Gratitude

Among all the trips we had made i would rate our trip to Mount Kailas as something unique .
There is an air of mystique in the peak .to think no man has ever set foot on its lofty peak when higher peaks have been repeatedly conquered makes us wonder .
A supernatural Milerepa may have flown on to its top but the rest have only circumnavigated its base .
Deep in the table top Tibet it was no mean feat to reach its foot .
Long days of bumpy and risky rides in mountainous terrains from Katmandu made us reach Tibet border under Peoples republic of China .
Crossing over after formal immigration we still had days of cold empty plains with occasional muddy slushy roads in which our buses sank to be extricated on off .
Those long waits those walking in knee deep slush the community pushing of our vehicles the silent treading of avalanced hillsides of Nepal where an inadvertent noise would have us tumbling down to roaring brooks deep down the mountains primed us for its sight .

And then we reached the shores of the pristine heavenly Manasarovar where gilden golden swans floated in its serene facade as described in the epics.

As the gentle waves lapped up the shore the blue lake reflected the snowy solitude of a towering Kailas the very object of our travel .

The first sight of kailas brought tears rolling down our cold cheeks in something that would be difficult to explain with logic.

The emotions were not at all religious it was way above that it was spiritual something touching your soul and searing it .

The journey closer to kailas would take many more hours from Manasarovar for in those dusky plains time and distance were surrealistically unreal .

Man cannot fathom the supernatural though to dismiss it as superstitious without experiencing it is his loss .

In lofty Drachen breathless trekking with sticks on the eve of our journey closer to kailas gave us a glimpse of the parikrama ahead and the alighting on horses from Yamadhwar to trod along the granite sheerness of a mountain that went beyond geography and geology.

To me it stopped with seeing the north face of mount Kailas in Dera puk from where i retraced back to Drachen but for those who did complete the circumambulation it was a heavenly retreat to climb up the Dolma pass at 19000 feet to reach dizzying hallucinating breathless sights of a placid serenity incomparable to terra firma .

And then the steep rocky descent back to Drachen and return back to Katmandu exhausted but strangely filled .

At the end of it all there was just one emotion left ...
GRATITUDE