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9th Sept
2011. (Hidden Valley)
I wonder on what
actually was going on between the easterly and the westerly blowing from the
lap of the Nilgiri and the Dhawalagiri respectively. It was difficult to figure
out their relationship; were they friends or foes. Early in the morning a mild
breeze travelled through the range of hills to meet Dhawalagiri, at dusk an
extremely hard wind, striking rigid hills, travelled to meet Nilgiri and at
noon a WAR which produced huge amount of fog covering the hills and creating
huge disturbances to passersby. And we were stuck at the meeting point of these
lively winds: Yak Kharka.
Yak Kharka, at about
4000 m altitude, was about 6 hours of walk from Tukuche. We had reached Yak
Kharka after parting out a number of nature’s hurdles. Fairly, Mother Nature
had become hostile enough to show us a way back. But, how could we give up with
our own mother. After all we had same spirit as she did. We found different
ways to escape better say struggle with.
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| Ghasa Village. |
Kali Gandaki roaring
down the villages of Mustang, Myagdi, Parbat etc., which we found along the side
of the road while travelling from Beni to Tukuche was the only inspiration for
us especially me to walk a long way on mild rain which could have easily ended
up with rain fever and common cold for some weeks. The furious rolling down
water was rhythmically hitting a huge stone in Kaligandaki. But the stone
always managed to be rigid enough to divert away the water as sand blowing in
air, in calm. What else it could be for me except inspiration.
Our travel to Tukuche
nevertheless was a travel worth to remember. The single lane road passing
through small narrow village followed by 60 degree tilting ditches could take
any one’s breathe for an instance. But extremely beautiful waterfalls, green
hills and beautiful Kaligandaki along the side of the narrow road made the
travel a worthy memory. Among the waterfalls Rupse Waterfall is the one that
stole my heart away.
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| Tukuche |
Tukuche is one among
the major stopping points for the people travelling to Muktinath. The small
village of Thakalies gave us a sense of cultural generosity on our first
glance. There existed four types of Thakali Society; Gauchan, Sherchan,
Bhattachan and Hirachan. Each society has their own god and there are four
monasteries built together in respect to these four gods, spreading the outer
world with the message of religious tolerance of this small world of Thakalis.
Thatch roofed stone houses with well managed firewood and Torans and Buddhist
Flags flapping above continuously with the cool breeze blowing all the day are
the specialties of this place. And most important is the simplicity and generosity
in behavior of people.
We diverted our way
from the trail which would further reach Muktinath via Jomsong and Kagbeni. We started
climbing up the steep hill above Tukuche to reach Yak Kharka. Enigmatic
environment of this place did not seem like in the welcoming mood. Cold wind
blowing extremely was compelling our heart to scream. But yet we managed to
stay there.
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| Yak Kharka |
Morning in Yak Kharka
was pleasant. Beautiful view of Nilgiri and Dhawalagiri on the blue background
of sky and white patches of cloud, in no words, could be explained. Besides,
the sudden development of fog due to a war between chilling and moist winds and
its disappearance within few minutes leaving out clear view of ranges of hills
and mountains can easily put any nature lover under the captive. Yak Kharka, as
suggested by name, is the grazing land for yaks especially in winters. This
place has some yak stable and few high altitude goats; chyangra stable. This
place also holds some cultural significance. During August-September, a huge number
of people visit this place to drink yak bloods. They believe that yak’s raw
blood would make them healthy and cure many diseases including cancer.
