The Land of the Salt Tea

“Would you like to have some salt tea? Very delicious”  asked  Lakpah, our  Sherpah  offering a cup of tea containing rock salt and yak butter. This was the first day of our parikrama at Mt Kailash and we had camped in a place called Diraphuk Gompa at 4900 mts. It was minus17 degree C and we were in a cold tent with icy wind sneaking in from all edges. The tent swayed madly in response to the wind, and with every bone aching and the mind wondering what was in store for the next day – it wasn’t easy to fall asleep.

We had trekked around 28 kms for 10 hours at an altitude of 4900mts. The journey was extended unexpectedly due to a hailstorm. We probably would have sustained serious injuries if we had not heeded to the advice of our Pittu (Pittus are local tibeten tribesman/woman who carry luggage of trekkers). Hailstorms in the Tibetan Himalayan ranges are common, what was novel to our experience was that the hails were about the size of cricket balls or bigger. Do not open your eyes – warned the pittu in the local dialect which we understood from her gestures, as she herself curled into a ball and gestured us under a rock. We followed her and stayed under the shelter of a rock for more than an hour to let the storm pass.

“Why did we come here” – my son asked?,  We pondered too, why? We were trekking at 5600m at Dolma La Pass, breathing very heavily and walking on a frozen glacier. The Kailash- Manas Sarovar pilgrimage is the most arduous and enchanting pilgrimage in the world – and for a Hindu, the ultimate one. Our destination, Mount Kailash in the Tibetan Himalayas, is the abode of Lord Shiva. The 6740 mts tall mountain is also holy for Buddhists, who identify it with Mount Meru, the cosmic centre of the universe. The Manas Sarovar lake is the highest fresh water lake in the world. A dip in the icy waters is revered to provide consciousness and enlightenment to the soul according to the Hindu mythology, and to look at life beyond the physical body-mind complex. Geographically, this region is the source of four great rivers, the Brahmaputra, Indus, Karnali and Sutlej. After the Chinese invaded Tibet, and after the Indo Chinese War of 1962, the route was closed for 23 years. More recently, the route from Katmandu through Nayalam, Saga, Prayang and Darchen is being used.  

Reaching Nayalam by road is a adventurous journey. According to Lakpah, we were lucky to have encountered only 3 landslides. “Sometimes, people have to wait for days for the mounds to be cleared” , “Cross quickly, more rocks can fall” – he said. We trampled tree roots and walked on riverluts and knee deep slushes.  Before this enviable encounter with nature, our belief was that mountains are an epitome of strength, massiveness  and immovable creations of Nature. We realized that this was not absolutely true; mountains move, give birth to new mountains and have a mind of their own. “This place, took 4 lives last week” Lakpah said. It was now another small mountain right in the middle of what was a footpath. There are no earth movers here, so it may not be possible, to recover the lost.

Tibet is called the roof of the world for the right reason. Some of the regions we covered are parts of the world’s longest and highest plateau. These areas are very sparsely populated.  Sometimes we travelled hundreds of kilometers without sighting a single sign of human life.  We get glimpses of the Chinese military might occasionally on the rugged roads – heavy military vehicles with neatly dressed military personnel, donning artillery. We encounter military posts and small hamlets along the way. These hamlets have on an average 10 to 12 mud huts, and a group of people who herd sheep and collect herbs for a living. Whenever a vehicle stops by the road, people from these huts quickly gather around the vehicles, readily accepting money and food that the visitors offer. These people look ill nourished. The children tag alongside elders, with a shy smile breaking through the heavily frost bitten cheeks and lips. The children look endearing, but it appears that they have never had a bath and never changed clothes. These people have never seen or heard of schools or toilets. One need not be a sensitive journalist to draw the contrast between the well uniformed military personnel and these poor people who were lacking bare necessities! It is a testament once again to the elite discussion on primary health, sanitation and education versus military valour.

Humbled and awestruck by the magnanimity of Mt Kailash, I reminiscenced my mother’s voice, “Lord Shiva lives as a saint at Kailash”. As a kid, I was never tired of hearing these bed time stories, that transcended the mind into world of beauty and fantasy. My mother told “There are beautiful shrubs, creepers, flowering and fruit bearing trees, rivers, birds and butterflies. Raaj Hamsas that can separate milk from water and feed on pearls live at Manas Sarovar,”. Now, after more than three decades, while taking a icy dip in the pristine turquoise waters of Manas Sarovar, I search for the Hamsa, the flowers and the trees, that did not exist. I realize that the dip and the parikrama can well cleanse the mind and soul, the arduous journey through the nature in its rawest form and the exposure to extreme paucity to reach there, in fact brings out the life altering change to appreciate even the smallest joys in life.