Hi,
I liked this article about Kailash Mansarovar Yatra very much. Very
interesting...Someday I would like to travel to pilgrimage places with
my kids.
Yogesh Patel
My compliments for an extremely well written
article. I have been in China for 3 years and we all used to think that
we will go to Mansarovar from the Chinese side, but this one helped me
be there
Regards
Harpreet
The article on the Mansarovar yatra was
a real nice one ..being an avid trekker my self .I could virtually
imagine what the entire episode would have been like. Although I have
trekked a bit in those mountanious regions ..yet the trek to Mansarovar
has always been awe inspiring ... thanking you for a wonderful reading
experience..
Abhijit S Chitambar
Subject: Kailash Manasarovar Yatra - a trekker's perpective..
Was reading Mr.Sumanta Roy Choudhury's brilliantly illustrated
article on Kailsash Manasarovar Yatra and ended up reflecting on my own
experience of Kailash Manasarovar Yatra in 1997.
Many of us trekkers participate in this yatra with a lot of
expectations about the scenery, travel through Tibet, and with adrenalin
pumping at anticipated difficulties and challenges of the terrain - only
to be majorly disillusioned. While the immense religious significance of
this trip for most participants of this yatra is undeniable, I would
personally not recommend this trip for a non believer - trekker and more
so, if you are used to trekking independently or in small like-minded
groups.
SCENERY - While most people wax eloquently about the mind-blowing
scenery on this trip, for a 32 day trip in the Himalayan belt, the
scenery is nothing to write home about compared to what one can get on
several exquisite Himalayan trails for one third of the money and time.
Yes, Kailash is beautiful - but very objectively speaking, Nanda Devi
and Shivling are much more beautiful. I earned the wrath of my fellow
yatris with an honest observation that Rakshas Tal actually looks more
beautiful than Manasarovar itself. In India, I can easily rate Tarsar /
Marsar / Chandratal / Pangong lakes as much more beautiful.
TRAVEL THROUGH TIBET - A journey in Ladakh will give a much better
perpective of the land / culture / religion / people / monasteries of
Tibet than the Tibet section covered in this yatra.
CHALLENGES OF THE TERRAIN - Let us face it, this trip has probably
less hurdles in terms of landslides etc (the 1998 disaster
notwithstanding) than a lot of other standard Himalayan treks when
undertaken in the monsoon months.
With most arrangements taken care of, especially on the Indian side
where it is a real nice luxury trip, there is not much challenge left in
this yatra, unless of course, it is your own advancing years and
shortness of breath.
As a trekker with mountaineering experience, I have always considered
19,000 ft a respectable altitude. I remember being shell-shocked on my
first day at MEA when at 27 years, I was the youngest participant in
this yatra (the oldest was 71) and the ratio of participants under forty
to those over forty was 1:3.
A young independent trekker has to bear in mind that the yatra, as
organised by MEA, caters not to a trekker but to an average 40-plus
urban Indian pilgrim whose past experience of the mountains will
probably not exceed Vaishno Devi, Amarnath and Badri - Kedar (on mule
back?) and whose physical fitness is very average, to put it
euphemistically. Any reasonably fit trekker would be able to do the
entire trip in under 20days. So the pace can get to be quite a drag, and
indeed it is - with all due regards to the need to acclimatise slowly.
If you feel strongly about Kailash Manasarovar for religious reasons,
one should not miss this trip. But if you are in it only for the
mountains and the trekking angle - it is surely worth giving it a second
thought.
To sum it up - on the day we finished our Kailash Parikrama, Kakaji -
a co-yatri- asked me if I was not proud that I had reached 19,000ft. My
reply was "Kakaji - I was more proud when I did a solo climb to 4,000
feet Kulang (Maharashtra) from the base village Bhavli and back in one
wind and rainswept monsoon day"....
R. Bharathi
Trekking: Kailash
Mansarovar by Sumanta RoyChowdhury
Impressions: Weekend Trip to Kotishwar by Bharathi R
Sumanta's response:
Dear Bharathi,
Thanks for your email on the article written by me about my
pilgrimage to Kailash Manasarovar. Although you have not really asked
for a reply but I can't help replying to your somewhat strong reactions
to the Yatra. It seems that you expected this to be another trekking
expedition like many that I am sure you have participated in. Well it is
not a trekking expedition at all, it is a pilgrimage and in our
traditional Indian context it is a 'Yatra'. I am not aware of a similar
word in English that conveys the true meaning of Yatra. Incidentally
this Yatra is undertaken by trekking. I don't remember seeing or reading
anywhere that MEA or for that matter anyone has proclaimed this as a
trekking expedition.
How can they when arrangements for Ponies on the Indian side and Yaks
on the Chinese side can be made by merely paying for it. Anyone who is
willing to spend can do the pilgrimage with minimum walking. The point
of this Yatra is not that. I will quote here from a book written by
Russell Johnson and Kerry Moran titled "Kailas on Pilgrimage to the
Sacred Mountain of Tibet" published by Thames and Hudson 30 Bloomsbury
Street, London WC1B 3QP.
" The reality of Kailas is of a sort not approached by logic, but by
faith - and this is not blind belief, but simply a confidence in the
validity of experience beyond the realm of facts and the senses. This is
the secret of all the rituals of pilgrimage, the prostrations and
mantras and circumambulations, the piled stones and tattered prayer
flags. Their importance is not in the acts themselves, but in the
attitude they create: an openness to a higher state of being, a profound
reverence for the natural perfection expressed by Kailas and
Manasarovar, and a belief in the potential in every being to touch that
perfection.
This for the lack of a better word, is faith, and those who come
without, who come only to look, find only the barest realities of
mountain and lake. Inevitably they are disappointed, for they are
searching without what can only be found within. But those who come in
true sincerity, whatever their beliefs, are the real pilgrims, and they
find what they seek, not only within the lake and atop the mountains,
but present all around, in the air and earth and light, the power of the
sun and the restless touch of the wind. It is a power tangible to those
who have the capacity to feel it but otherwise invisible and unprovable,
a matter of 'superstition'."
It is a pity that you, coming from the land where people have done
this yatra for centuries, failed to appreciate the true meaning. The
real challange I suppose the essence of it is not to do this trip in 20
days or to feel easy at 19,000 feet, but to come back as an enriched
person. The very fact that in your group you had a yatri who is 71 years
old should have made you shell-shocked to ask yourself this question
that what is there in this yatra that makes old people like this leave
the comfort and safety of their home.
Good Wishes
Sumanta
