A spiritual trip to the peaks of the Mustang region, in Nepal

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A Journey into the Lower Mustang
And so ... this year nothing Tibet. For some strange reason my clients and I while we were waiting to fly to Kathmandu to Lhasa, we felt to say no, a permit for Tibet this time we gave him ... What to do? View a map of Nepal and decide to lower the Mustang that none of us had visited: a mixture of walking and transfers in the car, not too tired, unlike the Mustang true where you have to trek sleeping in tents. Got into the Toyota, we are in Pokhara and from there we move to Tatopani, leading up to the Mustang. We are thus in a region of the majority Buddhist culture and religion, and even in some parts of the Tibetan language. Tatopani, a small village with one road paved with stone slabs, such as a car-free pedestrian zone, is known for its hot springs, but we make a trip to Narchung, a village an hour's walk away. The inhabitants are of Mongolian origin, a mixture of Buddhists and Hindus, a community of farmers and goldsmiths. Narchung is at a height of 1346 meters and the only access road is a suspension bridge. The houses made of stone with slate roof. I walk these streets between stone and seems to be in a village of huts on the mountains, there were few people and the meetings are limited to three smiling children and a young woman who gives instructions to the tailor sitting on the ground with his machine sew. Lete we head towards where you enter officially in Mustang and continue to the village of Tukuche. Now we really have entered a Tibetan-Buddhist atmosphere. Shortly before the houses are already a wall of hands es'intravedono gompa. The gompa, as everywhere in the Lower Mustang, are relatively new and almost all belonging to the Nyingma school. Inside are simple but comfortable. A Tukuche meet the abbot, who is building a statue in the courtyard, and entertain us with a brief conversation in Tibetan. I feel at home! A Tukuche, we hosted a small family run lodge. Walking along the only road in a courtyard discover an ancient inscription that tells of the visit of Japanese monaco Kawaguchi, had passed this way on the road to Kailash and then to Lhasa. Ekai Kawaguchi was one of the few travelers who had managed to enter Tibet and stay there for three years without being discovered at the beginning of 1900. The landscape becomes increasingly arid, the vegetation lush valleys gives way to vast valleys dominated by the majestic Dhaulagiri and Nilgiri chain of ice-covered. At one hour by car or two hours walk on a road that now can be defined "track", is the village of Marpha, at 2650 meters. The machines are outside the village and enter passing under a stupa. The road is made with flagstones and lined with stone houses and shops, many of them run by Tibetans. In the afternoon we go to visit a modern Nyingma Gompa. Above the gompa a house supported by wooden poles and clinging to a rock wall serves as a retreat center and the mountain, to the right, you see an enormous stupa. I wonder how did they build it up there, but looking more closely I realize that this is a rock painted like a stupa. The flat roofs, from which the colored flags waving-are covered with large trunks of trees. The next day I set off on foot towards Jomson, at 2743 meters. I walk alone through a deserted valley, beautiful. There is no sound, very few motor vehicles. I walk with the nose, never tired of watching the glaciers that surround me. It seems that a gentleman living on those glaciers ... lord of the wind every day, tired of being alone, around 11 starts to blow over the valleys, and stop doing it around 16, leaving the cold down the mountain. Approximately one hour from Jomson see on my left a village that he is all alone on a hill, Syang. Exceeded the usual votive stupas I am one of the houses shut with padlocks, the silence and the lord of the wind. It's the desert! I find only a little girl in the mood to smile, and a courtyard, a couple who built a hemp rope. Continue towards the gompa-Sree Tashi Lhakhang of the Nyingma school of higher-built homes. I go down the other side and head for Jomson through a very wide valley cut by a small river during the monsoon I suppose it will be impractical. Jomson is a city with an airport! Again because of the gentleman who at 11 began to blow the air-small-connecting Pokhara and Jomson interrupt their work by the hour. Even here only a very wide road, with a market of vegetables and lots of tourist shops, including the inevitable German Bakery. And we start to Kagbeni, the last village of our trip to the Mustang. We are at 2870 meters. After visiting the gompa Samphel ling me I take a walk in the village that brings me in a stupa where the ceiling is decorated with many paintings and mandala of the Buddhist pantheon. I'm Going before the statue of a person on foot clutching a knife in his right hand with the erect penis. The guide tells me he is the protector of the entry to the village, that leaving is his partner. The next day, through a barren landscape and beautiful, we get to Muktinath. In the distance we see first the village of Jarkot peeping on top of a hill behind it and check Muktinath, surrounded by the Dhaulagiri. We stop to photograph Jarkot and descend on a slope that ends in a deep ravine at the bottom of which the river flows peacefully. As I look around the famous flowers and a scent known. And thyme-thyme ... you will say "so what". Be ', then nothing! For me it is a map with many memories and collect two bags full. Finally we get to Muktinath, a village messy and full of trekkers, because finding the rooms is a major problem, but we manage. The name of Muktinath, or even Muktichhetra, comes from "Mukti", and "nath", meaning "the place of salvation." In fact it is one of the 126 places of pilgrimage dedicated to Vishnu that every good Hindu should visit at least once in their lifetime. It is located at 3750 meters high. The temple where I'm going is venerated by Buddhists. On entering the complex you can see the temples pagodeggianti, and especially the priests, a mix of Hindu priests and Tibetan nuns. The main temple dedicated to Vishnu is semi-surrounded by a wall from which water flows through holy 108 fountains in the shape of a bull's head. Devotees bathe in them, or drink its water. When the lord of the wind has stopped growling and the huge yellow ball suspended in the sky begins its descent to other places I start walking towards the village, and I can not help but stop to drink tea in a little place that bears the name of Bob Marley! The next day, the last to Muktinath, we take a hike on top of a hill at 4070 meters, the border of Upper Mustang. The path goes into a deserted valley, and they make me company scents of herbs and the snowy mountains which surround. From the top of the hill in the distance you can see I Manthang-the capital of Mustang, and the summer palace of the king, after a mountain marks the border with Tibet Our journey is over. I must say thanks to those who did not allow me to enter Tibet, because I was offered the chance to meet a beautiful Himalayan region, inhabited by friendly people and smiling. Maybe a little 'uncomfortable.