The kingdom of Lo is one of the few
places in Nepal that remains intact and untouched from the outside
influence. For Nepalese, it is land beyond Himalayas and land of
people with Tibetan origin and called Upper Mustang. For outside
people and Tibetan people, it is the only place in world where you
find Tibetan culture unaffected. It was forbidden to outside access
till 1992 due to its strategic position in the map. My dream to visit
Lo started during my childhood when my mother used to talk about
Tibetan people who migrated during cold months and used to stay with
her. To me, the narrations about their lifestyle and culture were
always interesting. For most Nepalese, Visit to mustang means Jomsom,
Kagbeni and Muktinath Temple. But, the kingdom of Lo starts once when
you enter into the restricted upper mustang area where you will find
all the colors of Lo. There is great deal of active discovery going
on in Mustang area in different areas that hopefully will uncover
traditional past of this rich area with hostile terrain.
I was accompanied by Sunil who had been
with me on a trip to Annapurna Base Camp one year ago. We started on
Friday evening when we took a night bus to Beni from Kathmandu. I
hated the idea of taking night bus but obliged for a longer stay at
Lo. After lots of delay, we reached Beni at 6:30am. Unfortunately the
direct bus to Jomsom was packed with people and we had to take the
bus to Ghasa. Ghasa is the border point of Myagdi and Mustang
district. From Ghasa after lunch we took another bus to Jomsom. This
route passes through Annapurna circuit and is one of the wonderful
places to be. It is a Himalayan region and is similar to Alps with
temperate weather and coniferous forest all over the mountains. The
Kali Gandaki river cuts the deepest gorge along this path with
Dhaulagiri in north-west and Annapurna towards south-east. We reached
Jomsom at 3:30pm. After some quick shopping we took our last ride of
the trip to Kagbeni. We stayed that day at Kagbeni in a cheap lodge
called Dhaulagiri Lodge.
We were excited for our first day into
upper mustang. I had seen the way into Upper Mustang from Kagbeni 3
years ago during my Muktinath trip and had grown that intense desire
to walk along it one day. Today was that day. We woke at 5:30am and
after taking some noodles, headed along the way. It was a clean
morning with Nilgiri shining towards south. Wind was blowing mildly
allowing us to walk easily. The directions appear rarely and are
sometimes misleading. Also, the population resides in villages only.
So, you must follow the map keeping directions and Kali Gandaki river
as reference. The terrain is semi arid with no cloud cover producing
intense sunlight. However, the presence of Annapurna range to the
south produces direct cold winds blowing from south. As day
progresses and sun gets intense it heats the air nearby pushing it
upwards. This creates vacuum below immediately filled in by the cold
air from annapurna. No wonder winds blow all day peaking during
afternoon. Our first taste of upper mustang village was Tangbe. It a
small village fenced by high wall to protect sand from getting into
village. We had tea as a break at the first tea shop. Tangbe seemed
like a oasis in a desert full of lush green wheat crops ready to be
harvested. Actually, this is common view of mustang during summer
near any village. Every village has a canal of water(kulo)
passing through every house which they use to drink, wash or irrigate
their farms. The most typical of mustang is the house architecture.
They are built from stone and soil found there that wont last
presence of good rain. The roof are multi layer consisting of wood
and soil made to protect snow and cold wind. Houses are mostly multi
floored that are close to each other forming a narrow pathway to pass
between. The next stop was chuksang/chusang which was fairly good
village. We filled our water bottles which were already empty. At
chuksang, there is division. The right path takes you to salt mine
from which you can follow a minor trail up to lomanthang. That is
great for camping trip. We accidentally followed that trail as we
forgot to follow our map. Later I realized that we left kali gandaki
river and were not on the way to Chaile, our next destination. We
returned back to chuksang and confirmed it from people there. On
continuing kali gandaki river you now walk along the river banks.
This path is perhaps one of the best path in the route with massive
colored cliffs. The cliff caves get visible from here. On crossing
the bridge, there was a small uphill climb to Chaile. This climbs
faces stiff resistance from winds blowing from annapurna. We had our
lunch at tsaile(chaile/saile). It is small village with few hotels.
After lunch, we continued on the noon heat to samar(pronounced
summer). This was perhaps the most difficult way of the day. The path
cut through cliff which was very narrow and dusty. Bursts of wind
blew sand over the face from above. The path was unusually long and
winding. The name “500 days of summer” reminded to me all along
the way. Sometime it felt we had lost the way and had to search for
footprints to make sure we were following the path trekkers used. We
reached samar at 3:00pm. We had tea and apple as snack break. Samar
is normally first day stop for trekkers but we continued. Our goal
then was the difficult point of Ghilling. We crossed multiple hills
slowly gaining height. We reached Bhena where we thought of staying
the night. Unfortunately, it had only single hotel and that too
seemed to lack any rooms. Our only option was to continue to
Syangmochen. It was getting evening and we were racing against
setting sun. We were climbing up the road and were told at Bhena that
we could see Syangmochen below once we reached the highest point that
road. That would not be an easy task once darkness came. We had our
only torch on and we were in search for light below in hope of
settlements. Finally we did managed to get sight of point of light.
But, now it was pitch dark and we were at the top of a hill and need
to climb down. It was difficult time indeed. Once we reached the low
point we lost sight of light. Cold winds blew. We were at the height
of 3800m then. We were not sure what we saw as light before was
settlement or not. At one point we started following wrong path to
Bhena but after studying footprints we backtracked and finally found
settlements. It was Syanmochen. We got to Nilgiri Hotel. Our head was
paining with day's trek in sunlight and cold winds coupled with
altitude sickness of that place. The good thing about hotel is that
it has hot water and is recommended place who stays at Syangmochen.
The night was no good either. My head was paining and I had small
fever too.
Morning happened quite early due to
previous night sleep problem. Our goal of this day was clear. No more
race to lomanthang but a slow steady walk to Charang below
Lomanthang. We started early after breakfast. Our first village was
Tamagaon. It was a small village with some good people. They provided
us with good guidance regarding path. We could continue Nar Phu trek
path and go to ghilling or could go straight to Ghami. We decided to
go to Ghilling to visit its monastery. It was all down slope to
Ghilling. Ghilling is the first large settlement in upper mustang.
The red monastery appears at the top of the hill. I had my first
taste of Tibetan Tea here along with Tibetan bread. Sunil had by now
started to show pain in his thigh part causing him to lag at times.
The monastery was unfortunately closed. We continued to Ghami walking
uphill. We were following the lomanthang road which would lead to
Ghami. We thought of making it our lunch point though we were full
with that bread. We reached Ghami at 2:00pm. It is also a large
settlement at a good height. We met a guide who was fanatic of free
Tibet. We had our lunch listening to his arguments regarding Chinese
influence in mustang due to presence of Tibetan people. We were told
Charang was at 3 hours from Ghami. The first half of the route was
steep height. Here, one could see the red hills that Tibetan folk
stories say are the blood of demon slained by Padmasambhava. It was a
hard climb in sunny day with cold winds. Instead of following the
winding road, we climbed straight following the tractor route. At
peak, we had divisions. The main road went right but steeped down
quickly while another road went left passing from above. Both of them
seemed to go in different direction. Worse yet, there was an
direction stone having direction pointing towards left. I grew very
skeptical at it. We inspected footprints which we were following
before. That also guided us left. So, we continued that way. That
path passed through multiple hills rarely going down. We walked for
hours before it was 5:30pm and we decided something was wrong with
that choice. On the way we met a Shepard below and tried
communicating. But, the distance was huge enough for voice to be
misheard. We continued that way for another hour. Finally, it sloped
down into a stream. Here we were left with horse footprints into the
stream who must had come to drink water. We were lost big time. It
was getting cold though we had an hour of day light available. The
person whose footprints we followed was definitely not of a trekker
but of a local shepard. We had no camping gear and at worse just a
packet of peanuts to eat. Wind was blowing heavily giving signs of
hypothermia. The map showed Charang to the south of Charang river.
Since we had no compass we had no way where to go. It was a scary
moment for both of us in pretty wild place with no sign of human
settlement in any direction. Sunil tried hard to make call but in
vain. The GPS too did not worked. I decided to return back and moved
to the uncertain left side of road. On the other side of hill, we met
a person riding horse. We asked him about locality of Charang. We
didn't even know if he knew any of our language. All we could see was
his hand pointing left. It was hard to listen anything in that windy
weather. Also, initial stage of hypothermia caused some mild
confusion. That person rode quickly and disappeared before we could
get to him to clarify. It was one of those weirdest situation where
you feel completely hopeless after loosing the only opportunity
granted. The only goal was to find road as it would lead us
somewhere. We decided to get to that small road that horse rider was
moving along. We moved downwards opposite to direction of that
person. We walked for half an hour when we noticed a line of road in
a distance. We raced towards it when we saw a resting tractor. “Human
settlement must be nearby” came the thought in midst of darkness.
On reaching road, we continued same direction. On reaching certain
height, we finally saw settlement. It was all there just beyond hill
we were seeing all the time. If we had known the direction, we could
have found out the location using map. For me, the lesson I learned
was not about carrying compass or about direction. It was a moral
lesson that failure comes to everybody, its only how we react/deal
that separates us from animals. My first question on reaching
settlement was “which village is this?”and the answer was
“charang”. It was dark then and everybody was inside their homes
warming themselves. We searched for the “Maya's Inn” hotel.
Unfortunately, it was pack as it was popular place among trekkers. We
had to take the outside room which was newly built. Charang was
warmer than Syangmochen and room was well protected from cold winds
by extra layer of wall outside. We compensated our previous night
sleep by that night's sleep.
I could never be as excited as this
day. It was day of Lomanthang, the capital of Lo. We woke up in a
relaxed manner. We had our morning breakfast with other folks who
were going to leave for Lomanthang too. We left for Lomanthang early
moving rightwards and then following the main road. This way was
pretty easy with less slopes. Passing vehicles were more common on
the way. The sky was clear and less windy. It was a perfect morning.
We reached Lomanthang at 12:00am. Our goal was to visit Chosser in
horse ride after lunch. But, the horses were unavailable for that
day. We had our lunch and after some rest, we roamed around
Lomanthang city. It is a very small city with entire city could be
circled within an hour in a slow pace. We tried to go to ACAP to get
some idea of things around but that was closed. We tried to enter
palace but King was reported to be ill and not available for visit.
We visited the nearby souvenir shop. Sunil bought a necklace made of
gems after some bargain. I was just interested in watching the pretty
face of shopkeeper. There are three old monasteries inside
Lomanthang. The main priest who stays in Choede Monastery has right
to open the door of the monastery. Unfortunately, it was close then
and we had to return back to hotel. At hotel, all the other tourists
pushed hotel owner to help meet with king and enter palace. After
some talk, 9 outsiders and 5 Nepalese were allowed on visit. Sunil
and I were the part of 5 team of Nepalese to visit. Since, king was
sick, the prince welcomed us. The palace was a four floored Tibetan
house. It is an old building made in 1460AD. The ground floor was
simple with wooden pillars. The first floor led to a large compound.
We were taken to the left inn. The first of the room was kitchen
where food was being cooked. It was an ordinary looking kitchen. At
last was the main hall room where we could see prince smiling in
normal dress. It was first time I was meeting a real prince in
person. We had bought Khata with us which prince used to put
around us as a greeting. We were made to sit around in chairs. We
began our discussion with prince who appeared calm and gentle. We
asked questions, shared our stories of travel, tried getting
information about status of the region. Once, I acted as an English
translator to the prince on the matter of history of Lo. It was an
amazing experience. Suddenly, we all felt part of same team that had
visited Lomanthang on the same day and were privileged enough to
visit palace too. We had guide of a camping group who knew a lot of
history of Lo. We spent a complete hour which was one of the lengthy
session. After talk, we took snap with the prince. We hurried to the
Choede Monastry to get possible access to the priest who kept the
keys to visit of monasteries. Due to encroaching darkness, we were
able to visit only one monastery i.e. Jampa Gompa. The monastery is
700 years old and has three floors with explicit meaning associated
to them. The middle floor which meant 'in' had large “future”
Buddha with two followers on the side. The wall paintings were the
most amazing part of the monastery. Different stages in the life of
Gautam Buddha and Tibetan deities were painted. The paintings used
inks made of gold and silver. The wooden carvings on the doors and
wall paintings show Newari influence in them suggesting Newars must
had traveled to those locations showing past richness of this area as
a center of culture demonstration. Work on renovation of these
paintings were under going, under the funding of American
Himalayan Foundation. The
rest of the day went inside hotel talking with the other tourist and
their guides about their experiences.
We
would be staying this day at Lomanthang. The thought itself gave me
happiness. After having breakfast, we started our horse ride to
Chosser, a VDC north of Lomanthang. I had always fantasized riding a
horse in Tibetan plateau. We slowly rode upwards and since the horse
was pumping blood to carry us ahead, we could relax and look around
and ask fellow travelers about the villages that we could see on the
path. It was an amazing experience. Slowly we could see the caves
from far away. In 2 hours, we reached the Chosser area. We went into
first monastery called Garfu. It is the second oldest monastery of Lo
after Lo Ghyaker, made in 9th century. It was dark inside and we
missed taking torch with us. So, we couldn't see paintings properly.
There was a school nearby, made explicitly to preserve this monastery
and whose students were from Nepal, India and other countries. The
schools there, runs for 6 months and during winter, it shifts to
Pokhara, my hometown. The wall paintings near the door was the most
amazing thing is saw in Lo. It showed the oldness of this monastery.
The wall was of mud but drawing was done by pure silver. The Buddha
was glittering even in the little light that entered the monastery.
The other walls had paintings similar to other monasteries. I talked
with the principal of the school trying to gain information about it.
The next and last monastery in the line was newer one. It had priest
having their daily worships and chanting. We were allowed in to see
it. After that, we hike up to reach the real beauty of Chosser, Jong
Cave. This cave is one of the numerous caves on cliffs that exists in
Lo and several of them could be seen right while trekking to
lomanthang. Jong cave has 8 floors stacked above each other and
wooden stairs were provided to reach from one floor to another. Each
floor had holes to view the beautiful view outside and let air come
in. The room inside each floor was unexpectedly large and well
structured. Brick walls were also present to create separation. It
must have been a good and secure resting place for ancient people of
Lo. Unfortunately, there was no adult guide in place to quench our
questions. I got up to 4th floor only as I never knew there was
higher floor above that. It was only when I returned to hotel did I
knew there was higher floor above that. The ceiling in each floor was
coated with black shoot of carbon mixed with oil showing wood was
burnt inside to keep room heated during cold times. We returned down
exhausted by climb but amazed with the hidden wonders of Chosser. We
rode back to Lomanthang in noon heat. After lunch and some rest, we
headed towards Choede monastery. We waited for priest inside their
canteen which was like any other school canteen but with a Tibetan
touch. We were given free tea and snacks. Finally when priest
arrived, other tourist had arrived and we joined as a team on the
visit. We first visited the Thubchen monastery. It has 35 pillars and
Padmasambhava as prime deity. The walls were painted as usual. After
Thubchen, we visited Jampa again. This time we visited the upper
“secret” floor too. At last, we visited the newer Choede
monastery. It is also an old monastery but had been rebuilt multiple
times due to damage caused over times. The masks priest wear during
Teijin and other festivals are kept here. It has a school behind
which also hosts a museum in it. It has lots of old Buddhist
scriptures and Tibetan artifacts. After visit, we returned back to
hotel. Our rest time went through discussing our two days visit of
Lomanthang with other tourist and singing songs as we bid our
farewell to this amazing place.
This
day we planned to go directly to Jomsom in Truck that went down
through Kali Gandaki river in one day. But, it rained during our two
days stay (all over nepal including jomsom but it was sunny all day
at lomanthang) at lomanthang due to which truck path was canceled. We
had plans to visit Lo Ghyaker and go to Ghami. But, Sunil had
problems with thigh that made him difficult to climb the height of
pass before Lo Ghyaker. So, we decided to scrap that plan and took a
jeep to Bhena. We had lunch at Syangmochen in Nilgiri hotel. We
reached Bhena at 12:30pm. From there we hiked all the way down
through same route to Samar and then to Chaile and finally to
Chuksang. Here, we could get a jeep to Jomsom. The intermediate way
we hiked, is under construction for allowing jeeps to move. The
construction work is underway at Samar and moving towards Chaile. It
is hoped to be completed next year. We reached Chuksang at 3:00pm.
The jeep started at 4:00pm and took us Jomsom at 6:00pm. We were
bidding our farewell to upper mustang (Lo) that had kept us away from
the tensions of outside world for few days and shown a completely new
world. We stayed that day at a cheap lodge. We stayed with a local
police staff who was returning home from Chosser on a month long
Holiday. He shared with us the life of police in Chosser which is
nearest check post to Chinese border. I got to taste my third Can of
China made beer (Lhasa beer as it was called) from him. It was
wonderful to taste it after day of tiring journey. All the way we
talked with foreign tourists, Nepali guides, local people, priests
and Nepali people on visit to Lo for some work. Each of them had
their stories but they all had the aspect of Lo in them. The number
of tourist is so less compared to other places that we knew well
before other tourists who were entering Lo from mouth of guides we
met in the way.
Our
last day would be return trip to Pokhara for me and Kathmandu for
Sunil. As before, we missed the sole bus to Beni and had to take bus
to Ghasa. We could feel the moisture brought by rain during our upper
mustang visit. The sky was clear as a result and the mountains were
visible just as in autumn season. Kali Gandaki was overflowing with
water. I felt like rafting on those violent rapids for some more
adventure. Lete was as usual the beauty queen. Dhaulagiri to the
north-west and Annapurna to south-east. It felt like we were on base
camp of both mountains. We reached Ghasa at 10:00am. We took bus to
Beni directly that took us to Beni at 1:30pm. From there, we took
quick taxi to Pokhara. It was 4:30pm when we reached Pokhara. After
getting sunil on the last bus to Kathmandu, I returned back to my
home with all the sweet memories of visit to the kingdom of Lo.
