Cave Adventure (Blog 6)
The following day, the village elder who was organizing the expedition to the caves brought me to a meeting with the other participants who would also be partaking in this adventure. Members of different demographics from the village were organized in a house by the village nunnery. The core expedition group consisted of the following people: Pasang (a builder), Ashwin (a scholar), Chogyam Dorje (a doctor), Shelby (a trader), Karim (a ritualist), and Milarepa (a trader)[1]. A few sherpas and a local hunter who knew the terrain were also assisting us in our efforts.
I learned from the group that one of the nuns from the nunnery had been tipped off by a lay follower that in the nearby ancient kingdom of Mustang there is a cave with many ancient Buddhist texts and humans remains left untouched by looters[2]. It was also apparently well known in Mustang that the caves were burial sites turned libraries hence the side-by-side existence of both texts and human remains. Regardless, our group was determined to set off with our sherpas and hunter guide to the caves in order to find out whether the lay person had indeed creditable information. We divided up roles and responsibilities and agreed to meet back in a week with all our supplies to set off. With the meeting adjourned, I made my way back to my house in order to rest up so I could wake up early to start forging the equipment needed for the journey.
The day of the expedition was finally here and all of my group members gathered on the outskirts of the village to set off. Wangdue, the foreman from my workshop, assisted me in bringing up all the axes, pickaxes, and other equipment we would need on the journey. Once I arrived, Ashwin[3] the scholar amongst the group was handing out maps to all the group members. Once everyone had a copy of the map our hunter guide told us that it would take seven days to get to the caves in Mustang and seven days back. Two out of the seven days would be spent in a deep jungle environment. The rest of the journey would be characteristic of barren snow capped lands that most of us were familiar with having lived in the village.
As we began to leave the village, Karim[4] the ritualist amongst the group prepared a ritual barley offering in the form of dough figures (jaba)[5] for a safe return to the village. This ritual was not dissimilar to the offerings made in the so called “Three-part Torma Process” where barley, colored butter, and cake are used as offerings to supernatural beings[6]. Regardless, as I looked at the treacherous mountain and jungle terrain ahead of us I was a little skeptical as to whether any sort of rituals would bring all of us back to the village safe and in sound mind.
The first two days were hard but everyone was pushing through and no one had fallen ill or gotten hurt. The wildlife hadn’t been a big issue either, surprisingly. But it was on the fourth day during the trip, the second day in the jungle, that our group hit a road block. Some of our group members were getting really sick with a mysterious illness including myself. Even the sherpas who were use to the wilderness environment were falling sick. Luckily, the doctor amongst the group, Chogyam Dorje[7], had medical supplies and was tending to the sick. When we all felt well enough to travel again we mustered on and out of the jungle.
With our delay in the jungle, by day eight we had finally made it into Mustang. Although many of the group members and sherpas were still feeling sick the important thing, I thought to myself, was that we all made it alive. The group and I spent the next two days recovering and it was on the morning of the third day in Mustang that our group got together and made our way to the caves in the North/East part of Mustang. Once on scene, I couldn’t help but notice that the area in and around the caves had a feeling of impermanence to it similar to the impermanence stressed in Buddhism[8]. As we began to set up camp at the base of the caves, the sherpas made their way to the top of the caves to set up for the descend down into the caves. The idea was that the sherpas would fasten the climbing equipment in place so that our group members could climb down two at a time. As the sherpas were setting up, I couldn’t help but notice how brittle the terrain was and I wondered if we would be able to make a safe decent into the caves[9].
[1] Medium.com Writers: Alison Noble (Pasang) https://medium.com/@AlisonJNoble, 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.
[2] YouTube, “National Geographic Live — Sky Caves of Nepal Part 1: The Climber”, URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMTZBw1SISA.
[3] Medium.com Writer: Ashwin Andrew Prabhakaran (Ashwin) https://medium.com/@ashwinandrew.
[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] Weckerle, Caroline, Franz Huber, Yang Yongping, and Sun Weibang. 2005. The role of barley among the shuhi in the tibetan cultural area of the eastern himalayas. Economic Botany 59 (4): 388.
[6] Kohn, Richard. 1997. An Offering of Torma: Religions of Tibet in Practice. Princeton University Press: 258.
[7] Medium.com Writer: Rory Nicol (Chogyam Dorje) https://medium.com/@RoryNicol.
[8] YouTube, “National Geographic Live — Sky Caves of Nepal Part 1: The Climber”, URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMTZBw1SISA.
[9] YouTube, “National Geographic Live — Sky Caves of Nepal Part 3: The Photographer”, URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1r7e7mhQ8s.
Bibliography
1.) Image URL: https://beautyqueenfromars.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/mustang_caves.jpg
2.) Kohn, Richard. 1997. An Offering of Torma: Religions of Tibet in Practice. Princeton University Press: 255–265.
3.) Medium.com Writers: Alison Noble (Pasang) https://medium.com/@AlisonJNoble, 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.) Weckerle, Caroline, Franz Huber, Yang Yongping, and Sun Weibang. 2005. The role of barley among the shuhi in the tibetan cultural area of the eastern himalayas. Economic Botany 59 (4): 386–90.
5.) YouTube, “National Geographic Live — Sky Caves of Nepal Part 1: The Climber”, URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMTZBw1SISA.
6.) YouTube, “National Geographic Live — Sky Caves of Nepal Part 3: The Photographer”, URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1r7e7mhQ8s.
