Mustang: “Forbidden Kingdom”

“Forbidden Kingdom” is the third and final part of the “MUSTANG” documentary.

Behind the haughty white peaks of the Himalayas that embrace it like a cocoon, in the northern part of Nepal stand for centuries the Forbidden Kingdom of Mustang.

The kingdom was ruled for seven centuries from its capital, the village of Lo Manthang, a metropolis compared with the rest of the villages. The tiny metropolis was established at the end of the 14th century by a king whose lineage continued uninterrupted till today. With its thick surrounding wall and fortress gates, Lo Manthang looks that could withstand any attacks against its peaceful inhabitants. The capital is surrounded by the famous “sky caves” dwellings where the locals lived for many centuries before they moved into the current villages.

The documentary is available for purchase on the FlyingMonk e-store at https://www.flyingmonk.com/product/mustang-forbidden-kingdom/

and Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Mustang-Demons-Lair-Radu-Polizu/dp/B08DPXBVJP/ref=sr_1_4?dchild=1&keywords=flyingmonk+films&qid=1596116160&sr=8-4

Mustang: “Demon’s Lair”

FlyingMonk announces the release of its latest documentary, “MUSTANG”.

Behind the haughty white peaks of the Himalayas that embrace it like a cocoon, in the northern part of Nepal stand for centuries the Forbidden Kingdom of Mustang. Flyingmonk produced the three-part series documentary about this mysterious and remote kingdom of the Himalayas. A place filled with legends about local demons that is spiritually cleansed every year by the monks from the local monasteries during the most fascinating Tibetan festival of slaying the demons, named locally Tiji, an event that happens uninterrupted every year since the 17th century.

The second episode of the three-part series is named “Demon’s Lair”.  The salt caravans coming from Tibet crossed Mustang’s clay hills for centuries. During these long hauls, local legends got weaved and they seeped through into the people’s mind. The stories about the local demons that terrorized the inhabitants, destroying their crops, and drying their fountains abound in Mustang. The demon made his lair in these places and from here he controlled an army of malevolent spirits that created havoc all over. But the strong Buddhist belief of the local kings found a way to get rid of them in fierce battles whose traces could be seen even nowadays.

The documentary is available for purchase on the FlyingMonk e-store at https://www.flyingmonk.com/product/mustang-demons-alley/

and Amazon, https://www.amazon.com/Mustang-Demons-Lair-Radu-Polizu/dp/B08DPXBVJP/ref=sr_1_4?dchild=1&keywords=flyingmonk+films&qid=1596116160&sr=8-4

Mustang: “Pilgrimage”

FlyingMonk is happy to announce the release of our latest documentary “MUSTANG”.

“Behind the haughty white peaks of the Himalayas that embrace it like a cocoon, in the northern part of Nepal stand for centuries the “Forbidden Kingdom” of Mustang.”

FlyingMonk produced the three-part series documentary about this mysterious and remote kingdom of the Himalayas, a place filled with legends about local demons. Each year the monks from the local monasteries cleanse the land of these malevolent forces in meditative dance steps during the most fascinating Tibetan festival of slaying the demons, named locally Tiji, an event that happens uninterrupted every year since the 17th century.

The first episode of the three-part series is named “Pilgrimage” focusing on the pilgrims’ route to the Muktinath temple.

“What could a pilgrimage mean in a world connected by the Internet and planes? However, there are places in the world that are still hard to reach where modernity was not able to penetrate their souls. Mustang is for sure such a place, an arid landscape surrounded by the haughty white peaks of the Himalaya. The shining peak of Nilgiri towers over the tiny town of Jomsom, a stopping place on the way to Muktinath, the highest altitude pilgrimage place in the Himalayas. A place venerated by Hindu and Buddhist alike and the only one in the world where all four elements, air, earth, water, and fire, meet in a tiny chapel lost among the barren hills.”

The documentary is available for purchase on the FlyingMonk e-store at https://www.flyingmonk.com/product/mustang-pilgrimage/

Cleansed

While the entire world is in the grip of the pandemic, Lo Manthang located at the tip of the Mustang region in Nepal looks serene and free of the virus. They cleansed their land of “demons” last year in the Tiji festival about which I wrote a lot on this blog. Meanwhile, we chose to keep our “demon” in the WH, and here are the results.
I received these images from a Buddhist ceremony happening the entire week in Lo Manthang, from Dawa Tseten from Himalayan Wander Walkers with whom I had the privilege to walk the dusty roads of the region and attend the spectacular Tiji festival.

FlyingMonk is currently working on a film about the Tiji festival and the quaint life of Mustang that would be released hopefully this summer.

Tiji

Tiji Festival in Lo Manthang, Upper Mustang, Nepal – click the image for video

I wrote several posts – 1 2 3 – about the Tiji Festival in Nepal, a religious event started by a monk, Sakya Trizin Ngawang Kunga Sonam, who was brought by king Samdup Rabten of Lo Manthang at the end of the 17th century in order to cleanse the territory of demons. The monk took at the time residence in Chhode Monastery and performed for three days of Vajrakila practice and its associated rituals. Vajrakila is a practice that was introduced in Nepal by Padmasambhava, Guru Rimpoche, in the 8th century. Since then monks of Chhode monastery perform this religious dance every year in the month of May-June in Mustang Lo-Manthang. In a way, the dance and its scope is a reenactment of the feats of Padmasambhava-Guru Rimpoche in the 8th century who was on a campaign to kill the demons in order to establish Buddhism as the main religion of Tibet. The Lo region was probably part of Tibet during the less religious campaign of King Songtsen Gampo and his followers who were able to unify all the territories in one Tibetan state and impose Buddhism as the state religion.

Watch here a 5 minutes video on the FlyingMonk website of this amazing religious festival.

Mukesh

Sadhu

I was already sick for 62 hours, dehydrated and emaciated when my virus decided to leave me in peace after I ate some burnt bread in the hotel. Maybe it was too bitter even for the demon, who said “the hell with it. I’m out” and left to some other realms. I could feel how in a matter of 15 minutes I started to gain back my vigor, I could walk faster, stand strong and alert and I was back in my body. The first sensation was the thirst, a definite need to drink and I grabbed a bottle of water and I drank it almost completely. The moment I felt that I had to pee, a first in 62 hours, I knew that I was cured. So I started to walk in the crazy Thamel to do some shopping and bump into temples that were not marked on any map that otherwise would have a dot in each and every place. Thamel has so many things to offer that shopping took me all day, between religious items, trekking equipment, backpacks, traditional clothes, masks. You name it.

Mahakala in Durbar Square, Kathmandu, Nepal

Finally, Mukesh came to pick me up and brought me to his office and I could not thank him enough for his professionalism and care that he showed together with Dawa on this trip. I never hire guides except if it requires to get permits and arrange the transportation. But in Nepal, I needed both so I started in early May to look for an agency in Kathmandu to arrange all these. I emailed and spoke with three different agencies and all sent me a general itinerary but when I asked for details and followed up with questions, they all went mum. I kept trying, even calling them but the responses were not clarifying and in spite of my efforts I could not even get any quoted price. Time was closing in, flights to KTM went more and more expensive and I was not even a bit closer to an arrangement. Desperate and almost convinced that I won’t be able to go in Upper Mustang for the Tiji Festival, I gave up on all the previous agencies and I decided to start fresh with Himalayan Excursion whose owner, Mukesh Rajbanshi, – https://www.himalayanexcursionnepal.com/upper-mustang-tiji-festival-tour-2020 ; himalayanexcursionnepal12@gmail.com ; Cell No: +977-9818816545 – started right away to respond to my questions.

Any sets of questions I had, I emailed them to Mukesh and I got the next morning a full set of clear answers. In several days we clarified a lot of ground and we were able to put together a clear itinerary. Besides all these responses, he was sending me extra emails advising me what to bring, like the sunscreen and the lip balm that for sure I would have forgotten. Very useful and extremely knowledgeable for a young agency. But it turned that his agency may have been only 3 years old but Mukesh worked for a trekking company, as a partner/owner in another agency for 10 years, and from that experience stemmed his knowledge, He guided groups and organized entire trips and he knew in details every place where he sent me in Upper Mustang. Mukesh assigned me a local guide, Dawa Gurung, a graduated with a bachelor degree in tourism from the Kathmandu College, who spoke Nepali, Tibetan, English and French. Dawa is fluent in English and his knowledge of the places proved to be valuable and hailed by everybody who came in contact with him in the area. He was the go-to person for the local guides to ask about various hikes.

A mini Swayambhunath Temple in Thamel, Kathmandu, Nepal

Mukesh and Dawa were always on top of everything, getting me out of Pokhara in the time of “banda” when no vehicle moved and arranging various accommodation in Lo Manthang that was totally packed by foreigners, when hotels did not want to book  a single foreigner to a room, preferring to wait for groups that were obviously more lucrative. And they took care of all my needs with a good nature approach to things, humor and the legendary Nepali hospitality. I do thank both of them from the deep of my heart for all that they did for me in this travel. And I already planned with Mukesh to make arrangements to go to Bhutan using his agency, now FlyingMonk Films’ official agency for travel in Nepal and Bhutan.

Tribhuvan Airport in Kathmandu is full of old sculptures, some peeling, some full of spiderwebs. A chaotic terminal, for a chaotic city. Outside, the huge Qatar Airplane was waiting to take me to a more sanitized part of the world but for sure to a place, less heart filled as Nepal and its people who can make you feel so welcome in all your travel across their country. Namaste!

Tribhuvan Airport in Kathmandu

Sensory overload

Cafe in Thamel, Kathmandu, Nepal

Sensory overload. This is Kathmandu.
The bus dropped me around 3:00 PM in Kathmandu and Mukesh came to pick me up and drop me in another nice hotel in Thamel. But the moment you hit the streets of Thamel you are under a bombardment of sensory perceptions; temples, shrines, porters, guides, tourists, Vishnu, stores, gods, thankas, masks, Mahakala of all sizes, Shiva, Tibetan bells, Hanuman, dorje, phurbus, wooden sculptures, stalls of any kinds, vegetables, fabrics, Nepali hats, shoes, wires hanging everywhere, motorbikes, backpacks, jackets, horns pressed just because they can, some cars, rikshas, holy men, beggars, hair cuts on the streets, offerings, cows, climbing gear, fancy cafes, sleeping bags, hash, juice makers, money changers and repeat, repeat, repeat.

Sculpture-like wires hanging from every pole in Thamel, Kathmandu, Nepal

In my poor state of health, it took me more than one hour to reach Durbar Square that normally you can reach in 15 minutes, alive and full of life in the evening when everybody comes to make offers in the candlelit huge effigy of Mahakala. People strolling, couples dating, kids crying, old men making offering all under a subsided heat that overwhelmed the city during the day. At 1300 meters altitude Kathmandu has a pleasant climate but it is still hot during the day. So everybody, after they finish their daily business, come to the temples and thank gods for the fruitful day. And life goes on.

A temple in Durbar Square, Kathmandu, Nepal

Sick

I look toward the backpack that laid on the floor at the end of the bed and it feels that I have to engage in an entire adventure to reach it. And it’s huge. Who can carry such a load? Maybe I have to load it on my back sustained by a belt over my forehead the way the Tibetans and Nepali carry their loads. I ate veggie for the entire travel and last night I ate some meat. Because we were in the Jomson “metropolis”… In civilization. Tasty otherwise but poisonous. It killed my stomach immediately and it did it with a vengeance. Maybe it was a demon who was lurking around and got there that now has to be cleansed. What should I do? Incantations, meditation, prayers, because the medication does not work in Asia, You have to go through the process. Suffer and wait.

Club entrance, Pokhara, Nepal

When you are sick in Asia it feels like all your limbs were passed slowly and painfully through a wedding ring. No matter how large the limbs may be, somehow the disease is capable to squeeze them through that impossible size. You eat rice or banana and just wait. And drink water, but everything you eat or drink is eliminated instantaneously like you are made inside out of Teflon that does not let anything stick. And no matter how much water you drink you will never pee. It’s scary! You are weak of fatigue, lack of sleep, disease and lack of food and water. And most of the time you doze. I was sick several times in Asia but in my recent travels I was able to avoid it by sticking to the main law: if you cannot peel it, boil or cook it, forget about it. And of course, no meat, ice or open water. But sometimes you are overconfident and then would happen what happened to me now.

I hopped in the morning in the 7:00 AM bus on “the road from hell”, from Jomson to Pokhara. Neither in a jeep nor on the bus you would be able to sit still. You are thrown like a potato bag from one side of the vehicle to the other. The bus drove for about an hour just to get stalled for 3.5 hours because of the permanent road construction. The traffic was stopped in both direction and everybody got out on the road and started to chat like in a large, improvised social club. Most of the people I met in Upper Mustang were all there. And of course, you meet people from Long Island or even from Great Neck, out of the billions that may populate the planet. But I was way too tired for small talk and got into my seat on the bus and got asleep. The bus eventually started to move and by an incredible miracle, or my pronounced fatigue caused by the disease, I slept all the way. Thorough hairpins, the constant rocking, and jerking, river bed crossing, more constructions, I slept till Dawa woke me up telling me that we are one hour off Pokhara. I could not believe that I could sleep on “the road from hell”.

 

Fewa Lake, Pokhara, Nepal

When you walk while sick in Asia you are almost crawling. Not on all four, but at crawling speed. And you may think that you are fast, just to find out that after a good half hour of walking, out of the 20 minutes that the map showed you that would take you to reach a point, you barely covered about 5 minutes. And you wonder how, but if you pay attention to your legs they move like in a stop animation clip, Extremely slow.

After I dropped the luggage to the same Choice Inn Hotel in Pokhara, I decided to have a short walk but the lights of the main street were flickering in my eyes like in a video game. I was wasted and felt like my body departed somewhere, I did not know where, and I had the feeling that I was watching the street from a different vantage point. I told this to the guy who came to offer me “hash” that I am already OBE and he looked at me weirdly and thought that I was already stoned after he looked into my eyes. But I did feel like being stoned from my virus.

I sat for a while on the stoop in front of a store and felt like I walked a lot from the hotel but I was no more than half a block away. I felt that the effort to get there was overwhelming and it took an eternity to get back. At the hotel I took a shower and crashed in bed, praying to the demon to get the hell out of my stomach. Only if I were Guru Rimpoche.

 

Main street, Pokhara, Nepal

Lower Mustang

Thimi Village, Lower Mustang, Nepal

The clouds were hovering early morning over Nilghiri and it was a continuous forecast of rain that was kept pushed later and later. The wind was blowing sometimes ferociously. The airport flight window is very short and only two flights a day can make it in and out in Jomson. After that, the wind picks up and the light Tara aircraft cannot take off or land anymore. There is one other airline that has a heavier plane and than one can make it on stronger winds but even that one flies once a day and only in the morning. There are heavy winds between the Nilghiri and Daughri canyon and you don’t want to play with them while in a plane. Accidents happened, like the one when a plane could not land and going for a second try, turned but the wind pushed it and the wing clipped the mountain and crashed right near the Hindu temple near the airport.

Dhumba Lake, Lower Mustang, Nepal

We planned the day around a hike outside of Jomson that is located in Lower Mustang. Thimi village is just 2 km away from Jomson perched on a ridge overlooking the valley. An old traditional village, with prayer flags at each corner and a monastery closed at the time. From the village, you climb some steep steps towards the Snow Leopard meditation cave that we find it also closed but conferring even better views over the valley.

Tibetan Stupa at Kutsab Ternga Monastery,, Lower Mustang, Nepal

Down from the cave, a little bit of a walk on the road, Dhumba Lake became a fenced attraction with an entry fee after it was featured in a Nepali movie. It’s one of the those Tibetan lakes, clear and clean that has a green tint to it, like all lakes I explored in Tibet. Lots of young Nepali students come here in groups and take tons of pictures of the lake or with the Nilghiri that stands tall right behind the lake. The wind started to pick up and was howling through the cabin that serves as a restaurant by the lake. On occasion, we felt that would blow the roof away.

The holy rock, Kutsab Ternga Monastery,

From the lake is a short walk uphill to Kutsab Ternga Monastery, an old monastery full of beautiful murals and lots of thankas. Its name means “the representative of the body” in this case  the body of Guru Rinporche who left at the monastery five precious objects: the image of Guru Rinporche, the fierce image of Guru Dorje Drole, the image of Dakini yeshe Chogyal, the Upper garment of Guru Rinporche, a genuine pair of shoes. The monastery is small and old and a new one is being built in its backyard to bring the holy objects, currently spread in Thimi village, back to the monastery.

Himalaya seen from Kutsab Ternga Monastery, Jomson, Nepal

The monastery has a Tibetan stupa and an old holy rock with katas hanging on top of it. From the top of the hill, the views were amazing in three directions: toward the Jomson valley and town, towards the canyon between the peaks and toward the mountain peaks starting with Nilghiri and going toward Telicho Peak.

Kutsab Ternga Monastery murals

Mahakala

The weather held for the day but it rained all night. The Lithuanian girls who showed up in the evening in the Himalayan Inn after 3 and half days of hiking were supposed to leave in the morning but the last Tara Airlines plane from early morning did not leave because of the wind. But I could hear in the morning the roaring of the engines starting earlier than 6:00 AM and all planes made it safe to Pokhara.

Stupas in Kutsab Ternga Monastery,

 

Getting out

We had to get out of Upper Mustang because the permit would expire. In the morning, a group started to take shape in order for us to hire a jeep, with the two Russian girls who in the morning were sitting quietly on the same chairs checking their iPhones. We collected also some Tibetans to join us and made 7 out of the 9 required, enough though because as foreigners we pay double on everything.

The monastery and palace in Tsarang, Upper Mustang, Nepal

I left in the morning to walk a little bit under the spectacular blue skies just to be summoned back because the jeep was boarding. The evening before, in spite of the long walk to Lo Gyhar, I went for a walk in the village exploring one more time the monastery and the front of the decayed castle with its mud limbs raised imploring toward the sky. The plan for the castle is to be restored in the coming years, like all the other royal castles, all done with the Prince’s money and converted probably in a hotel.

Himalaya

Today would be practically transportation day to get us back all the way to Jomson, if we were lucky. The jeep left around 9:00 AM and stopped several times for pictures on magnificent viewpoints till it took a longer break for lunch in Sambyochen.

Sambyochen, Upper Mustang, Nepal

From there we got on the portion of the road from hell, riding in waterfalls, over rocks and finding on the way a police vehicle stuck under a waterfall because a huge bolder practically jammed the car. We helped them to take the bolder out while we walked through the waterfall, considered too dangerous for us to be in the jeep and reboarded after about 100 meters.

Stuck under waterfall on the way to Chhusan, Upper Mustang, Nepal

In the end we made it to Chhusan where we had to leave the jeep and wait for a bus that will begin moving, if they have enough people, sometimes late afternoon. The way the transportation is organized in Upper Mustang is based on two jeep communities, one in Chhusan that serves the Upper Mustang and one from Jomson that serves all the way to Chussan and Muktinath. Both services are one directional, so if you need a jeep in Chhusan to bring you to Jomson, you cannot get one from the Chhusan community but the jeep has to be sent from Jomson that would charge you practically double. So everybody waits for the Godot-ish bus, the only bus per day, sometimes in the afternoon. Because there are no schedules whatsoever.

Himalaya view

Taking advantage of the lethargic bus that did not seem to want to move, we crossed the river on the new suspended bridge that did not yet have any protection nets and hiked to the Kang Monastery, whose name is probably given by the oven built right at its entrance used for incense burning. Inside, the monastery has beautiful murals.

Kang Monastery, Chhusan, Upper Mustang, Nepal

Returning through green barley fields battered in the wind I discovered that all these old villages have the houses built in such a way to accommodate a ground level hidden tunnel, a long straight tunnel, probably 50 meters long, used by the locals to escape in case of danger. In Chhusan the tunnel is in great shape and people use it to move faster from the back of the village to its front.

Buddha murals in Kang Monastery

The bus finally woke up from its meditative state and decided to start crawling around 4 PM after it made sure that all jeeps coming from Lo Manthang arrived in Chhusan. And after another quick bus-nap, it decided finally to hit the road around 5PM and we drove all the way to Kagbeni, on a road that barely hanged up by the cliff overlooking the tumultuous river. We stopped briefly in Kagbeni to validate the permit signing off on the Upper Mustang adventure and we entered in another half hour Jomson (2900m) that coming from Upper Mustang looked more like a metropolis with long roads guarded by houses on both sides, not the dumpy town that we sensed when we arrived from Pokhara. Under the always impressive white face of Nilghiri I grabbed my heavy backpack and started joyfully almost to run thorough Jomson’ streets towards the Himalayan Inn, relieved by more than 1000 meters of altitude that we descended today.

Nilghiri over Jomson

Oldest monastery

The jeep station in LO Manthang, Upper Mustang, Nepal

Glorious skies. The plan was to hike over the hills, up to 4500 meters for about 6 hours and descend into Lo Gyhar monastery ending the day in Ghami. But it was always looming over us the spectrum of not finding a jeep to extract us of Upper Mustang. The jeeps are getting filled in Lo Manthang, the main jeep station of the area. The second jeep station is in Tsarang, two hours down the valley where you may find enough people to be able to convince one jeep to leave. Because if they are not full of 9 persons, the jeeps don’t leave. Transportation is key in Upper Mustang and relatively expensive. Besides there are no gas filling stations and all gas is brought all the way from Jomson, usually two days away, or a day away if you are lucky.

Stupas in Lo Gyhar Monastery, Upper Mustang, Nepal

Dawa kept trying to clamp my hiking enthusiasm; afraid that the next day we may not have a jeep in Ghami. Besides the hike would not be easy at 4500meters with our heavy backpacks. In the end, I bailed out and we joined a jeep to Tsarang just to find on the way all the people who started in early hikes, were all on the dusty road instead of crossing the hills. Why would they do this? Just to check a box that they hiked in Lo Manthang?
In Tsarang we left the luggage in Doma Guesthouse that proved an excellent choice, with very clean beds, good food, power in the evening and even a very good 3G signal in the rooms. We started to hike to Lo Gyhar, the oldest Tibetan monastery in the entire region that has attached to it one of the most fascinating legends of the introduction of Buddhism in Tibet.

Entrance to Lo Gyhar Monastery, Upper Mustang, Nepal

The hike follows a river valley from where we can see the villages of Marang and Saukre just across the river, all under the hills that we were supposed to climb in the morning. From the trek, you could see the monastery that looks close but it still takes about a 3 hours walk to reach it at the altitude of 4000 meters.

Lo Gyhar Monastery, Upper Mustang, Nepal

The monastery dates since the 8th century, making it the oldest in the entire Tibet. The legend says that Guru Rimpoche, the maverick saint credited with the introduction of Buddhism in Tibet was consulted by monks who were in the process of building the famous Samye monastery, somewhere near Lhasa. Samye is considered the oldest monastery in Tibet. But whatever the monks were building during the day, somehow got demolished during the night, like in the many other legends from other corners of the world. So the king asked the know-all Guru Rimpoche, who after a deep meditation said that the reason of the Samye failed building effort stands in the fact that the entire Tibet is under the control of a demon that has to be defeated and killed in order for the process to be successful. And the demon was assumed to live right where we were walking today. So Guru Rimpoche pursued his passion of demon killing and started to chase the demon that he found out that he was seen, disguised as a small girl coming from Sambyoche. He followed the demon and confronted it close to Ghami where he was able to slash him to the point that all his blood splattered on the red rocks near the village that are stained till now in red color. Out of the long demon intestine, Padma Sambavha alias Guru Rimpoche, created the base of the long Mani Wall in Ghami and the demons’ organs were entombed in the Dhakmar Stupas located near the Mani Wall.
So the demon was now history but the land where the demon had its lair and hunkered upon was still contaminated. Guru Rimpoche convinced the king to start the construction of a small monastery on that spot that would be surrounded by 108 stupas that would encompass the entire hill and according to the tradition would follow the profile of the large demon, cleansing in this way the place touched by the beast.

Mahakala murals

The very old looking monastery has a vestibule covered on both walls with a latticed frame having in each space a painted Mahakala. The same small Mahakalas are painted all over the main altar walls that are surrounded on three sides by glass cupboards full of old statues made out of clay or metals. The entire place looks ancient but the caretakers, like in all other places in Upper Mustang, do not know how old the painting is, estimating it around the 15th century. The monastery has also an upper level with impressive murals.

However, we appreciated the demon’s taste in finding such a great spot for making its lair. The views from the monastery were spectacular over the entire valley all the way to Tsarang seen on a backdrop of the Himalaya white peaks.
We took the road back through the villages of Saukre and Marang towards Tsarang and when we got in Dolma Guesthouse we found the same two Russian girls whom we left in the morning in the same spots checking their iPhones. Interesting day to spend on iPhone in Upper Mustang…

The three colored protection stupas

 

Chhoser

Lo Manthang is not yet connected to the power grid. It runs on solar power that is used exclusively for room light and is not distributed to the outlets. As a result, the time when the generators start running, around 6 PM, both locals and foreigners jump to plug their phones and other devices in the few outlets that are available in the guesthouse kitchens  because there are no outlets in the rooms. The kitchen power strips outlets become at that time the most coveted estate in Lo Manthang. The Chode Monastery’s guest rooms had the advantage of having generator power all night but for all the other places, the generator power is getting cut around 10 PM. However, in the entire town, you could see the power cable ran underground and mounts for electrical panels in front of groups of houses that is a sign that probably till the next festival the village would get connected to the grid.

During the festival, the village looks quite alive. Lots of foreigners from all over were in the village jamming the squares and roaming the alleys. Lots of them came here to trek for days in a row along the new or the old road, the same road on which I road in the jeep where the dust is on places 3″ thick and the relentless wind would constantly rise it to the skies like an offer to the gods of the future road to Tibet. When you trek on the road you step on these piles of dust and you feel like the monster from the legend because you move so much dirt under your feet and you leave deep tracks, covered quickly by the relentless wind. Nepal Tourism maps now new trekking routes to avoid the road that hopefully would be in place in two years from now. But in any case, trekking and visiting Upper Mustang is a much better experience than the one I had 17 years ago in Tibet where no food was practically available except instant noodles. Here wherever you go, you have good food in the restaurants, clean bottled water, OK beds in private rooms most of them with private bathroom, and even hot showers in every place. And as a bonus, starting this year, the cell towers can be used and you get sometimes a 3G signal that confers a clean Whatsup call and for me specifically, I can post this blog. Well, not all the time because most of the time you get the E on the phone and this only things you get through are limpid texts….It also exists a satellite-based Everest Wifi system across Nepal in which you can buy MB but the cost is prohibitive for blogging targeting mainly the high elevation expeditions.

Woman walking in Chhoser, Upper Mutsang, nepal

Most of the people left the previous day. Some will leave tonight and the village would reenter its lethargic life. Cows and horses would be driven home and women would still stand in the corner, knitting and gossiping protected by the penetrating lens of the cameras.

I decided to stay one more day in Lo Manthang and walk to Chhoser, a village at about 6 km off Lo Manthang. Chhoser is actually a collection of villages, maybe 7 of them that have caves and old monasteries hanging on rocks, all aligned on a valley of the river that tumbles dirty away. The walk to Chhoser is on a road, rarely passed by any vehicles larger than a motorbike but full of kids who are walking to the secondary school from one of the villages. We woke with them trying to engage them in a chat and gave them pencils and pens, in such a dire need everywhere in the country, like everything else, the looming and overpowering poverty of the Nepali villages.

After about 2 hours we reached the village that is the gateway to Chhoser caves and monasteries where we paid a foreigners’ entry fee of about $10 that include about four places to visit. I really hope that all these fees that are charged everywhere that may go to a good cause; taking pictures in the monastery come with a hefty fee, each day of the festival photo permit requires a fee, each monastery entrance has its own fee, always fees…

Shija Jhong caves, Upper Mustang, Nepal

The five stories Shija Jhong cave is just half an hour down the road, a luxury apartment that would have been called probably at the time, accommodating numerous families. You would hit your head navigating from one floor to another and explore lots of empty caves dug in the rock, each floor having at least 2-3 rooms with impressive views from various windows toward the valley and the river. The legend said that ruffians wanted to encircle and kill the dwellers and they blocked their water supply for several days. When they were sure that the dwellers would give up they saw a woman washing her hair in one of the windows. The woman was using oil but they thought that she was washing with water and gave up not knowing where the other source of water would be.

Lowo Nyiphug monastery, Upper Mustang, nepal

Lowo Nyiphug monastery hangs up on a cliff just across the river from the caves. You have to climbs steps to get to it and inside there are old tankas and murals that can be photographed. At its base, there is a monastic school that runs for about 25 years.

From the monastery, the road winds up on the cliffs around other caves used probably for meditation because they had some coloring inside and outside but currently occupied by herds of funny and fast tiny black lambs. It keeps going to the heart of the village where is the other Chhoser monastery.

Cave, Chhoser, Upper Mustang, Nepal

The old part of the village is made out exclusively of dug or natural caves, some having walls built out to protect from the rain and cold. All caves pockmark two adjacent hills, some being used as religious caves while others as living quarters Somebody built some staircases and renovated three of these caves, transforming them in a guesthouse in the sky and renting them for the time of Tiji festival with $50/cave!!! In a way, the caves reminded me of the ones in Matera, Italy only built in a less hospitable environment.

Chhoser old cave-houses, Upper Mustang, Nepal

The village has also a local daycare center with one teacher, possible funded by Jigme Foundation, the foundation started by the Lo Manthang’s Prince. I tried to find out from the local what is the prince’s name but nobody knew: ”We call him “the Prince”” We gave the kids more pencils and pens and all wanted to take pictures with us, so we obliged.

Suspended bridge in Upper Mustang

On the way back, we found Lo Manthang at a standstill. Every night of the Tiji festival, it was organized also a folklore festival for the villagers with village girls and boys performing traditional dances. This was the hype event of the day, way more popular for the locals than the Tiji, making men in the audience more excited by it than all the monks’ dances from during the day. But now all festivals were over, the foreigners were gone also and I found the square where all dances happened occupied by horses. A brand new mound of dirt was the sign that the work for bringing power to the local houses of the village continued and next year the village may be finally connected to the power grid.

Lo Manthang palace square, Upper Mustang, Nepal

The demon

The kings of Lo Manthang, like all kings in the world, built lots of forts and castles. They could not travel far and probably did not want to, so they had a castle/fort in every village around Lo Mathang. One such fort is located on top of a hill that flanks the village, a vantage point used for defensive purposes. Mud bricks, the technology of the day, made all forts and rain and winter freeze, partially or completely, ruined them leaving just walls looking like emaciated arms trying to grab the sky. The fort near Lo Manthang, meant to protect the valley and the village, still confers an interesting view over the village and charming views of the prayer flags blowing in the wind. In all four directions, you could see the walls of the four old ruined monasteries.

In Lo Manthang the festival was ready for its final day and its conclusion. The festival has a long history, starting in the 17th century when the Mustang King Samdup Rabten invited Sakya Trizin Ngawang Kunga Sinam in Lo Manthang to perform Vajrakila ritual for the well being of all sentient being and dispelling negative elements in Mustang. The monk resided in Chode Monastery but since then monks of Chode are performing this religious dance every year in the month of May.

The last day of the festival was surprisingly less attended. If the first day the foreigners were a majority, the second day the square was filled till the dancer’s circles with people who were fighting for good spots to take pictures, especially the newly rich Chinese who were as obnoxious as the new rich can be. Money does not buy class; you can see in our president… But the majority in this crowd were Tibetans who came to see their festival. Lots of kids-monks dressed in red parkas and lots of women with crying kids. There were all the villagers of the entire seven regions surrounding Lo Manthang congregating in one tiny square.

On this last day, the entire setup has changed: no more circle for the dancers, the place for the drummers were in the middle of the square, the audience was quite small, most of the foreigners left already together with a large part of the locals. But I found the third day the most interesting of the entire festival.

The haunting music of the longhorns and drums gave way to the Tsowa, who impersonating Dorje Sonam was keen to destroy once and for all the demon. The box where the two red tongue dog characters were shady-dealing the day before came back and in it was “shampa”, shaped like a demon who was sitting still and flat on his back in front of Tsowa.

Tsowa as Dorge Sonam was facing the back of the stage where also were located the longhorns and was standing strong on top of the demon trying first to destroy him with the Buddhist tools: a three colored rope, whose significance I missed, with the Tibetan bell, the purbhu (sacrificial knife) or with the dorje that is carried by all lamas. After each try, he was conducting the drummers who started to play at unison on the background sounds of the horns. Haunting and mysterious… I bet that the local people were mesmerized by the sounds and the elements of the entire show the monks were able to put together.

When Dorje Sonam figured out that all these things are not enough for such a demon, he started the real deal. Like in a voodoo ritual he received from an assistants mini-spikes and he inserted two at a time in the demon. The music became louder and more haunting until the demon was covered in spikes like a hedgehog.

Meanwhile three of the dog characters from the previous day were storming on the stage to protect the Tsowa during the Voodoo-like process and to shoo away the Chinese photographers who were always too close in the cheering of us all who were staying behind and have a Chinese dressed in pink in the frame instead of having the Tsowa and the demon.
Just in case if the mini-stakes penetrations were not enough, Tsowa started to cut the demon with a knife and just to make sure, he took a mallet and started to beat it to a pulp. With this, he declared himself happy and in the haunting sounds of the horns, he performed his last dance.

But this was not all. At one point Tsowa together with all the musicians, the drummers, trumpets, and longhorns started in a procession that stopped right outside of the gate of the village. They all chanted and drummed and danced together with the red-tongued dog protectors and were joined by four offerings made out of ghii, red and menacing and having a skeleton on top, each one carried by a man. It turned out that those were the food for the demons – why 4? Maybe for fat demons? – and together we started in another procession that stopped first on a large square outside of the walled town for more chanting and horns, just to continue and end up in an open field. The red tonged dogs did the job of guardians organizing the crowds and you better listened to them because they have some long, menacing swords.

In the field, Tsowa did his final spiel (or spell). He started his dance by the incessant drumming and haunting horns and took a bow and hit somewhere in the field, symbolizing that he hit the demon, or remaining demons, right in the middle of the forehead. He took after that a slingshot and sent two stones in the same direction hitting symbolically the demon again. All was done on the background of gun power fired from old muskets by the many locals in charge with this task, probably about 10 shots at a time. The noise was terrifying and was supposed to scare any other demons that may have had any ideas to come on this realm.

Tsowa’s last act was to recites prayers and dispose of each of the demons’ food, a process done with the same noise of gun powder muskets. The job completed, Tsowa and his entire monk retinue started to get back in town with all us following in pursuit and we all passed together inside the walled city, now cleansed of all evil, stepping at the main gate over a hay fire where we were supposed to spit out all our evil left in each of us. The monks went inside Tupchen monastery for a last rite and I step in the guesthouse because for sure I got a cold with temperatures in lower 30s F towards evening.
As somebody put it several days later: in a chaotic country like Nepal where few things work according to plans, this festival worked like clockwork.

 

 

Bardo

The valley going to Marzon, Lo Manthang, Upper Mustang, Nepal

Each day the Tiji festival starts around 2 PM and lasts for about 3 hours. All morning you could see locals sweeping the palace square and sprinkling water into the alleys and the main square where the dance would happen, hoping to keep the overwhelming dust stuck to the ground that would be awakened anyhow by the continuous wind. Monks are shuffling around the village carrying furniture, carpets, masks and all sort of instruments that would be used later in the festival ceremony in the palace square.

Marzon Caves, Lo Manthang, Upper Mustang, Nepal

Most of the foreigners take advantage of this hustle and bustle and leave the village for hikes around Lo Manthang. Marzon is one of these places, a collection of caves all dug in one impressively large rock, pocked with holes in its entirety. In Upper Mustang the caves were the norm for both living quarters and for meditation. The entire region is pockmarked with caves, the last count putting their number to more than 10000. Just recently a shepherd discovered about 33 of them, all painted inside, probably used in the past for meditation, but their location is kept secret by the locals and the conservationist Luigi Fieni who got involved in their preservation.

Young monks bringing the masks for the Tiji festival, LO Manthang, Upper Mustang, Nepal

Tiji festival is one of the most important events of the region and is attended by the members of the Mustang royal family as well as by all the villagers of the seven provinces of Upper Mustang who come to witness this sacred dance. The dance of the Tiji festival is led by the main dancer named Tsowa who had to complete a three-month meditation retreat before the festival.
Tiji commemorates the victory of Buddha’s incarnation Dorje Sonam over the demon named Ma Tam ru ta, who to make it even more Holywoodian, is actually Dorje Sonam’s own father. The demon Ma tam ru ta was a man-eater who created calamities and havoc on the villagers’ life.

Tiji Festival, Day 2

The legends with the demons that create havoc in the villages’ life stem from the beginning of Buddhism in Tibet when Guru Rimpoche followed and killed demons in Tibet left and right in order to pacify the land and establish Buddhism as the peaceful and stable religion of the land. The legends of demons abound and not surprisingly they are present in the Tiji festival. The demons were either killed or folded into Buddhism as protectors, in the wrathful manifestation form of another deity. In a way the Tiji festival is a reenacting of the Guru Rimpoche legend of the introduction of Buddhism in Tibet.

King’s protector deity dance, Tiji Festival, Day 2

If the first day of the festival was mainly a meditative dance with 15 steps that would confer the energy to the monks to help Tsowa to defeat the demon, the dances performed on the second day of the festival, named Na-Cham, have a different significance. It marks the birth of Dorje Sonam, whose demon father is watching the event from under a blanket in the middle of the square. Of course, the birth is actually a rebirth that goes through a Bardo and the dances are performed first by the same dancers as in the first day, followed by terrifying manifestations that are meeting the soul in his way through the Bardo till its rebirth. The dances have a sense of comic on occasions to be pleasing to the audience that cheers when they feel that the demon would be further challenged.

Skeletons’ dance, Tiji Festival

A dance of some terrifying masks that I was told that are the protector deities of the royal families who try to guard the soul in its travel through Bardo is followed by a dance of skeletons who come shivering and frail on the stage and end up tormenting the soul in its reincarnation process.

Tiji Festival, Day 2

In the end, Dorje Sonam, wearing a dog mask with a long red tongue, dances around the courtyard along with deities wearing animal masks who come on stage apparently fighting each other. All these animal masked deities can be seen on various frescos in Tibetan Buddhist temples; bird, tiger, horse, pig, etc. They don’t look friendly at all. Meanwhile the dog masked Dorje Sonam together with a similarly masked assistant keep conferring over a box that contains the demon – shampa – and after many conferences they agree and give a piece of the action to all the surrounding masked deities whom they are able by this process to fold them into Buddhist transforming them in protectors of the dharma and fighters against the demon. A little bribe always helps…

Tiji Festival, Day 2

It took a little bit of research to find out some of the details of this story because surprisingly people do not know the details of the dance no matter that probably they watched it numerous times. And the ones who knew were busy organizing the events. So more research would be needed to explain all dances and their significance.

Six days to New York

Lo Manthang, Upper Mustang, Nepal

Six days would take me to get back to New York from Lo Manthang. Well, maybe I can make it in five days if the jeep and bus would connect or if I would book in advance one of the 2X12 seats in the Jomson to Pokhara flight. But I don’t have any plans to leave this tiny place that had such an important place in local history.

Turning the dharma wheel, Lo Manthang, Upper Mustang, Nepal

The walled city of Lo Manthang did not change too much in the last several centuries. It’s actually a small village that played an important role for centuries as the capital of the Lo Kingdom. The Mustang region was absorbed in the unification achieved by Songtse Gyampo, the first king of Tibet who ruled around the 7th century.
Lo Kingdom established its independence in 1380 by Ame Pai, just to be absorbed as a suzerainty in the kingdom of Nepal in 1795 and ruled by the same royal family till 2008. When Nepal became a republic in 2008 the last king of Lo, Raja Jigme Dorje Palbar Bista, was asked to abdicate but most of the Mustang population still venerate the inheriting prince as a ruler, even if he does not have any administrative powers.

Making flour in front of the city gate, Lo Manthang, Upper Mustang, Nepal

Lo was a small kingdom but with a great role. The entire commerce between Himalaya and India was controlled between the 15th and the 17th century by this small principality. And nowadays it will continue to keep this control if the road that would connect Tibet to India would be finalized bringing the Chinese products to India on this shortest route, Lo Manthang being at only 10 km from the Chinese border.

Combing daddy’s hair, Lo Manthang, Upper Mustang, Nepal

The name of Mustang is actually an alliteration. The original name was Lo Menthang that meant the plain of medicinal plants. From Menthang it changed to Manthang and further to the more westernized name of Mustang.

The first day of dances in the Tiji Fesstival in Lo Manthang, Upper Mustang, Nepal

But the main reason I came here in Lo Manthang is for its vibrant religious Tiji festival, locally known as Tenchi. “Tiji” is a shortening of the word “Tempa Chirim” that means “Prayer for World Peace.” The festival takes three days and celebrates the victory of good over evil and consists of prayers, chants, and dances performed by monks dressed in very colorful dresses.

The dances are performed by the monks of Choedhe monastery in Lo-Mantang. Today, on the first day of the festival, the monks performed a dance called “Tsa Chham” in which they reenact the harassment of the demon, Ma Tam Ru Ta. The sacred dance is the part of the meditation practice based on the Tantra text related to Vajrakumar/Vajrakila. Its original name is Tenpa Chirim that confer the benefits of Buddha’s teaching to all sentient beings. According to the Buddhist tradition in Mustang the performers of this dance receive the empowerment of Vajrakila.

Tsa Chham dance in the first day of the Tiji Festival

Garlic soup

Sunrise from the roof of Chonde Monastery, Lo Manthang, Upper Mustang, Nepal

The altitude was the main concern when I plan to go to Upper Mustang. I did not forget the excruciating headaches I had in Lhasa waking up with the head in my hands in the middle of the night and dreaming that I slept on broken bricks or that my skull is the one I just bought in the market painted inside with a dancing daikini. In Cusco, I avoided the altitude headaches with the famous matte de coca, a tasteless infusion of coca leaves, but, in Tibet, I could not find a remedy. And I read that Lo Manthang is at an altitude of 3840 meters, 200 more meters than Lhasa. When I asked about some kind of medicine they told me not to worry about and just have a garlic soup in the evening.

Tea offering for guests in Thinkar village, Upper Mustang, Nepal

I never even knew that something like this gets cooked but actually, I found it quite tasty and it took all my concerns and the potential headaches away. But the garlic soup solved only the headaches. The altitude is still there and any effort you do in the first days, even from the simple one of tying your shoelaces to climbing several steps leaves a deep mark on you wondering how you could get so much out of shape. When I reached the parking in Muktinath and I had to walk, a very gentle and close walk of about half an hour, I felt like I was spitting away my soul. I did not know that Muktinath was at over 3700 meters altitude – and I was coming from the 800 meters in Pokhara – and was worried that I could not walk anywhere in Mustang. But like it happened in Tibet many years ago, times solves also the altitude problems but no matter what, you are still tired after a day hike.

Welcoming the guests in the village of Thinkar, Upper Mustang, Nepal

Empowered by the trust in the garlic soup and after I joined with all other foreigners the pre-Tiji prayers in Tupchen Monastery, I accepted the invitation of my guide Dawa to visit his village, Thinkar, about one hour walk from Lo Manthang where I met his parents and aunt, his father sporting a Yankees hat like I saw so many in Nepal. On the way back we tried to stop in the village of Namgyel and visit its monastery but the barking of several Tibetan mastiffs sent us away. The trips in Upper Mustang is guided mainly because you need to secure an access permit and second because in areas where transportation and accommodation are scarce you may need somebody to manage these resources.

Tupchen Monastery pre-Tiji full day prayers, Lo Manthang, Upper Mustang, Nepal

Lo Manthang’s life gyrates around its three monasteries that are the heart of the village. Tumpchen – big soul – Monastery was in the middle of a full day mass requested for the next day starting of the Tiji Festival. The monks were chanting and praying with the entire paraphernalia of Tibetan instruments, under the magical sound of the longhorns named Thungchen, accentuated by the trumpets, Gyaling, and the sound of the conch, dung.

Playing the “dung” – conch – in Tupchen Monastery in Lo Manthang

The mass was the charm of the foreigners who were all joining inside the monastery, either sitting quietly on the mattresses or buying an overpriced ticket to be able to take pictures in the monastery. The praying monks were from Chonde Monastery, the largest monastery in Lo Manthang, where it happened for me to stay several days. Besides these three monasteries, there is also another large one, Jampa Monastery in a not such a good state of preservation.

Sakyapa monks in Tupchen Monastery, Lo Manthang, Upper Mustang, Nepal

The prayers started in the morning and lasted the entire day, the longhorns and the trumpets sounding from the monastery’s roof around 5:30 PM the end of the prayers.

Playing the Thungchen, the long horns, in the prayers in Tupchen Monastery in Lo Manthang, Upper Mustang, Nepal

Upper Mustang

Gyakar village, Upper Mustang, Nepal

Even when you think that you asked all the questions for a tailored travel still many remain in the dark. The private jeep that I was offered was confused with a private shared jeep that did not materialize and I ended up with local shared jeep that stops wherever it has to drop passengers. In order to stop in all the Mustang villages, I decided to hire in the morning a private jeep.
Actually, there are no “jeeps” around Nepal. The locals call the cars used in this region “jeeps” no matter that was never any actual “Jeep” in this region. The mainly used 4X4 vehicles are India made Mahindra or on a more expensive scale some Toyota Land Cruiser.

Giling Stupa, nepal

The Mahindra Bolero rented from the community group had to cross engaging 4X4 two rivers right after Chunsun. I really doubt if it could do the second crossing, the water being almost to the doors.
After, two passes with spectacular views over the Himalayas that compensate for the road is a mess or better say it’s not an actual road on many places except that traffic follows a pattern and it makes it a road.
There are obvious efforts to modernize this road because, in the end, the plan is to create a direct connection between Tibet and Nepal bringing the entire commercial traffic on this route. If the Nepali government tried to preserve this area for its cultural heritage restricting the access for a number of years, this road for sure would destroy from a cultural point of view the entire region. Mustang obviously changed in the last 20 years but its remoteness still is able to preserve its cultural character. And the current condition of the road is limiting seriously the access helping in this preservation.

Ghami, Upper Mustang, Nepal

The portion of the road between Chunsun and Sangmochen is the worst imaginable. Here most of the road consists of one semi-lane stretching on the margin of the cliff with a drop of over 1000 meters where two cars coming from the opposite directions avoid each other elegantly. The 4X4 has to escalate rocks and navigate near waterfalls tumbling right near the road and continuing flowing on the road under the car. In front, an excavator stops the traffic trying an apparently impossible work of enlarging the semi-lane and plowing through the stones it dislodged in order to let the car pass. During this time, on top of the mountain, a hundred meters up from the road, there are people who try to lock in place the rocks. And you and your small jeep are just a speck of dust in this game.

The mani wall, Ghami, Nepal

But the view is spectacular having on the entire ride as a background the white peaks of the Himalaya. After Samar, where is a remarkable panorama of the Himalayas, is located the village of Vena with only one house used as a tea house.

Chaffing the barley in Tsarang Monastery, Nepal

The road gets better after Sangmochen and descends into Giling with its stupas and old monastery where you can take photos.
Lots of chortens were built for various events right near the road like the one in Chumka.
Next comes Ghami with its beautiful Royal Mustang Hotel and its legend-loaded “Mani wall”, the longest in Mustang area.

Tsatsas aligned under prayer wheels in Tsarang Monastery, Nepal

Tsarang or Charang is the second largest village after Lo Manthang. The monks of its large monastery are more restrictive in regards to taking photos but for an unexpected reason: art theft. Many monasteries and stupas were looted by foreigners who were hired by art dealers. The stupas, built in the honor of a religious person or a royal, contain inside as offers, jewels in its base. The monks say that thieves come and first take pictures in order to evaluate the art. After that, they come overnight, with no permits (permits are checked only at the entrance in the region) and during the night they loot the places.

Tsarang Monastery, Upper Mustang, Nepal

After about 10 hours of driving with stops on the way to visit we arrived in the walled city of Lo Manthang, the capital of the Lo Kingdom.

Himalaya Holy

Nilgiri towers over Jomson and Kagbeni, Nepal

If in Pokhara the humidity was overwhelming you wake up in Jomson under blue skies and with Nilgiri Peak towering over you. The impressive white peak offers a spectacular background for the Jomson airport where 12 seater planes from Pokhara are flying only in the morning. Towards midday the sky gets cloudy and the winds start to blow and maybe it even rains making the flights unsafe.

Guardian of the gate in Kagbeni, Mustang, Nepal

But the village that counts in the Mustang region is Kagbeni, 20 minutes away with a “jeep” as the locals call the 4X4 vehicles that run through the valleys. And Kagbeni is important because there you get your Mustang pemit stamped for both entry and exit.
Traveling into Mustang requires a permit. The permit is issued for a period of 10 days but with fixed dates of entry and exit and it costs $500/person. If you enter Mustang later than the day on the permit it’s your loss because your trip already started without you, so you’d have fewer days allowed to stay in the region.

Kali Gandaki River in Kagbeni, Mustang, Nepal

Kagbeni is the official border town of the Mustang region. A village that still preserves the old Tibetan architecture, including the first hotel built in the Mustang region named, maybe surprisingly, Show Boat. The mud houses look like taken from ancient photos, people dressed, sometimes, traditionally carry loads on their back supported by forehead while most of them listen to music played by their phones.

Muktinath, Nepal

Kagbeni is also the place where you embark to Muktinath, the most important pilgrimage place in Nepal for both Hindus and Buddhists. It is also one of the few locations that have in one place all four elements: earth, air, water and fire. Finding water together with fire is a rare thing and it happens in Muktinath where natural gas sips through the rock of a spring bed and burns gently under the pavement of a small temple. You could see the pale blue flame underneath together with the smell of natural gas.

The 108 water spouts in Muktinath, Nepal

Hindus come in throngs here in pilgrimage. Some are walking from the parking but others take a horse or are carried by four bearers on a flatbed. As I understood many happened to die trying to do the pilgrimage at 3800 meters coming from the plains of India. Besides, they (men only) have to undress in the cooler air and immerse in the cold water of two front basins. They exit the pools and have to run under the pouring water of 108 water spouts that are surrounding the back of the small Vishnu temple. In this way, they get cleansed and are allowed to receive the blessing in front of the altar. Kind of an ordeal because the water is very cold…

Whimsical shapes of sandstone, Mustang, Nepal

Cave monasteries are spread all over the porous rock of the Mustang valley. Chusang, an old and quite important village in the valley, the end of the jeep runs, has such a cave monastery that was passed in the same group of families for many generations. The dark interior hides Kashmiri style paintings that may be 600 years old.

The old village of Chusang, Mustang, Nepal

The road from hell

The road close to Pokhara

In the end, “banda” happened. Everybody was waiting in the morning the verdict if the strike would be enforced and even if you did not know anything about the interdictions you could realize that Pokhara was almost dead for a Monday morning. We kept waiting by a late suspension of the strike but nothing came so I settled for a private jeep to get me to Jomson.

Many years ago when I did the pilgrimage in Mount Kailash in Tibet, one of the trekking partners mentioned the Anapurna trek, an 18 days circuit from Pokhara. Part of it was called the Jomson trek, 8 days from Jomson to Pokhara. But two years ago chatting with a friend in Cape Cod, he mentioned about a new road that was opened all the way up to Jomson.

Close to Beni on the road to Jomson

About a third of the road, from Pokhara to Beni, was built many years ago but never maintained so it has patches of asphalt combined with portions of dirt road. In Beni we were stopped by police that asked us to rush and catch the other jeeps in front in order to travel in a larger caravan not to be stopped by the strike enforcers. We did not encounter any enforcers on the road, anyhow, but it reminded me when we crossed the mountains in Mexico, all buses grouped in a caravan at once. Security in numbers…

The highway part of the road. No big deal to pass.

But after you leave Beni you are delving in a territory that I could call “the road from hell”. Because the only work that was done on that portion of the road was just to be rough cut in the cliff. In many places, this road looks like a trekking path only that is made larger for cars.

Buses stuck in the riverbed

It is hard to describe such a road. You constantly cross riverbed, sometimes driving through it for a while, buses are getting stuck in them and you have to drive around them, the trucks working in building the roads block the way because they cannot have enough power to move filled with tons of rocks, bulldozers close the road for an hour to do their work, you may find a tractor across the road that is unloading its rocks, herds of goats, picturesque otherwise, may hinder your advancement, but most of the time you drive forward and backward in order to let another pass because rarely the road has space for two cars at a time.

A glimplse of Anapurna

When you leave Anapurna Conservation area that showed us a peak of a sun slitting peak you are advancing to Jomson where the elevation increases and the villages started to look more traditional.

Wouldn’t it fall on us?

Ghaza Village

Ghaza is one of the first village followed by others and culminating with an impeccably preserved village, Marpha, where starts the trail for the Dhaughiri Base Camp.

Marpha Village

After Marpha you forget the road and drive in the riverbed and you cannot puzzle yourself what happens when the river level increases. So after about 10 and a half hours of driving with several stops for site seeing mainly in Ghaza and Marpa we pulled in front of the Himalayan Inn in Jomson.

Marpha Village

“Banda”

Fewa Lake, Pokhara, Nepal

“Banda” means “closed” in Nepali. It’s always the result of a strike called by opposition parties in the mess that is the Nepali politics. The news came last evening and a general strike in Nepal can be very disruptive; shops and restaurants are closed but the most important is the interdiction for public transportation that may strand travelers. This “banda” apparently came with some violence, with bomb-making that went awry killing their builders in the morning in Kathmandu and with lots of arrests of the “banda” enforcers, as gossip was running through Pokhara.

Pokhara Mountain Museum, Nepal

The Maoists that joined the political parties in 2010 were able to win the elections together with the Left. They were able to fight united in the jungle for many years but after they got legit and into the political arena they were able to split right away into two parties. The group that are still governing has in its fold “Comrade Pracahnda” who rumors said that was very poor in the jungle but he enriched himself beyond limits after he got into the politics.

Stupa in the Tibetan refugee community, Pokhara, Nepal

But nothing can bother the tranquility of Pokhara’s beautiful lake as well as the fascination offered by its Mountain Museum, a collection of objects, photographs, and exhibits from all mountaineers who climbed for the first time the spectacular peaks of the Himalaya.

Waiting to play

Right behind the museum, it’s located one of the many Tibetan refugee communities. It has an entire village built in Tibetan style close by to a monastery near which monks play soccer.

Monks from Shree Gaden Monastery playing soccer, Pokhara, Nepal

Templed out

Mul Chowk Courtyard, Patan, Nepal

Besides Kathmandu, the long line of royals of the Mala dynasty that governed Nepal till recently left two more capitals in the valley that surrounds the city. Both were built in the same lavish style as Kathmandu’s Durbar Square, both full of temples and palaces with interior courtyards named locally chowk.

Funerary procession, Patan, Nepal

Located practically in Kathmandu but just across the Bagmati river, Patan is one of the oldest city of Kathmandu Valley, dating since the sixth century. It is named also Lalitpur, that means “the beautiful city” and for good reason, because its impressive collection of temples and palaces strikes you even you take in consideration the destroyed architecture following the 2015 earthquake.

Ceremony at Kumbeshwar Temple in Patan, Nepal

All these destroyed temples were are in the process of being rebuilt in the same style using the same materials that is required in preserving the UNESCO heritage status of the towns. Its temples are probably the most emblematic for Nepal: the stupendously beautiful Golden Temple that glitters in the sun, the mysterious Kumbeshwar Temple where is a source of water considered to be started by Lord Shiva himself, or the 108 Buddha representations on the gopuram of Mahabodhi Temple.

Durbar Square, Bharatpur, Nepal

About half an hour away, Bharatpur is supposed to be the oldest looking city out of all three. But I found it less interesting and very commercial. Old houses and palaces were converted in restaurants and shops and lots of places had an extra entry charge beside its town steep entry fee.

Newari conversation, Baratphur, Nepal

With so many temples visited is no wonder that I got “templed out” but all were unique and extremely interesting in their way. The last temple to visit was another half hour ride from Bharatpur somewhere on top of a mountain from where it was a spectacular image of the entire valley. The road ends at the entry of a village called Changu where is located a Vishnu Narayan temple.

Chung Narayan Temple, Chung, Nepal

A city made of temples

Blessing in Pashupatinath Temple, Kathmandu

It looks like that Kathmandu was once a city made out only of temples. Or at least this is the feeling you have walking randomly through its maze of streets and alleys. Even if you stray away from the main touristic places, everywhere you go you’ll bump in temple gems, shrines or surrounded old sculpted lingam or statues that in many other places in the world would be protected in museums. But here there are everywhere, fenced sometimes not to be encroached by traffic or knocked over by roaming cows.

Funerary ceremony in Pashupantinath Temple, Kathmandu

The largest and most important Hindu temple in the entire country, a temple dedicated to Lord Shiva, Pashputinath, is located a little bit off center. It is the most venerated temple for all Hindus and all Indians come here at least once in their lifetime. The pestilential river that looks full of trash that passes in front of the temple, named Bagmati, is almost as holy as Ganga and serves as a purifier for the bodies that are deepened in it to be sent to heaven before the cremation process that happens on platforms, by the river. All Hindu temple are completely off limits for non-Hindus, quite different than in India where you may be blocked to visit the deity’s shrine in the more conservative Tamil Nadu but you can roam freely through the inside of the temple, otherwise.

Durbar Square, Kathamandu

The devastating earthquake that rocked Nepal’s capital in 2015 left lasting marks on the city temples and mainly to the world heritage site of Durbar Square, an incredible collection of palaces and temples, many of them now in different stages of restoration. The work done to them peppers the heart of the city with scaffolding, building materials, stacks of bricks and shed made out of corrugated metal boards.

Flute seller in Kathmandu, Nepal

The streets are all aligned with shops selling anything imagined or crowded with vendors that make shop even on pavement if needed. As a result, the city traffic, chaotic as expected in this part of the world, is for sure the most jammed I have ever have encountered making Indian traffic looking almost like a breeze. Rows of parallel cars, trucks, buses, and motorbikes cram in two lanes, and they move if they are lucky, at snail pace. But a far cry different than in India, at one point the traffic just stops and you stay in the car surrounded by all others without moving for 15 minutes.

Floating on the cosmic sea Vishnu dreams ta new world in Buddhanilkanth, near Kathmandu, Nepal

A unique temple is in Buddhanilkanth, probably one of the most interesting representations of the Hindu gods I encountered. Vishnu, carved out of a single black stone lays in the middle of a pool symbolizing the cosmic ocean, kept afloat by the coils of a collection of naga snakes. In this manifestation named Narayan, Vishnu dreams a new world that would be created by Brahma who would emanate from Vishnu’s womb.
Just outside the city is the magnificent Boudhanath Stupa around which an entire thriving Tibetan community gathered.

Boudhanath in Kathmandu is the largest stupa in Nepal

Surrounded by monkeys

Swayambhunath Stupa and its impressively large dorje (vajra)

There are places that somehow you want to visit but things get entangled and the trips get postponed or pushed down on the bucket list. Nepal was pon top of my travel places to go and I was trying to get here repeatedly for the last 15 years. And always something happened and the trip got canceled. So I was elated to land yesterday after a very, very long flight at Kathmandu’s airport.

Monks playing long horns in the monastery located in Swayambhunath

This time I came planning a tour in Mustang, the old kingdom of Lo located far north at the border with Tibet, close to Dzongba where many years ago I spent a night on the way to Kailash. But today I was surrounded by monkeys in what the locals call the Monkey Temple, Swayambhunath Temple that has a tall Tibetan stupa on top of a hill that you climb on steep and many steps built in the 17th century by one of the Mala King of Nepal. The temple is interesting especially after sunset when the stupa is glowing in the spot lights and pilgrims come to make an offering to both the Tibetan Buddhas as well as to Hariti, the goddess of smallpox located in a temple on the platform. The city glows underneath while the Tibetan monks play their trumpets

Monks playing trumpets