Kailash Yatra via Nathu La pass -5

1st day of Kailash Parikrama 

The earlier groups which performed the yatra from Darchen proceeedd to Quhu stayed there on the banks of Manasarovar and performed the yagna and returned back to Darchen and proceeded to the holy Circumbulation of Kailash. But this group straight away proceeded for the parikrama of Kailash and then on the return journey satayed for two nights on the banks of Manasarovar. They were not able to visit Asthapath. 

The summit of Kailash as seen from Darchen 

From Darchen one gets to see only the sunmmit of the South face of Kailash. From Yamdwar one get the fulll view of teh South face along with Ganesh and Nandi 

Yandwar

The land above yamdwar is considered holy land. So yamdwar is a portal to the holyland. The yatris enter into yamdwar and worship the Lord and then proceed  on the parikrama. 

The trek route 

Prostrating Tibetans 

A waterfall on the way

Satyojat- the west face

On the first day of parilrama one gets tosee alll the faces of teh Lord, from Darchen and yamdwar on e can see the south face, in between thet see the west face and at the completion of the yatra they stay at Deraphuk where they see the North face of the lord. 

மேற்கு முக தரிசனம்

                                                                             
                                                                                                                                                    

The river flowing from North face

North face 

The yatris stay at Deraphuk which is just opposite to this face of the  Lord at the conclusion of the first days parikrama. 

                                                                         Yatra continues .......

Holy Yatra to the Abode of Lord Shiva - 23

Darshan of the three faces of the Lord 

A group of yatris who opted out of the parikrama and returned to Darchen from Deraphuk. They were lucky to have the darshan of all the three faces of the Lord. On the onward journey we could not get the darshanof teh south face of the Lord because of cloud cover.  

Ready to trek to Darchen  

The ponies are being readied

Darshan of North face at dawn

In these coloured tents normally the porters and pony men sleep for the night. 

Manjusri mountain at dawn

One can see both west face and the North face at this point covered by clouds only the bottom portion is visible

The west face of the Lord 

 Mrs Sugandhi on her way back to Darchen 

La Chu river 

The massif of Kailsh ranges 

Choku Gompa 

This gompa is on the other bank of La chu river first of the five Gompas found on the Kailash Kora.  One have to climb about 100 m to rach the Gompa but one gets a magnificent view of Kailash from here. Two important objects in this Gompa are a conch and a big tea pot Naropa. Little above the Gompa  there are two caves,  one in which Milrepa meditated; in other Padmasambhava is said to have buried sacred texts which were rediscovered after centuries. 

Darshan of the South face of the Lord 

On the onward parikrama the yatris could not get this darshan being of clouds. On the return they were lucky to get this darshan also.  

Yamdwar

View of South face of the Lord from Yamdwar

On the way back there were some minor incidents. Three of the ladies fell from the ponies and one of them was injured in the neck and was treated by the  doctor in the ambulance. They charged for the treatment we were told.  Also one of the yatris as he was not properly acclimatized to higher altitude  became very ill and was advised to shift to Nylam and he was sent to Nylam.  Normallu the best treatment for Acute mountain sickness is to shift the person to  a lower altitude. Only problem is you will not be able to cross the border as the visa is a group visa. On request they some times allow but by paying a hefty fine. This explains the importance of physical fitness while planning for the yatra through this route also. 

  Some Rest in Darchen 

Some shopping also

As the yatris were waiting for those who proceeded for the full parikrama they took some rest and went for some shopping and had the darshan of the Lord. 

The yatra continues . . . . . .

Holy Yatra to the Abode of Lord Shiva -18

First Day's Parikrama - 3 

Darshan of the  Vamadeva (North) face of the Lord

The parikrama route 

Restaurants along the route 

After the enthralling darshan of the Lord at Second Prostration point we took some rest had our lunch and continued our parikrama. The route was near plain  we could not get the full view of the Lords  face as He was shrouded  by cloud. But slowly we trekked chanting the Holy five syllables.  

West and North faces( Because of cloud cover the faces are not clearly visible) 

Along this stretch some  things happened which is worth mentioning here.  On the way one obese yatri was  struggling to walk even with the help of two porters. He requested us to relinquish the pony and help him. When the pony was offered he could not clinch deal as the pony handler wanted more money so we left. Again after some time one of our Co-yatri was facing the same problem , you can  easily  guess that  he was also obese. We gave the pony to him and started walking. The importance of fitness and  body mass index less than 27 which is insisted by Govt. can be fully understood from this episode. If you are obese pl. hire a pony though it will cost you otherwise you will face problem.

An exotic Himalayan small bird 

Darshan of the North face of the Lord 

Kumarasamy 

While we were trekking suddenly a dog appeared from nowhere it was somewhat different in its appearance and started walking along side  us for some time and ran away. What was its significance we didn't realize then  but when we completed the parikrama only the real significance became clear to us. Are you curious to know the secret follow us till the end of parikrama and you will know. 

Darshan of south face from the rest house in which we stayed

Darshan of the Lord inbetween Vajrapani and Avalokitheswara 

The rest house in which we stayed

 Latha 

Close up view  of the North face

The weather was changing faster and black clouds started gathering and cold also increased it was difficult as we were approaching Deraphuk to walk as it was uphill. but we hastened our pace and reached Deraphuk it started snowing and we scurried to a nearby tent and took shelter there. It snowed heavily for about half an hour. In the next post we will enjoy the beauty of a snow covered mountain.