Himalayan High Life
The next morning I wandered through Shigatse's Tashilhunpo Monastery,
famous for being the home of the Panchen Lama, the second highest ranking lama in Tibet after the
Dalai Lama. Located on a hill in the center of the city, the monastery's Tibetan name literally
means "heap of glory", and after viewing its murals, statues, buddhas, resident monks and scores of
devout pilgrims, I could see why.
Overnighting in the village of old Tingri about 90km from Base Camp, day three of
our expedition saw us up again before dawn in order to catch Everest at sunrise. Our headlights
picked out the rough contours of the track in the inky blackness, as overhead the sky was a
breathtaking kaleidoscope of stars. An hour later we entered the base of the Ronghpu Valley, and
rounding a crumbling promontory of rock glimpsed Everest up close for the first time. The
crystal-blue north face reared up like a natural chörten above the living river of gritty ice that
forms the Rongphu Glacier. Back-lit and crowned with a halo of early morning sun, and plumed with a
soft feather of snow dancing in the azure jet stream above her head, here was truly a goddess among
mountains.
It was time for the final push toward the climax of our trip. Sprightly as ever, Jamdun jumped
back into our trusty Land Cruiser and by late afternoon we were at the gateway to Mt. Everest
National Park, streamers and prayer flags fluttering in the strong breeze. The highest mountain in
the world, named after a colonial bureaucrat by the British, is known as Chomo-lungma (Mother
Goddess of the Land) in Tibetan, and Mt. Qomolangma in
putonghua.
After some passport and permit formalities near the town of Tingri, we switchbacked up the
head of a steep-sided valley, each successive turn offering increasingly magnificent views over the
road just traveled. Finally cresting a ridge past a colorful array of prayer flags and twin
Buddhist cairns, we were rewarded with a view of dramatic proportions. Stretching across the
horizon beneath a cloudless lapis sky was the colossal Himalaya Range, a chain of jagged, snowy
peaks straining upward like the ramparts of an ice-bound fortress. From Mt. Makalu in the east to
Mt. Shisha Pangma in the west, here were five of the world's fourteen peaks over 8000 meters,
dominated by the massive pyramid of Everest.
About Me
After several years hacking his way through London's PR and advertising
jungle, and another couple of years in recuperative sabbatical in France and Korea, Daniel Allen's
quest for a more Bohemian-styled life of art and journalism led him to the Chinese capital,
Beijing.
(This article and others are available for purchase on the author's personal website - www.asiapictorial.com. No text or photos may be reproduced here without the author's permission. © Daniel J. Allen)
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