The Mystery of the Kailash Trail - Chapter 8 - Part 2

Book 2: Chapter 8: Part 2:  Have they entered the ‘Kingdom of the Lion’?

Among the four of them, Dawa, Sangye, Katishe and Satawa, they were the best of the four trailsmen of the Lhachu Valley. Nobody knew the hills, the valleys, the rivers and glaciers of the Kang Renpoche area better than these old men. Yeshe looked proudly at this grandfather, and knew that Sangye was much better than the other three, for he came from outside the valley and traveled through the year in the other areas, including far off Qinhai and other provinces of Tibet. He had also accompanied his grandfather and parents to Karakul Lake for three years to try and earn a living during the tourist season at Kashgar and Kongur, but that had not worked out.

The stone hut had been constructed. It was set up against an opening amongst the rocks near the passage within the boulders. They had decided to avoid blocking the passage, for fear that the herd of large wild yaks or other wildlife may want to move through, going into the valley, or going outside. The hut was constructed with the boulders from the landslide, and had been camouflaged with adequate branches and timber. It was quite large, and they could move the animals and themselves deep within the hut, and set up a good warm fire.

There were two yak boys and one horse boy, and they had begun to develop a good friendship and chatter with Yeshe. They were still worried and scared about Sangye’s huge mastiffs, Bzanba and Kangryi, but they had realized that as long as Yeshe would be around, the dogs would not turn harmful. The hut had been constructed with two cosy rooms within it, with an opening between them. The small rooms would retain the warmth from the fire and would allow them to retreat in the cold nights that they would encounter.

Dawa and Sangye looked out at the trail, sitting at the opening of the stone hut. Dawa said, “Old man from Qinhai, I do not think this will be the last hut that we are going to construct in this valley. Who knows how many days or weeks or months we may have be here? I am not frightened of the winter. I will stay back here, if we do not get any answers. You can return to your warm plains of Tibe, outside these sacred valleys, and ride about on your horses, and pretend to be nomads. I am going to end my life here, in this Beyul. I know it.”

Katishe and Satawa, sitting nearby, smiled at Dawa’s statement. They knew him from many years in the valley. Sangye, noting the jibe about his life as a nomad, merely nodded, in the laconic face-shrug that is famously representative of the Orient, and replied, “I fear about what we are going to walk into after that narrow pass that is above us. This trail seems to climb sharply. We are now sharply traveling northwest of the Kang Renpoche areas. These areas are known to be extremely mysterious areas. People have come here, over centuries, in the other valleys. Nobody seems to have entered this valley.”

Dawa agreed, and said, “I know what you are talking about. I may have been in one or two expeditions, nearly twenty or thirty years ago, when these outsiders did not have good equipment and could not survive in these areas for many months. Let us go inside, for it is getting colder and the cold air is beginning to bite my nose. I need it to help me breathe and blow the smoke out from my cigarettes. Let us take rest for the night, and pretend we are all at Darchen or Choku or at Dirapuk, with Yeshe’s parents. I hope the boys have cooked some good soup and dinner.”

It must have been about four in the evening, but the night had taken over. The cold mist came over suddenly around the hut and blocked out their vision of the valley. This was not wise, thought Katishe. With the help of the boys, the two trailsmen and Yeshe, rapidly piled up large stones at the entrance to the hut, and closed it completely. It would not do for leopards or bear or perhaps, wolves or wild yaks to wander inside in the mist. The group would not be able to escape and would be cornered and trapped. The hut had been constructed without windows, but there were some gaps for inflow of air, and at the rear, almost close to the valley walls of the mountains, an opening had been allowed inside a clump of adjoining trees, to allow the smoke from the fire to go outside, without being seen, unless someone was searching for them. The group sat together inside one of the small rooms and started with the hot soup. The animals were all grouped together in the other small room. The boys had thoughtfully kept a small fire going, in their room.

Dawa asked of Sangye, “Old nomad from Qinhai, you have traveled in these regions, from the northern ranges, and to the north of the Kang Renpoche. What do you think happened here, and where do you think we are going? We are northwest of Dirapuk, but we seem to be going up north, straight, and sometimes to the west. Tomorrow, we will know, when we observe the stars at early dawn, if we are lucky, and the mist would have gone by then. These may be hidden valleys, and may be quite large, but there would be something, someplace, some hill-range on the other side of this mysterious place.”

“True, very true,” replied Sangye, “at this moment, it does seem like we have been walking north from Dirapuk. But, I do not like the sight of that narrow mountain pass that seems to climb upwards. People from places away from the Himalayas do not realize this aspect. They look at a map, and they only seem East, West, North and South. What they do not realize is that our world is also made up of UP and DOWN. We may not go North or South, but going UP or DOWN can be made of several miles.”

“There is another aspect that worries me,” continued Sangye, “we may be entering the ‘Kingdom of the Lion’, that is yet another mysterious place. It seems to be part of the mythology of this ancient land of Tibe, but the story did occur north and northwest of Dirapuk and the sacred Kang Renpoche Mountain. Nobody knows much about the place. But, it could be nearby. Or, we may be inside the ‘Kingdom of the Lion’ already. This much is known. The ‘Kingdom of the Lion’ is certainly somewhere in the Nganglong Kangri or near the Gangdise Shan mountains. We are between these mountains and the Kang Renpoche Mountains. So, we are nearby.”

Dawa nodded in agreement, for he knew of these mountain ranges. He explained to Kitashe, Satawa and Yeshe, “This is an old old story. The story of the ‘Kingdom of the Lion’. We do not know much about it. But this much, I know. There is another story of an enormous hidden water storage area, below, inside the mountains somewhere here. It could be an underground waterbody, like a glacier is formed above the ground. There used to be Hindu sages, living in the caves near an area that was known by the Lion. There were Bon and Buddhist monks, who would go up these mountains and meditate inside the caves.”

Katishe spoke up, “Old man Dawa, you forget one other story from these places. The gateway to hell. There is also talk and stories about the lake that is totally black in colour, unlike the lakes below our sacred Kang Renpoche Mountain. It is said, that if you enter this lake, you can travel to hell, and meet all sorts of demons and evil spirits. Is that true? Are we entering forbidden lands?”

Dawa and Sangye sat quietly, and showed by furrowed brows on their faces, that they were thinking deeply. It would not do to answer such questions in a light-hearted manner. The evil spirits and demons may be moving around, and they could be inside the stone hut. They may be waiting for such a mistake, and may get angry and take up residence inside any one of them, or inside the animals. Dawa said, “I agree, Katishe, for, I have also heard talk of this Black Lake. But we do not have to worry. For, the problem comes if we enter the lake waters. Not before.”

“We are here, in trail paradise, for trapping and fur collections. There is amazing wildlife in these regions. Bear, Chiru, Mountain Goats, Leopards and different types of monkeys and gibbons. There is good market for these skins. But the government prohibits us to carry weapons and arms and we are prevented by the sacred region from hunting the wildlife in these places. Do you know that we get different types of leopard in this region? The yellow one with spots, the white one on the snow and the third one, smaller, but with grey-white design. I hope we do not spot any leopard. They are always faster and more alert than you.”

“There used to be a time, when one could see Chiru and mountain goats and wild yaks in herds of hundreds moving about on the upper slopes of most of these mountains. Today, they are not to be seen even in small groups or herds. I am glad that we are chasing a herd of large wild yaks in these mountains, and not a flock of high flying birds, or fishes or leopards. I hope tomorrow is a fine day, and there is bright sunshine, and we are able to see wild animals and birds in the valley.”