Heaven on earth

Travel tales

I never really understood the expression ‘once-in-a-lifetime experience’ till I went for a ‘Kailash Mansarovar Yatra’ this year. This place has always been on my bucket list.

It is more than just a pilgrimage. It was only after the completion of the 15-day experience that I realised the intensity of the place. The positivity the place exudes is phenomenal.

My first stop was at Kathmandu. The tour began with a visit to the Guhyeshwari Temple, a ‘shakti peetha’ (holy place of cosmic power) where I also got an opportunity to perform a ‘rudrahomama’ at the sacred Pashupathinath Temple.

After this, we indulged in some retail therapy. I bought a ‘rudraksha mala’ and precious gems from a local jeweller.

We reached Nepalgunj and spent the night at Hotel Kalpataru. We then started unpacking and repacking our luggage as there was a restriction on the maximum weight each passenger could carry while boarding the smaller aircrafts and choppers. We flew in a small 16-seater charter flight to Simikot. The journey took 40 minutes.

After this, we boarded a chopper to Hilsa. The topography of the place changes from lush green to a barren desert at Hilsa.
It is the place where we cross a suspended bridge over a river, clear the immigration formalities at the Nepal border and then cross over to China to reach Purang or Taklakot.

We finally arrived! Our journey towards the ‘Manas Sarovar’ began. We passed by Rakshastal Lake with Mount Kailash as the backdrop.
We first stopped at Shaktipeetha at Manas Sarovar for prayers and then headed for the 108-km Parikrama of Lake Manas Sarovar by bus. We halted at Parmarth where we camped that night.

We saw the popular celestial show which was between 2.30 am and 4.15 am during the ‘Brahmi Muhurat’.

The following morning, we set off to the world’s highest monastery - Chiu Gompa, where our first trek began. Our first destination was Darchen. We began our journey towards Parikrama from Yama Dwara (the Gate of Immortality).

It was a sunny and pleasant day. We carried our down and rain jackets with us in case we had to encounter an unpredictable weather. It was a 12 km trek. A few of us walked comfortable the entire day.

The trek to the foothill of Mount Kailash is about 5 kms from Dirapuk, the North Face is at an elevation of 15,000 ft. We performed the ‘Abhishekam’ and ‘Homa’ here with the pristine waters of the Karnali River melting and flowing from the Kailash. The distance up and down is about l0 km which took us about five hour to complete.

The next day, we were all mentally prepared for the toughest day of our travel. We had to trek across the Dolamala Pass through its unforgiving weather conditions and terrain. We started early, at about 7 am.

It was chilly, windy, and snowing yet very fresh and pleasant to carry on our journey with full of nature’s blessings. The first part of the track was uphill along a narrow track which was rocky.

We couldn’t see Mount Kailash anymore and we proceeded taking baby steps and dealt with the altitude and reduced amounts of oxygen.
As we were approaching the peaks of Dolma La Pass, it started snowing and our heartbeats grew faster. We didn’t want to miss seeing the adjoining deep valleys.

We were engrossed with the beautiful, turquoise Gauri Kund at 19,500 ft and then began our steep way down to the plains. We also crossed the white glaciers along with hordes of yaks, ponies and other travellers to reach Zutulphuk, a 22 km distance and our destination for the day.

The last leg of our trip was a total of 14 km that began early in the morning. This started with a 10 km walk along River Brahmaputra and four km by bus.

The stretch was scenic, the pony and his caretaker enjoyed the liberty of walking along with us carefree. They saw us off to Darchen. This completed our circumambulation of close to more than 60 km including the Charansparsh. And we finally completed the ‘ultimate pilgrimage’!


(The author can be contacted at 9242118434)