|
|
|
Wednesday, September 24th, 1997
Puja in Makalu ABC, 17.400 ft. (Per Lyhne).
It's a long way going up to Advanced Base Camp, you have to calculate at
least six hours, and most of the path is winding its way through big heaps of
sand, gravel, pebbles and rocks in all sizes, strewn across the whole glacier.
Certainly not a trek you want to make over again, once arrived here in ABC. But
in return for this, the view from here is impressive. The camp is situated
almost at the foot of Makalu's enormous, two mile high unclimbed West Face, thus
we are always reminded about why we are here. To the other side we look across
the Barun Glacier to a row of snow-clad unnamed 20.000 ft. peaks, one more
beautiful than the other, and culminating in the 23.517 ft. high mountain of
Baruntse.
As our equipment is carried up from the lower Base Camp, our home
for the next five weeks is established. The camp is pitched on the lower and
rather hilly part of the Chago Glacier. But nevertheless we have succeeded in
building small ledges to all our tents in ABC. For the sake of privacy, all of
us have a tent each, furthermore we have tents for our two sherpas, the kitchen
team, the Liaison Officer, the mess tent, day room for the whole camp, and last
but not least the shower tent, which happened to disappear during a storm
recently. Totalling twelve tents in a tight cluster here on the glacier.
On Wednesday our sacrificial altar in honour of the gods of the mountains was
built. The prayer flags and the Puja were arranged - the climbing of Makalu
could begin. The morning of the 24th showed a high and clear sky, and ABC felt
like a lump of butter in the middle of the moraine-covered Chago Glacier, with
the sunlit northeast face of Makalu like a lofty spectator in the stalls. And
Makalu is indeed worth a ceremoni. All of us have a view from our tents to this
huge and awesome mountain - resting firmly with its steep faces and keen ridges
with only a little snow, giving a somewhat ominous impression. Together with
Everest and Kangchungtse (the little sister), Makalu is outstanding, compared to
the other 20.000 ft. mountains around. Sonam tells that those three mountains
according to tradition are referred to as three sisters of god, who have to be
pleased as such. We have read that Makalu is synonymous with "Sura Raghe", the
male mountain god of the Tibetans and Sherpas. Sura Raghe means something like
"hidden sacrificial pyre" - and actually on some evenings you can see spots of
light in the red granite walls, like small fires as the sun sets.
Suddenly smoke is billowing from the sacrificial niche in the stupa; a stone altar
built of moraine rocks amidst the camp between the kitchen tent, the mess tent
and our private tents. We are ready to honour the middle sister as well as Sura
Raghe and pray for good luck. Sonam and his right hand, the sherpa Nima Rita, is
pouring kerosene over fresh juniper twigs, dhoopi, invoking the attention
of the gods and deliver the prayers with the smoke. We too gather under the
fragrant smoke and sit down at the stupa with our backs to Makalu, still
radiating its grandeur, remote and unattainable. But with this ceremoni we hope
to be received in audience - without being injured. An altruistic affection is
washing over us; an impressive and dramatic landscape, and being the passive
participants in a strange Buddhist ceremoni, gives room to thoughts of our
impending project.
Shere Tamang, our cook, emerges from the kitchen tent
with a dish of Nepalese cookies, a homemade cake decorated with chillies
together with our contribution to the sacrifice: Karen Volf cookies and Oxford's
Fruit & Energy biscuits. But time is not due yet - at first the 'maypole'
has to be erected from the stupa. By united efforts, Sonam, Nima and Shere erect
the 25 ft. tall pole, carried all the way from Yangle Kharka, more than two
stages from here. In Kathmandu we have bought the characteristic double-jagged
Nepalese flag as well as lines of prayer flags of several hundred feet. Our
Nepalese team had given a contribution to the prayer flags themselves, and the
flags were all covered with prayers. The Buddhist religion is in many ways very
pragmatic; instead of perpetually chanting prayers, the prayers are printed on
the flags. And as the wind blows, the prayers are carried to the gods. With some
difficulty, Sonam manage to tie a few juniper twigs to the pole, then follows
the Nepalese flag, then the Dannebrog, then a McKinley banner with "Follow Your
Instinct", and at last, rows of prayer flags in red, green, yellow, blue and
white, fanning out to all corners of the earth. Truly a riot of colours hovering
over our camp in this grey desert of moraine.
This time K. Gurung, the
kitchen boy, emerges from the kitchen tent. On a big bamboo dish, covered with a
cloth, he brings cups of sherpa tea and a bottle of rakshi, a local
brandy. The cups with tea are distributed, and Sonam begins the proper puja. In
a chanting voice, he recites rows of prayers, in which he explains to the gods
why we are here, what our objective is, and that we wish for protection and
escaping accidents and bad luck etc. In between the prayers, Sonam or Nima takes
some flour, rice or a splash of rakshi and throws it in either direction. And
from time to time, the dish with our offerings is passed on to all those
present; we are sharing the offerings with the gods! Especially the homemade
cake (at an altitude of 17.400 ft.) was delicious to share. In the middle of the
ceremoni we are having visitors, it turns out to be the local lama and his sons,
who have been visiting the Australian camp about 600 ft. higher to bless it, but
in turn came to visit our camp too at Sonam's request. But at first we have to
welcome them with cookies, chewing gum, tea and biscuits!
After a while the
lama sits down in front of the stupa and starts chanting a long row of prayers,
simultaneously moving his prayer chain up and down between his fingers. All of a
sudden he stops and looks up. Obviously he has arrived at a conclusion. Sonam
explains that the lama reads from the prayer chain, that we will succeed with
our project - and all the sherpas are smiling, happy and contented. We
Westerners may be a little more sceptical, but still pleased with the good news.
Together we all drink a toast by hand from the rakshi, which now is passed on.
The puja is over, and the camp and all its inhabitants are blessed. But to keep
the blessing we have to burn a few juniper twigs every morning, but on the other
hand we are not allowed to burn our waste while we are living in the camp. It
will bring bad karma, and that would be very unfortune!
