Cave Expidtion — Week 7

We have now started to embark on our journey to the Mustang cave, we are fist going through the jungle, I am happy that I bought winter clothing as it has been quite cold so far on our journey. Our journey is especially long because the plateaus do not have a lot of vegetation so we have had to pack all of our food with us, without having the option to eat something from the land if necessary. As we are getting closer to where we believe the cave will be I am starting to get nervous that something can go wrong. Although we brought prayer flags and precious amulets to protect us, it seems like there could still be something that goes wrong.

We got to the cave, finally! Although I am a little bit nervous about climbing the cave I have decided that I will just push through the fear and continue my journey. We first had a purification ritual performed where two of the people from our group burned juniper and chanted mantras, while this was happening smoke was rising up to clear our path up the mountain so that we all will be able to make it up and down the cave safely.

Now that the purification ritual is over we started to climb the cave, a few of the more experienced climbers went up the cave first, and they had no issues with getting up although we did have to be patient as is did take some time. Once the climbers were up in the cave they sent down ropes to assist us with our climb. The people who were already in the caves were speaking of the immediate treasures of scriptures found, until I could no longer hear them when they went deeper into the cave. It excites me to know that we could be potentially reaching our goal of finding undiscovered texts, it would be very exciting if we were to find a terma, to think that we are ready for new teachings at this point in man’s time. I am now half way up the cliff when the rope I am using tears, I suddenly loose my footing and fall down to the ground. As I woke I was told that I was unconscious from the fall that I had taken, I cannot move as it is much to painful, it seems that my back has broken, the back of my head is bleeding and I cannot move my neck.

Thankfully Chogyam Dorje who is our only healer had not gone up into the cliff yet and was able to assess that I would be able to live. While I was unconscious he dressed my wounds, and gave me medication for fast healing and for the fracture in my head.

I do not understand how this could happen as there was a purification ritual performed, perhaps did not reach the part of the cliff that I was climbing. We have been here for a few days now, as most of the other people are exploring the caves still. Unfortunately I was unable to see all of these things myself as I am still unable to move but I have heard that there is many scriptures found, amulets, drawings on the walls, and what we are still hoping that there may be a terma. We will have to bring all of these back to the nunnery to get them better assessed, especially if there is a terma as it would be so exciting to discover a text that has a unread teaching in it. I also found out that there we bones found in the cave, and that they may be of a King, a Lama or a pauper.

I hope that I will be able to go back when everyone is done exploring the cave, as I fear that people will also have to be transporting all of the treasures found in the cave to bring them back to our village. Hopefully the treatments that were given to me will start to allow me to regain the feeling in my back and head. We will be leaving to come back to the village within a few days from now.