Cave Adventure 2 (Blog 7)
Once the sherpas had finished setting up the ropes and equipment for our descent down the mountain, the first of two sherpas went down to test the stability of the ropes. She made it down to the caves with no issues but the second sherpa was a rather heavyset man who made me cringe when he began the descent down the mountain given the brittle terrain he was traversing. He was about half way down to the caves when suddenly several of the support anchors, which I crafted, dissolved into the terrain causing them to become loose and come out of place. This poor man never stood a chance. As soon as the anchors gave way the rope was suspended in mid-air and the sherpa fell all the way down to the base of the caves where our camp was set up. Instantly I knew he was dead.
Immediately our group began to descend the mountain to the base. Chogyam Dorje[1] tried his best to give the man medical care but it was obvious to us all when we got close that the sherpa was entering the after-death state and on his way to the bardo realms[2]. The next two days were spent giving the sherpa the mortuary rites, as expounded by his colleagues, that he deserved with the concluding ceremony of cremation as was customary for Tibetan Buddhist followers of almost all social classes[3].
With such a traumatic situation playing out, many of the group member’s moral and motivation were down. I was questioning myself whether or not the support anchors which I crafted at my workshop were too weak or deficient in any way. But I soon realized, once the group and I were back at the top of the mountain, that the terrain was to blame and not the tools. At least that’s what I kept telling myself. Regardless, we were back at the top of the mountain ready to once again rappel down the mountain and into the caves. Karim[4], the ritualist, prepared a smoke cleansing offering so that hopefully we would avoid any mishaps this time around[5]. Thankfully, we were able to find secure enough terrain, for the time being, to finally get down into the caves.
I was completely overwhelmed once the group and I actually got into the caves. The caves all started out as a single space but then expanded into a labyrinth of rooms with multiple floors[6]. Not only that but many of the rooms were filled with ancient texts, wall paintings, and human remains. We even found a relic monument holding perhaps the remains of a very famous lama[7]. Unfortunately, it had fallen victim to looters. It seems the lay person who tipped off the nuns about this place wasn’t exactly right. Still, there were many treasures within the cave that were begging to see the light of day after who knows how many centuries.
The group and I spent the next couple of days gathering and sorting out which documents to take with us back to the village. Unfortunately, we couldn’t bring them all as there were more than we could carry. Ashwin[8], the scholar in the group, was of great help when it came to figuring out which of the texts were important enough to take back. Even I assisted with the effort as I was a novice scholar myself but not to the degree of Ashwin. Once we had a good amount of texts to take back we started to wrap up our expedition. Some artifacts were also part of our return package.
The morning of our departure, a few of the group members decided to go back into the caves to take one last look at the beautiful wall paintings. Although I felt like joining them, my body was too exhausted and I stayed in my tent until they would come back. As I was lying down thinking about all the adventures this trip had brought me, I suddenly heard a loud scream and the cries of my group members. I quickly got up and out of my tent and hurried to where I saw everyone standing and crowding.
As I got close enough to see what was going on I noticed a trader from the village, Shelby[9], on the floor with Chogyam Dorje, the doctor, tending to her. I asked another group member who also happened to be trader, Milarepa[10], “what happened”? He told me that as Shelby was trying to climb out of the caves the rope gave way and she fell. Luckily, I could see that she hadn’t suffered the same fate as our sherpa. Chogyam Dorje told us that she had suffered a broken back and possible a broken leg. All of the group members quickly began helping Chogyam Dorje with whatever he needed to tend to Shelby. I ran to get a make shift stretcher thinking to myself the words of the Buddha given all the suffering this adventure brought: “Quite wasted away is this form, a nest for disease, perishable. This putrid accumulation breaks up. For life has its end in death”[11].
[1] Medium.com Writer: Rory Nicol (Chogyam Dorje) https://medium.com/@RoryNicol.
[2] Evans-Wentz, Walter Yeeling. The Tibetan Book of the Dead: Or the After-death Experiences on the Bardo Plane, According to Lama Kazi Dawa-Samdup’s English Rendering. Oxford University Press, 2000.
[3] Schaeffer, Kurtis R., Matthew Kapstein, and Gray Tuttle, eds. Sources of Tibetan tradition. Columbia University Press, 2013, Pg. 465.
[4] Medium.com Writer: Karim Sarif (Karim) https://medium.com/rlg206y-2014-15/due-to-issues-with-twitter-deleting-my-account-twice-im-posting-this-lump-blog-1-7-so-that-i-don-89a3511ea02e.
[5] YouTube, “Sang Puja — A Cleansing Smoke Offering — Jan. 2014”, URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kS4QhgUSk08.
[6] YouTube, “National Geographic Live — Sky Caves of Nepal Part 1: The Climber”, URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMTZBw1SISA.
[7] YouTube, “National Geographic Live — Sky Caves of Nepal Part 2: The Scientist”, URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzu5JAgb2vQ.
[8] Medium.com Writer: Ashwin Andrew Prabhakaran (Ashwin) https://medium.com/@ashwinandrew.
[9] Medium.com Writer: Shelby McIsaac (Shelby)https://medium.com/@shelbyy1993.
[10] Medium.com Writer: Stephen Patterson (Milarepa) https://medium.com/@1234in234.
[11] Trans. John Ross Carter and Mahinda Palihawadana, The Dhammapada: The Sayings of the Buddha, Oxford University Press, 2000, Pg. 28.
Bibliography
1.) Evans-Wentz, Walter Yeeling. The Tibetan Book of the Dead: Or the After-death Experiences on the Bardo Plane, According to Lama Kazi Dawa-Samdup’s English Rendering. Oxford University Press, 2000.
2.) Image URL: http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/08/27/article-2403094-1B7B0F0D000005DC-637_964x631.jpg.
3.) Medium.com Writers: Ashwin Andrew Prabhakaran (Ashwin) https://medium.com/@ashwinandrew, Rory Nicol (Chogyam Dorje) https://medium.com/@RoryNicol, Shelby McIsaac (Shelby) https://medium.com/@shelbyy1993, Karim Sarif (Karim) https://medium.com/rlg206y-2014-15/due-to-issues-with-twitter-deleting-my-account-twice-im-posting-this-lump-blog-1-7-so-that-i-don-89a3511ea02e, and Stephen Patterson (Milarepa) https://medium.com/@1234in234.
4.) Schaeffer, Kurtis R., Matthew Kapstein, and Gray Tuttle, eds. Sources of Tibetan tradition. Columbia University Press, 2013.
5.) Trans. John Ross Carter and Mahinda Palihawadana, The Dhammapada: The Sayings of the Buddha, Oxford University Press, 2000.
6.) YouTube, “National Geographic Live — Sky Caves of Nepal Part 1: The Climber”, URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMTZBw1SISA.
7.) YouTube, “National Geographic Live — Sky Caves of Nepal Part 2: The Scientist”, URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzu5JAgb2vQ.
8.) YouTube, “Sang Puja — A Cleansing Smoke Offering — Jan. 2014”, URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kS4QhgUSk08.
