Parikrama -Day3 - Back to Manasarovar

 

19^th June – Zuthulphuk – Darchen – Manasarovar

We started off early after breakfast. This time the horse was there right at the doorstep of the mudhouse. But today, I was much better. The fever had left me completely. And then there was the joy of having successfully completed the most difficult part of the journey. Today’s trek was going to be only 6 Km, mostly on level ground.

The trek started off smoothly and after a couple of hours we reached a point where we were asked to dismount from the horse and start walking. I was left wondering for a few minutes as we were walking on level ground with a nice trail. Soon I realized why we had to dismount. Ahead lay a narrow trail of about a kilometer or so with a cliff on one side and a deep gorge on the other. The width was just good enough for people to walk in a single file, and they would not risk the horse under you.

Manasarovar - Signaling completion of parikrama

As we neared the end of this trail we could see the pristine blue Manasarovar in the distance. This filled us with ecstasy – we had completed the parikrama. We congratulated each other, had a photo session. Soon we found our vehicles waiting for us. Our drivers came forward, hugged us and congratulated us. After 3 days on foot and on the horse, technology feels so good. Sitting back in the vehicles felt heavenly!

We headed back to Darchen where the rest of the group was waiting. After hugging each other we sat together in a large room at the Darchen guest house and shared our experiences and any remaining dry fruits and snacks. I and Tripathi ji went out to make a phone call back home. My mother must have been anxious as she hadn’t got any news from me for a while. We walked to the shop where we had negotiated a call rate of 3 yuan per min. Yes, even phone rates are negotiable in Tibet! My mom was truly worried. She felt elated and relieved at the same time on hearing that I had completed the parikrama safely. Tripathi ji also made a couple of calls home to his wife and daughters.

Manasarovar

After lunch we moved on to Manasarovar. This time we were put up in tents on the bank of the Manasarovar. Ours was a ten bedded tent of which one was broken. This was a boon, as the broken bed served to keep our bags. You never know when it rains and water starts flowing under the tent, you need to avoid keeping your bags on the ground.

We went out to fill Manasarovar water to carry back home. Earlier at Darchen, I and Tripathi ji had gone to a shop and bought 2.5 liter cans.  In the euphoria of having completed the parikrama we forgot to negotiate and paid up 5 yuan each. As we reached the bank of the lake, we realized that at least one of us would have to roll up his pants and step into the frigid waters and go some distance to collect silt free water. A Tibetan local came up and offered to bring us the water for 50 yuans per can. All of us felt it was too high and Srihari Rao ji volunteered to go in and get the water for all of us.

As we went back after filling the cans, we found that the cans on which we spent 5 yuans wouldn’t seal properly. The water would leak out if the container was tilted. As we would have to carry the water in the check in baggage, a tight seal was necessary. The cans we had bought were a waste. We had to obtain mineral water bottles, empty them and transfer the contents of the can to the bottles.

 

Lights over Manasarovar

Understandably, dinner was served before dark and soon we settled in our tents.  Being fever free after a long time, and add to it the jubilation of having completed the parikrama, I just couldn’t get to sleep. I decided to walk to the edge of the Manasarovar, about half a km from our tent. Tripathi ji joined me.

It was pitch dark. The dim solar lamps of the tent had gone off. There was absolutely no ambient light, and no man made light to be seen anywhere up to the horizon in 360 degrees. The air was dust free, and sky cloud free.  It was a moonless night. The usual fine cold wind was gushing. Silence reverberating all around. It must have been around 11 pm. We sat quietly on the sand, in a meditative mood. Then we saw it.

It was a sudden flash of light over Manasarovar which was clearly not ground based. It simply could not have been created by any torchlight or car light or any other ground based source. Besides, the whole area is uninhabited. It was not a lightening flash – there were no clouds. There is no aircraft activity over this area either. And this was certainly not an “Ulka” or any object falling from the sky. We were flummoxed. We waited.

A few minutes leaked away in the silence. Another flash. This time over a different area of the lake. It lasted a little longer, but still just under a second. We recollected our group members spotting devi devatas as flashes of light pre-dawn. I was wondering if I was seeing the same phenomenon.

We continued to observe for more than half an hour. We saw a lot of such flashes. These were essentially random, would occur at any place in the wide field of vision over the lake, would typically last a fraction of a second, but some of the flashes lasted a little more than a second. My understanding is that this is a phenomenon of the ozone layer, same or similar to aurora borealis. It’s an occurrence we normally do not witness in our country, its visible in high latitudes or in high altitude places where you get to see over a wide area all the way up to the horizon. Manasarovar offers precisely that kind of a condition, so you can see it there.

We had heard from our group members who “saw devi devatas” over Manasarovar that there were flashes of light. I was curious whether we were seeing the same phenomenon. But their devi devatas came with a lot of strings attached – they would be seen only at brahma muhurtam ( 2 hour period before dawn), it would be seen only on puranmasi nights ( full moon ) and that too only by lucky few.  I resolved to get up early next morning to check on it.

As I walked back to the tent, I looked up. The night sky was mind blowing. Absolute silence, no ambient light on the ground, no dust to scatter light, no clouds, no moon, 360 degrees of unobstructed vision right up to the horizon, pitch dark background, millions and millions of stars spread all over the huge black dome of the sky. You do not get to see so many stars from anywhere else on the planet. The zodiac signs were clearly visible and decipherable.  You could see thousands of stars way down till the horizon. It was a sight to behold and cherish, one that I will never forget. Unfortunately, no camera can capture the open vastness and the enormity of that vista.

I was up next morning at 3am and walked out of the tent towards Manasarovar. As expected, our devi devata sighters were present at the bank trying to have a second sighting. I struck up a conversation to gather a first-hand description – it matched with what I had seen the previous night. I saw nimbus clouds gathering over the lake. If my hypothesis was correct and this was really an ozone layer phenomenon, there would not be any sighting now. I returned back to the tent. Later I tried to find out if there were any sightings that morning – sure enough, there indeed weren’t any. Of course, they attributed this to not being the purnamasi day.

The whole concept of devi devatas being seen as flashes does not have a religious basis either.  Per Swami Madhavanandaji, the scriptures do talk of devi devatas coming for bath at Manasarovar, but they being seen is flashes of light is never mentioned anywhere.

My take – it’s a natural phenomenon of the ozone layer that we do not see in our country, and its every bit worth watching. Manasarovar with its vast unobstructed field of vision right up to the horizon and its high altitude provides the right conditions to sight it. But you should be able to see this anywhere else under similar natural conditions. There is no need to link it to devi devatas or any other supernatural beings. Also, there is nothing like it is visible only at brahma muhurtam or only on certain days – you should be able to see it over Manasarovar on any day after dark if the sky is clear – we saw it at 11 pm on a day which was in no way special.


Next >>  The Journey Back