Mount Kailas

 Mount Kailas 

Certain places in this world have a mystique which cannot be denied.

Theres something in the air where positivity crackles like static and bounces off you .

One gets a feeling of fullness in inner sanctorums of our worshipping places , temples ,churches ,mosques , and synagogues .

It may be only a thought by our preconception of holiness ,as its just brick and mortar, sculptures , idols or sacred books or empty spaces, but for the man whose mind is open and receptive ,such places do give a very unearthly happy feel .

After leaving Yama Dwar the rightly named opening 12 km away from Draschen the last town with civilisation,in deep Tibet under peoples republic of China we had trundled alongside the granite countenance of the great mountain in our horses with tinkling bells and hooded horsemen trading and shouted orders to thier snorting ponies and hairy yaks .

The path was neither  very narrow nor very steep as it was in the Tibetian plateau about 14000 to 16000 feet above sea level .

There were yatris who were walking at tgeir pace ,Tibetians prostrating every step to sacred Kailas ,they would take months to complete the Parikrama .

The air was thin and the gentle rains settled on my cold face .

The pony went up a bunch of rocks descended into a cold stream or into a muddy stretch .

My Tibetian horseman had consistently ignored my multi languaged pleas to get me my raincoat from my bag he was carrying .

It was getting colder as my felt blue coat got wetter by the minute and it wasnt meant to get wet .

The horseman either didnt understand my fevered requests or felt about me as  let the sod get wet .

Either way I resigned myself to wetness hardly conducive to spiritual bliss .

The mountain appeared so close to one though it was around 5 to 10 km away .

One just saw a granite wall stretching up and not the profile seen from far .

At times it disappeaerd too .

The inner kailas parikrama was literally on its foot more tougher.one needed to foot it as ponies or horses cannot go up and down those massive boulders.

It was called Kinnar Kailas circuit .

Mostly youngsters trained in mountain trekking attempted it .

Definitely not for the faint hearted .

But i was stupefied at the devotion of hardy Tibetian pilgrims as they painstakingly prostrated fully to the mountain getting up and prostrating again the next step over sharp stones wet mud or flowing icy streams .

It would take them a month to complete the circumambulation .

Strangely no man had ever climbed to the peak of Mount Kailas though several attempts by British later by the Chinese were made to get a man to the top another fact adding to the mystique .

That evening I shivered with cold in the north face of Kailas in Dera pukh .

It was etheral to stand facing the dark hulk silhoutte of the mountain in the inky black darknessin icy cold .

It was like divinity embraced you into nirvanic nothingness.

one could stand hypnotised for ages looking at the stark face of the megolith rising upto the heavens .

I decided I wouldnt go up the Dolma pass at 19000 feet the next day which was  the most toughest day of parikrama 

One needed to go by foot to the passaheight of 20000 feet where jets flew ,

the air rareand the climb strenous .

it was a no return place as rescue at that height with no roads would be cumbersome .

 The Dolma passitself I was told by tgose who were brave enough to complete the parikrama stretched as an endless boulder strewn cold pass with fluttering prayer flags and a deeply placed turqoise lake the Gowrikund 

the Dolma pass itself would decend steeply to other side and  would be completed by end of day .

There was a choice one could still make to return to Dharchen from Derapuk avoiding the Dolma pass parikrama continuity and back same way on horse to hot water baths and western closets in its reasonably luxury hotel in Drachen 

to others irlt was to trudge up hardy steep paths to reach thin rarefied air up the exotic Dolma pass with the Gowrikund on one side and later descend in a back breaking steep descent all of which would take 12 to 16 hours of difficulties .

I took the easy way out .

I returned back to Drachen and creature comforts

Nirvana could wait .

But the view of Kailas in the morning sun glowing like burnished copper was worth more than anything in this world from Derapuk .

The horses of yatris ready to go up Dolma pass was lined up and anxious faces peered from the pile of woolen to face the toughest day in Parikrama .

They would climb up the pass descend to Zitulpukh and next day would be back in Drachen effectively completing the Kailas Parikrama .