dunes on very long legs. I don't know where they came from or what they were. They walked slowly over the dunes, and were not seen again. Nor were there others like them around. It was like a dream sequence in a Hindi movie. There was magic in the air, it was an enchanted afternoon. Standing in that meadow, as I took pictures, I felt a surge of sheer joy. I was at peace with the world, and life felt extremely good.

Kal Bhairav outside Paryang, on way to Dongma

The last car of our 18-car cavalcade came into the parking area with extremely sad news - one of the cars from another group of Kailash trekkers had just had an accident at Paryang, that killed two locals riding a motorcycle. The dead bodies were lying by the accident site and the taxi driver was waiting for the police to show up while the passengers had been moved into another car.

With the usual prayer, we started our super-late lunch. Dongma was 3-4 hours away. Again, I savored my half a cup of steamed rice and spoonful of dal water. It was my Fruit & Nut bar and Frooti that kept me going. Some of the people who ate early on, started serving so that the Sherpas could sit down to eat. One more reason I am glad I am a part of the Chinmaya Mission organization - people from whom I learn each day.

Rajeev, Venkatarao-ji, Gaurav and serve food to the Sherpas

Tibetan children with whom we shared goodies

The village children ate the goodies we shared with them.

Coated with sand and dust, without a shower for a week now except for the two sets of immersions in the lake, I was lucky that I had over-packed and had fresh sets of clothes every day, only my dirty ski jacket and dirtier rain coat/pants needed to be put on as the last layer in the morning - many people had run out of clean clothes. Lifting me high above the grime and discomfort, the magic of that afternoon will stay with me forever. I don't recall ever being so happy before.

One more view of the divine Brahmaputra

After lunch, we drove along the peaceful Brahmaputra. The average height of this river for the next thousand miles is 13K ft, making it one of the highest rivers in the world. Being a trans-boundary river for China, Nepal and India, it assumes critical importance for energy generation. After years of denial, the Chinese have announced recently that yes, they are building a hydro-electric plant on the Brahmaputra but it should not bother India. The serenity and tranquility and bliss of this river transforms into disastrous floods and catastrophes in the springtime.

I needed to hold on to my perfect mental state of peace and bliss of today that I see reflected in the river, to be remembered when life goes into turbulence and tumult in the days to come. The day had been enchanting and the road continued to be so. It felt like I had achieved a major milestone for this life though I was not yet sure what it was, and the world around me appeared to acknowledge this. Life is supposed to be this beautiful.

Tibet grows more stunning before our eyes

The world is beautiful when the heart is happy

This is how life is supposed to be - vast expanse, blue skies

Laid-back sheep walking off slowly to let us pass

At one point, the road was blocked, and the car driver reversed on the "highway" into the sand and then drove through a series of fields. The sheep grazing there appeared quite disinterested and moved slowly a few inches here and there to let the car pass. They reminded me of the herds of snowy white sheep I had seen at Uttarkashi, moving at their own sweet pace, lazily, regardless of the urgency of car horns.

On our way to Kailash, we had lunch at the Yak Hotel at Dongma a week ago. Today, we planned to spend the night there - five people to a room. My room did not have a finished floor, it was the ground with creepy crawlies moving around. I went to sleep without changing, with my shoes on, couldn't bear the idea of something crawling into my shoes at night. The electricity will flow and stop by itself - the sole bulb in the room will let us know that. There were the usual hole-in-the-ground restrooms here but such is the comfort level of some people with using open spaces now that they prefer them to the stinky restroom.

After the much-needed tea and then the very-welcome soup, Swarn came to the room to say that the Sherpas were making aloo parathas - pan-roasted potato-stuffed bread, to be served at 11pm. Could the day get any better? I had not cooked anything in 2 weeks, I so badly wanted to make the parathas myself. It was the first time in the trek that I had felt like actually doing something active instead of flopping in bed the moment we arrived - that was in itself a good sign, back to my hyper energy level. Of course, the Sherpas were already hard at work, as always.

Everyone in the room was napping, and around 10, I went to bed as well. Seema was awake when the Sherpas came by with the paranthas, and woke me up - we took two paranthas each, and kept a look-out for more :). The others in the room were sound asleep. When the Sherpas came by again, they were very surprised - do aur? CHAAR aur?, - two more? FOUR more? I knew then and there that Seema and I were friends for life - anyone who can stay awake till 11 pm to eat four aloo paranthas without once bringing up guilt about butter and calories, is my cosmic twin.

Back to the mud house at Dongma, check out the well in foreground for drawing water to wash face and hands

This blog is incomplete without a mention of the well seen in the picture above. We drew water from this well, about 50 ft deep, to wash the sand and mud off. Even on the return journey, there were new things to be learned each day. The mud house had a series of adjacent rooms. We were worried about ventilation till we realized there were cracks in the wall, parallel to the frame of the door as well as the window - no worries about fresh air.

Night stay at Dongma, will always remember the passage conversations and the aloo parathas

Tomorrow, we need to start at 3am again to dodge the road-block time windows to reach Saga - the last place where we had switches for light and sometimes, water. But today, my mind was in a state of bliss that I have never felt before. Life had changed forever.


Aum Namah Shivaaya!!

Kailash 2010 Day 7 : Paryang to Chiu Gompa on Manas Sarovar, Thursday July 01 2010

The road from Paryang was unbelievably dusty.

The beautiful scenery may inspire poetry but in the meanwhile, we were roasting in a non-air-conditioned car with closed windows struggling through sands in the desert, with a driver with whom we communicated by signs. To roll the window down, we would tap his shoulder, tap the window and make a "lower it" hand gesture. Many cars had a few stops as occupants threw up by the roadside, or may I say by the sand track.

Along with the memories of heat and dust that stay with me from this day, it is essential to mention the locals. The Tibetan women, dressed in shades of red and pink look gorgeous. This is not a crowd that dresses simply in T-shirts and jeans and a jacket thrown over for effect. They have taken the trouble to wear layers and layers of clothing and pieces of jewelry each more beautiful than the other. And at all times, the beautiful smiles despite the tough existence.

With my luck, the baby looked down just as I took a picture. The women are gorgeous, check out the accessories.

After a tough and tiring day in which I did little more than sit in the car and breathe in dust each time I rolled down the windows to take some pictures and rolled the window back shut, we finally saw a blue line in the horizon. Manas Sarovar - says the driver. Finally we are at the tranquil, divine Manas Sarovar - "mind lake" in Sanskrit, created by a thought of Brahma. It is known in Tibetan as Mapham Yum-tso - "the lake of victory". Manas Sarovar is one of the highest fresh-water lakes in the world with a depth of 90 m (300 ft) at an altitude of 4,556 m (14,948 ft). Its perimeter is 88 km (55 mi) and its surface area is 320 sq km (120 sq mi).

Like every moment spent at Kedarnath six years ago, I will always remember and cherish every moment spent at Manas Sarovar. Mount Kailash, on the opposite bank of the lake, has chosen not to reveal itself. Everybody got out of the cars, some people tried spotting it with binoculars. Though all the other peaks could be seen quite clearly, Kailash alone stayed under cover. For the better part of an hour, people waited for the clouds to move. The clouds did move, but Kailash stayed obscured from vision. It was 6 pm now, and some people wanted to take a dip in the lake that we had earlier expected to reach by 2 pm.

The grand Gurla Mandhata whose melting snow feeds the Manas Sarovar

Though Kailash did not choose to be seen, the 34th highest peak in the world, the Gurla Mandhata 7,728 m (25,734 ft) was seen in all its magnificence, as we drove along the lake. This peak was first conquered in 1985, and there have been several successful attempts at scaling it since then. The waters from this mountain fill the Manas Sarovar lake.

The inauspicious Rakshas Taal

Off we went towards the shore of the Manas Sarovar lake where a dip could be taken - it was an hour around the lake when we reached Chiu Gompa. As we drove down the road, to the left was Raakshas Tal  - "demon lake" in Sanskrit, at 4,752 metres (15,591 ft) with a total area of 70 square kilometres (27 sq mi) shown above. It is associated with the arrogant king Ravan. The waters of Rakshas Tal are darker than the waters of Manas Sarovar to which it is connected by a natural channel, Ganga Chhu, through which water flows sometimes.

The crescent-shaped Lake Rakshas Tal attracts no life, and there are no monasteries around though the lake is filled with the waters that flow from Kailash. The Tibetans call this lake Lhanag Tso - "lake of the dark deities". The river Sutlej that originates from Rakshas Tal, flows into Pakistan.

Some people are comfortable publicly immersing in natural waters, I am one of those who are not. I have not done this before, despite going to the mother goddess - the river Ganga, so many times at so many places. Even at Gaumukh a few years ago, at the mouth of the Gangotri glacier, shown in the Google image above, from which flows the Bhagirathi that later becomes the Ganga - a trip I do not know if and when I will be able to make again, I did not dip in the freezing water but chose to wet my fingers and sprinkle some of the water on myself.

The divine lake Manas Sarovar

I changed in the car into a sweat suit and carried my dry set of clothes to the banks, before immersing my body in the Manas Sarovar lake. I went under three times, with my head completely inside the water, as Swamiji had said. A constant silent chant of Aum Namah Shivaaya and it is done. The water was not freezing as I had expected but it was p-r-e-t-t-y cold. In the middle of the spiritual experience and the mental transformation, the body had its own demands - I need dry clothes, I need dry clothes, I need dry clothes. Swarn had arranged for a small "changing" tent where I could get into my dry clothes. My hair, surprisingly, dried up immediately.

I could not believe I had reached this level of ritualistic worship in this lifetime - that I had actually wanted to do this, and that the immersion felt good. I feel there was a subtle change in perspective at this point, though I am not quite sure I can describe it just yet.

The monastery at Chiu Gompa, on the banks of Manas Sarovar, with Kailash seen across the lake

We stayed at the guest house in Chiu Gompa that night, that comprises of a set of single-storey buildings with adjoining rooms all of which have a clear view of Manas Sarovar. The Chiu Gompa monastery is built into the mountain behind the guest house.

A beach-front view of Manas and a breath-taking view of Kailash on the opposite bank - this is heaven on earth, and premium real estate. We had yet to see Kailash though, the cloud cover continued. Tomorrow, perhaps...

Yoga took a fantastic picture of Chiu Gompa at sunset that evening. I did not actually see this but if Shiva calls again, I will wait for this view on my next trip.

Sunset at Chiu Gompa

I did take a picture of the lake.

Sunset over the Manas Sarovar

There was no electricity. Swarn said that the generator will start at some point in the evening. Sure enough, at some point when it started getting dark, the sole electric bulb in the room came on. The restroom across the road, a good 100 yard walk from the rooms, was an enclosed set of two holes in the ground. People had used all the space around the holes - not sure how you can miss the hole. There were dogs freely walking around and barking at random.

In the evening, we had a pooja - worship ritual, for an hour. It was extremely cold, and icy gusts of wind blew across the lake.

We were freezing in the icy winds that blew across the lake, as the Swamijis performed the evening pooja facing Kailash

It was quite cold in the room, I lay in bed under the blankets with two layers of under-armor, a T-shirt, and a fleece jacket and my ski jacket, neck warmer, woolen cap, pants, rain pants, two pairs of socks, glove liners and gloves - basically I did not change, just took off my shoes. At night, going to the restroom would require putting on shoes - even tying shoelaces was a major effort at this altitude and got me out of breath. The importance of the hands-free headband flashlight cannot be underestimated - it stayed around my head or neck and all I needed to do at night was to click a button to have sufficient light, of course it blinded anyone walking towards me.

At 1 am, Seema knocked on the door to take Mallik and me to join Pratibha, Gaurav, Rajeev, Yoga, Swarn and others in an adjoining building to watch the lake at night. Staying up at the end of a long day was not so difficult as one would imagine. Making sense of what appeared to be happening on the lake was a whole different issue. The rational mind insists there has to be a scientific explanation. For those of us who were awake that night, there are memories and experiences to be shared over the years to come.

Tomorrow is the last day before we start the trek around Kailash.


Aum Namah Shivaaya!!

Kailash 2010 Day 6: Saga to Paryang, Wednesday June 30, 2010

I had dehydrated myself with not much food and water to deal with the non-water situation in Hotel Saga at Saga. Slept at 1, got up at 5 and had to wait till 6 to be able to brush my teeth. The hotel switched off the connection to the plug points, maybe too many people plugged in their chargers. I can only hope my camera has enough juice, and that the additional battery I have brought would work if needed.

We left Saga at 8am to drive 250 km to Paryang.

Amazing landscape from Saga to Paryang

Once on the road, I found out that the sand and dust of yesterday was nothing as compared to the sand and dust of today. The surroundings are spectacular but oh, look at the road we travel on. :) Many vehicles got stuck in the sand and had to be pulled. We stopped for breakfast on the banks of the Brahmaputra.

The surprisingly peaceful flow of the divine Brahmaputra, the highest of the seven male rivers in India

I got to touch the waters of the Brahmaputra river - one more unexpected delight, and I collected my quintessential shivalinga from the banks. Anywhere in the world I have gone, I have collected my swayambhu Shivalinga - naturally-shaped obelisks that are Shiva icons, from river banks and mountain tops. Last year in Denver, I was quite out of breath climbing at about 12K ft, when I saw the familiar shape in marble on the slope, that I scooped up immediately. Anish and Ash are highly skeptical my rock collection helps me move mountains but humor me and don't argue about it. The Tibetans call the river the Yarlung Tsangpo. The Brahmaputra seemed full of peace and serenity, somehow I had expected a turbulent gurgling flow - maybe faint memories from a middle school geography lesson that talked about flooding and destruction.

Deep-fried bread pakoras for breakfast on the banks of the Brahmaputra - again the question arises, must we binge and purge? I am sure Adi Shankara would have composed something sharp along the lines of "punarapi janmam punarapi maranam..." - again birth and again death, for the ritual binging and purging caused by fried foods before bumpy rides. For lunch, it was rice, palak dal, paneer sabzi and stir-fried karela. I ate my fill of the crisp karela - not sure that's a good thing before the drive but love it too much to ignore it, and then my two spoons of rice and dal water and the Frooti drink. People appear to enjoy the lunch, clearly our group had bouts of nausea in our near future.

The mud-house at Dong Ma where we will return on a magical afternoon 7 days later

The lunch place in Dong Ma was called "Yak House"- a typical Tibetan mud-house building with a good view of distant snow-clad mountains and of the sand dunes that regularly blow in sand. And again a couple of dogs roaming around the place, the icons of Kal Bhairav.

Kal Bhairav outside the kitchen at Dong Ma

As we left Dong Ma, we drove first to the gas station to fill up the car. This remote gas station that stands in the middle of nowhere had female gas attendants, some things are universal, I guess. They were fully-dressed, unlike the bikini-clad damsels at some car washes in Dallas. The driver shook the car to get as much gas in as possible while we used the restrooms - enclosed rectangular holes behind the gas station. Even that short walk was enough to get the heart beating faster. There was a strong wind that made it difficult to walk, and sand blew in little twisters across the expansive landscape. The post-bath feel of yesterday was long gone - my hair creeping out from under my cap felt like thick straws, my face was dry, my lips were parched, and there was sand all over me and my clothes.

Tibetan cowboy suddenly riding next to our car, on way from Saga to Paryang

An odd sight, a lone Tibetan cowboy showed up alongside the car. I will be returning to Texas soon, I needed to savor each moment and take back the memories of these days back with me.

Sand dunes changing shape as the winds blow across the desert, close to Paryang

Two hours before Paryang, is a beautiful aquamarine lake surrounded by grandiose sand dune formations that command respect. Even as I watched them, strong winds blew across the desert, changing the shapes of these dunes. After the hundredth diversion from the road into the dust trails, we were at the beautiful town of Paryang around 7 in the evening.

We were booked at the Sheeshbamba Hotel - a mud-house with four beds to a room and common bathrooms with non-flushable commodes - fill the bucket outside, and take it into the restroom with you. I live and learn. There was a dim light in the room. I am glad I had seen all the youtube.com videos and read all the travelogues and blogs I could before coming here - at least, the element of surprise was not there.

I think the most useful things that Bhavna and I had purchased in Dallas were flashlight headbands, and we had practiced wearing them while taking early morning walks in the dark around White Rock lake. From Paryang on, I had the headband around my head or neck at all times, even when I slept.

Satsang - discourse was at 9 pm. Our group's youngest traveler, Varsha sang a beautiful bhajan - hymn. So maybe I listen to bhajans when children sing them. A child invoking the Divine is positively angelic. The two pictures that follow are from Sairam Appaji's collection, he was the official photographer for this trip - again perfect selection of a volunteer by Swamiji.

Varsha leading a hymn in the evening prayer session at Paryang

After the bhajans, Swamiji read out the name of each traveler, and asked for Yes/No/? for the circumambulation of Kailash. I was hoping he did not have a ? to my name for any reason. I got a 'Yes'.

Waiting for a yes to my name as Swamiji announces Yes/No/Not Sure for each traveler to trek around Kailash

Some people were sick and nauseated and had fever and cough but wanted to go around Kailash. Swamiji suggested that they consider the option to stay at the Chiu Gompa guesthouse overlooking the Manas Sarovar lake. They would be able to see Kailash across the lake. People with "?" to their names need to have a private one-on-one with Swamiji to decide whether they should try the trek around Kailash or not.

Again, I was glad I had come with the Chinmaya Mission group here, Swamiji was leading, coaching, advising, recommending trip logistics. My own expectation had been that the travel agency would have this expertise, but my experience was that they were booking agents for flight, hotel, porter and pony. And they had a team of super-efficient Sherpas to cook food and load and unload duffel bags into trucks. And they gave a Diamox a day for each person on the trip.

Ultimately our planned group of 80 that dropped to 71 by the time the trip started, had 68 people wanting to trek around Kailash. I was concerned about my ability to trek and I was hoping I could make it. I was not sure how people with headaches or fever or nausea or diarrhoea or breathlessness were going to make it. Tonight we needed to make the payment to book a porter and a pony+pony driver - 1600 yuans for the 3-day trek around Kailash, whether we walked or actually sat on the pony. People who may decide tomorrow to not come for the trek would lose the money - there would be no refund from the Tibetan organization.

Tomorrow we will be at the Manas Sarovar lake.



Aum Namaha Shivaaya!!