Frozen Manasarovar
When we reached the Holy Lake for ceremonial bath.........
Water was frozen on the top.......
Ice flakes were floating on the surface
Sun's rays being reflected by the frozen ice
Broke the ice and had the bath with mug
Sherpas collecting water for cooking
A brave one ventured inside collected Holy water
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| Eti having her ablution |
Pankaj Gupta
Had a leisurely bath
Had a leisurely bath
Changed dress
Offerings to ancestors
It's Harshit's turn and Himansu is watching
Prayers to Lord of Kailash
C K Vaishnav
Golden duck
Nesting water fowls
Temporary sheds for dress changing
The day dawned and we woke up with lot of expectations, there were lot of things to do that day, first was to take the holy bath in the sacred waters of Manasarovar then to perform the customary Homam on the bank of Manasarovar as a measure of thanks giving to Lord Shiva and Mother Parvati for having chosen us for giving their darshan to us. Then proceed to Darchen to witness the marvelous Saga Dawa festival and stay there for the night.
We enjoyed the dawn at Manasarovar, he lake resembled molten gold at that juncture, Later when we reached Manasarovar for the ceremonial bath were perplexed to see that the top portion of the lake is frozen, when we reached Manasarovar yesterday we saw waves in the lake indicting normalcy. But in the morning may be due to cool moon's rays the lake was frozen. We broke the ice at one spot and then had bath using a mug. It was an wonderful experience to bath in near freezing water. This time they had erected many temporary tents for dress changing which is an improvement over the years.
That day was the Buddha Poornima day , Gauthama Buddha was born at Lumbini, attained enlightment (Nirvana) in Bodh Gaya and passed away (Parinirvana) on this full moon day and Buddhists all over the world celebrate this day with pomp. Here it is celebrated as Saga Dawa festival the main event of the ceremony at Kailash near Yamdwar is the replacement and raising of Tarboche, the tall flagpole which marks the mountain's position as the center of the universe. As the pole is festooned on all sides with multi colored prayer flags to form a huge cone, observers throw thousands of additional paper prayers into the air, along with handfuls of tsampa, barley flour. Mr. Suthar had mailed us about this festival and were eager to witness the same. But to our dismay our guide told that as Darchen is full and entry into Darchen is restricted only to Tibetans that day we will not be able to go to Darchen and have to stay for the night here itself. Though disappointed we accepted that as the will of the Lord and proceeded with other activities.
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