Day 10 :: MONDAY 24 Aug 2015 At Dirapuk, prayers to the North face …… heading back to Darchen

A Monday is traditionally associated with Shiva. Somvar ( Monday) for Someshwar!! And we were to do our Guru Puja for all the masters in front of the North face today!!

We awoke early and did our morning duties, had a quick breakfast and walked a few steps out of the Shishapangma hotel and assembled in front of the North Face.

Did a Guru Puja and chanted Shambho!!  Opening ourselves up to the divine. My wish was to offer myself to Shambho and I hope that he has accepted even a small portion of my offering !! I was not looking to get something from Mt kailash, but leave a major part of myself there as an offering. I don’t know in what form I could offer or in what form would He accept, but the intent was to make an offering. What can we as mere mortals offer the Creator, when we ourselves belong to him? What can we offer that He has not already created? What do we have to offer that He does not already have?  So in my own way, it was like a home-coming… offering myself to the Creator, from whom we all come. Back to the source!!

After a brief meditation in front of the North face, we collected Mt Kailash water from a stream running down from the melting snows of Kailash. I had carried two new Tupperware bottles for this and I collected water in both of them.

Wanted to give a bit of Kailash to Dilip Shah who did not make it to the trek beyond Darchen, which I did after I returned back to Darchen. Later on I also gave some of this water to the jet airways checkin person at Delhi airport as he was very keen to have some. 

He is nurturing a keen desire to go to Mt Kailash and while checkin in he realized that we were just back from there. So he requested and I gladly gave him a half bottle of Kailash water. Shambho !!!

It is only after I returned home to Coimbatore a few days later that I myself tasted the Kailash Water and strangely, it has a strong taste of Vibhuti / camphor... It is not just my hallucination but all of us at home sensed it very clearly. The bottle was a fresh new bottle, the water was directly from the melting snow at the  North face , where does the flavour come from ??  Shambho!!

I wished we had one more nights stay at Dirapuk in front of the North face. But the team was to return immediately at 1100 after the morning Guru Puja and meditation. We did not even trek to the base of the North face and touch Mt Kailash with our hands. All that we got was a good long sighting of Mt Kailash and with that we were happy.

The trek back to Yama Dwar / Darchen was a speedy affair. A few of us decided to opt for ponies on the return leg. The trekkers and the pony riders made haste past the west face, now pausing to click a few snaps here and there. We left at 1100 and were back at Yama Dwar by 1700. Boarded the waiting buses and headed back to the Hotel Peacock at Darchen. Shared the Mt Kailash water with Dilip Shah and quickly connected back to wifi and called up folks back home on whatsapp!!  Shambho!! What a journey.

It all happened so fast that the mind was still a bit numb.. there was an yearning to go back there but our plans did not allow for that!!  That evening / night it went in a daze… the Tibetan hawkers were back there but none of us had any eagerness this time for mundane shopping… Did something touch us at Mt Kailash, did we open up fully, did we leave some of the me behind there, or did we merely return as tourists? Time will tell…  Maybe we shall make this journey once more in this lifetime!! Maybe !! Shambho !! Shambho !!!