The Mystery of the Kailash Trail - Chapter 5 - Part 3

Chapter 5: Part 3: They return to the Manasarovar Lake and see the young boy.

Vijay Kulkarni looked at his two partners, Himanshu and Paramita, and repeated, “I want to go to the Mount Kailash area. I want to change our plans to survey the Manasarovar Lake area. Do you want to come with me? I felt as if there was something out there, and that something or somebody was talking to me. You know, at the human level, we exist, and we do our work. But this was really something else. I felt like there was something else out there yesterday, at night, in the storm.”

Paramita laughed, and hushed herself soon enough on seeing Vijay’s irritated look. He was serious, she knew, about going to Mount Kailash. However, there were other problems. She spoke to Vijay, in a serious note, “Vijay Sir, I would also like to go to Mount Kailash immediately. But you will put the entire tour group to risk. We are here as tourists. Not as scientists or research teams. We are here with this group to do our first recce in this area. We cannot leave this group. We need to go around the Manasarovar Lake, and then go ahead to the Mount Kailash area for the parikrama, when this group goes to that area.”

Vijay knew of the legal implications. He did not want to risk his opportunity to return to the area with other groups to search for hydrogeological clues to the reason why so many rivers started from this mythical and magical mountain. Why should so many rivers start only from this mountain? Why could they not have started from somewhere else? So much of Asia, so many countries of South Asia, not forgetting Tibet, depended on the Mount Kailash. He wanted to very desperately pick up several rock samples without making anyone upset. If the initial results did show any good information, he could always request permission to return on a detailed study.

Himanshu would know the manner of risks that one could play out now, since they were so close to the Manasarovar Lake and the Mount Kailash area. He was an experienced field scientist and would know what could be done and what should not be risked. He looked at Himanshu, and said, “Dada, we have to do something. What happened out there during the storm may not be there tomorrow. We are from India, and you and me, we know that there are gods and demons everywhere. We have more Gods within our religions and belief systems than all the other religions put together. And, we are here. At Mount Kailash. Should we wait for two more days?”

“Wait. You should wait. Whatever may have happened out on the Peak, you and me, we cannot risk the entire group. For most of them, this is their one-in-a-lifetime opportunity and we can always return, and we will, I believe. The others, in this group, they have staked their entire lifetime savings, their pension and their strength and good health to come here. We cannot throw that away for our curiosity,” replied Himanshu, “These mysteries have been here for thousands of years. Nothing is lost if you do not discover it today. Relax.”

Paramita and one of the Sherpa boys had begun to pack up the tents and other equipment. The tour group had three large trucks and a fleet of land-cruisers. Luckily, Vijay thought to himself, they had one land cruiser for themselves, as all others had four tour members each. The Sherpa boy with them had become a good friend, while the Tibetan driver of the land cruiser usually kept humming songs to himself. He did not understand English or Hindi and the Sherpa boy usually translated instructions or enquiries.

Vijay helped with the packing up, and kept chatting with Himanshu, “You know, I really did feel something from there. It was like some individual energy, directed right at me. I sensed it so very clearly. But, I cannot explain it in any logical manner. That is more irritating than the fact that we are not going there immediately. I have gone to more mysterious places than this in India. I can usually sense the bunkum from the real, the mystical from the made-up. This did not come from any godman or temple or hymn or mantra or tantra. I got the feeling of energy directly from the peak, from Mount Kailash. Go ahead, laugh at me and I will not get angry with you.”

“There was some sense of reality to it all,” continued Vijay, pointing at the peak. The sun had come out strongly, and the three of them could see the Nandi Peak and the Mount Kailash peak. It was absolutely resplendent and there was a very wholesome feeling of calm to the mountain. They could feel that they were experiencing a very satisfying perspective, just by watching the peak. It felt extremely real. The feeling or the perspective was just a sense of calm, and they kept looking at the peak until the Sherpa helper-boy called out to them, breaking their trance.

The tour group was ready to drive around the Manasarovar Lake. This parikrama would be done on the Land Cruisers, while they would be on foot around Mount Kailash. Himanshu had wanted to study the soil and rock samples around the Manasarovar Lake and compare them with the ones that they would pick up around Rakshas Tal, and the Kailash area. They got into their land cruiser with the Sherpa boy and the Tibetan driver.

Their first stop was to be in the area between the Rakshas Tal and the Manasarovar Lake. The drive would take them past Parkha and they would go ahead to their first stop at Chiu Gompa, on the banks of the Manasarovar Lake. It was to be a spectacular spot, and they would love it, the Tibetan driver had kept reassuring them again and again. The Sherpa-boy translated for him, “He says that you can wash your sins here also. All Indians can get instant blessings here. There is a small junior river Ganga here, called Ganga Chu. This is a connector river between the Rakshas Tal and the Manasarovar Lake. It is below the Chiu Gompa.”

They had smiled politely at the implied joke, and Vijay had playfully thumped the Tibetan driver on the shoulder. The driver looked happy that he had pulled this joke on yet another group from India. He did it to each group that came to start the Manasarovar kora. These pilgrims from India are very lazy, he thought to himself, for how could you even want to do the kora on vehicle. One should do it very respectfully on foot, he would repeat to each Sherpa-boy or other drivers.

The vehicles stopped at the Chiu Gompa and the pilgrims walked around. Vijay, Himanshu and Paramita climbed to the roof of the monastery and stood quietly, looking at the awesome expanse of the Manasarovar Lake on one side, and the sight of the Mount Kailash peak, extremely clear, and without clouds. Paramita kept taking photographs “by the hundreds”, as she termed it. Vijay rushed them through, “Come on, come on, and there is no waiting here. We need to go down and walk to some distance away from the group. Remember, we have to make it to the Serka Khim area, near this Gompa, and get samples from the ancient gold mining area.”

They rushed out of the monastery. Vijay had friends in the other groups who were part of the pilgrimage. He knew that they would take all the photographs that they could and more. He did not want to use up his time in taking photographs of the area. This was perhaps the most remote pilgrimage area, and perhaps had the most number of photographs per square kilometer, he joked, to Himanshu and Paramita. They walked out to the banks of the Manasarovar Lake, pretending to enjoy the view. The Sherpa-boy accompanied them, explaining that this area was also known as the Ngava Ngopodupuk. He could not explain the reason, but Vijay knew about it and was not keen on asking the boy about it.

The Sherpa boy was bored with them and ran back to the pilgrim group at the Gompa, knowing that he could perhaps get some good food, from one of the trucks. Vijay turned towards Serka Khim, and they walked up into the marshy lands, away from the banks of the Lake. These marshy lands seemed to be like a mosaic of small grassy mounds of earth, interspersed with slush, stones and bare fallow land. Vijay stood quiet, while Himanshu and Paramita walked on ahead. Vijay was watching the area between Serka Khim and Changjagang, on the banks of the Lake. Something was just not correct, he kept telling himself. This cannot be happening.

He was a young boy, perhaps sixteen or seventeen, sitting within the marsh, just where it ended, looking out into the Manasarovar Lake. What was strange, he thought, for he could not be sure, was that the boy did not seem to have any clothes on him. He had some sort of a hat, or a helmet, something like from an army soldier. He seemed to have some sort of metal shirt on his chest and back. He could not be sure entirely, because the light shone off the boy, from against the sheer shine of the waters of the lake. He looked very peaceful. He seemed to be holding something in his right hand. Was he meditating here? Suddenly, there seemed to be a gentle spread of a halo-like glow near the boy, and it was gone, and the boy was no longer sitting at the spot near the Lake.