Monday, 2 November 2015

Memoirs of North Sikkim - Visit to Gurudongmar Lake - Part II ( Chopta Valley and The Lake)

So it is the time to write about Gurudongmar Lake as I stopped at my last post for this and also requested you all to wait for this one. Before writing about it I must warn you, please don’t get crazy and don’t start feeling jealous as this post may cause little emotional injury to your thinking and expectations or it may tickle your inner wish to escape from your surroundings.


Let me brief about Gurudongmar Lake a bit .


Gurudongmar Lake, also known as Gurudogmar Lake, is one of the highest lakes in the world, located at an altitude of 17,800 ft (5,430 m) in the Indian state of Sikkim. It is a lake which is considered sacred by both Buddhists and Sikhs. The lake is named after Guru Padmasambhava, also known as Guru Rinpoche, founder of Tibetan Buddhism who visited the lake in the 8th century.

The lake is not only blessed by Guru Padmasambava but also by Guru Nanak, the spiritual leader of Sikhism while he had passed through this area, and hence regarded as sacred.

The high altitude lake which remains frozen during winter months is located in the region of northern Sikkim, in the district of North Sikkim. It is about 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) to the south of the Chinese border. The lake can be reached by road from Lachen via Thangu. It is 190 kilometres (120 mi) away from Gangtok, the capital city of Sikkim. The approach road from Thangu to Gurudongmar passes through a rugged and enchanting terrain with "stony moraine", which has high alpine pastures covered with many rhododendron trees.  - Wikipedia


We left Thangu and ws moving towards Lake Gurudongmar. The temperature was decreasing. We
crossed several military base camps as we were moving towards China border, Soldiers were walking in series. Fully covered with fur and heavy uniform they were tough and rough. Taking pictures is not allowed at all so could not take any picture. I respect that too. Our car just started moving towards chopta valley . The view was jaw dropping, We all shouted and got down from the car. Were we at heaven or not  I had no clue at that point of time neither do I have now. Sky was deep blue, the rocks were sandy brown, vallery was green and uniquely picturesque . When we zoomed the vision we spotted snow covering the peaks. The snowy mountain peaks were shining in the sunlight like diamonds. 

Check my pictures. 

Chopta Valley

Arpita Di ♥ busy searching for horizon

See I got my wings


Gurudongmar Lake



Military Basecamp


After few minutes of journey driver told us to get down to check Gurudongmar Lake. Yes we finally 
reached. Time was 6:30 around. I got down from my seat and moved my steps 12-20 inches forward and Oh my god !! what was that ? You may believe or not but the fact was that I was spellbound. My mouth was shut completely.  How can some place be so serene and calm. I had no clue. Believe or not I was in total blabbering mood while going to the place. Dancing, Singing in group all along. But the place did something miraculous to me that it just blew my mind with a chilled pure aura of nature and sealed my mouth. Sometimes it happens like, you feel like crying with joy and pleasure to feel blessed. The place was like that. 8-10 people were around in that particular sphere. Complete silence was accompanying my soul and the sound of chilled air that was passing through my air. The blue lake, snowy milky while mountain peak and its undisturbed shadow on the lake. As if I was living in the world of a silent still photography. I sat down, not actually sorry. Something pushed me down to sit for a while. May be it was the overwhelming emotion that I was getting from the nature, from the earth or may be the feeling of satisfaction that was being poured into my soul. I was getting myself as the tiniest particle in the universe. How wide and infinite is the universe and the whole thing. At that point of time I was feeling so silly to think of our lifestyle. We are basically nothing in front of this huge infinity. I was smiling, I was silent and I was crying even. Such a mixed feeling it was. 

I heard that people face terrible breathing problem in Gurudongmar Lake due to presence of thin air and lack of adequate oxygen. By God's grace I didn't face any problem neither did any of us. We were super cool. We entered into Gurudwara and felt the silence, prayed with holy mind and spirit of seeking good. All I want to request everyone whomever is reading my post to please please visit North Sikkim (Specially Gurudongmar Lake) in your life, recommended at young age. And also it is called a slice of Ladakh (Eventually it is in higher altitude that Ladakh "Gurudongmar lake is at an higher altitude than Pangong Lake and Tsomoriri lake in Ladakh and is definitely more beautiful than Pangong lake." - Tripadvisor) . Please do visit and don't forget to write me here. I would love to know your views too. Time for sharing pictures.





I wish I could make you feel the silence



Panoramic View 



I bet you will fall in love with Loneliness 
Loneliness takes out your naked soul
Thanks Arpita di for the pic

Thoda Style and Ada ♥

These many were present there 

The Gurudwara



Silence



The street was all mine



Stop stop please stop .. ha ha ha 

On the way back to Lachen .. Chopta valley

That's me ... 



♫ Dhoop paani pe baras jaaye.. 
Yeh.. saaye banaaye, mitaaye
Main kahoon, aur tu aa jaaye, behlaaye
Har doori sharmaaye
Tu saath hai, ho din raat hai
Parchhaaiyan batlaaye ♫

&
♫ Aaee main to aaee nazaron ke anjane ek jahan se
Layee main to layee baharon ke afsane bhi wahan se
Na na mujhe chhoona na door hi rehna, Paree hoon main ♫ 






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Thursday, 15 October 2015

Memoirs of North Sikkim - Visit to Gurudongmar Lake - Part I ( Thangu )

When you get something best beyond expectation, it seems like a priceless gift. For me, it was more of that kind. As this plan was sudden and I decided to go just few days before the trip, I didn’t get time to check the places I was going to in web. Blindly I folded my worries, loosen myself up ,packed my bags and stepped out. 

Thangu

From Lachen we started around 3:15 am. Yes for that we woke up at 2:30 am. It was midnight. Darkness surrounded us and heavy sounds of unseen waterfalls were accompanying us. We opted for playing music instead. It was chilled enough and music was somewhat pleasing our head and sleepy eyes. Even after few times from very far we could spot Lachen as fair of tiny lights surviving in those dark mountains. That view was spectacular. Imagine a dark place and all of a sudden you find bunch of fireflies sitting together in a particular place and keep on twinkling the lights. In one word beautiful. Roads were rough and topsy turvy. Continuous jerks were not a big deal anymore. For information just sharing that not a single vehicle start their journey towards Gurudongmar alone, all the vehicles start journey together like a group and because of this we were told to not be late, else that could bring risks. Because if any of the vehicle faces any accident or risk, there should be enough resources of helping hands.  Anyways we saw the morning light coming in again and that was splendid. When it actually lightened bright, we realized we were already in high altitude. We spotted several falls and those falls are far away from human civilization. They were natural and awesome. Tall and fierce falls. 

Around 6:15 we halted at Thangu valley. People live there and yes that is a beautiful village. Thangu valley is situated at 14000 ft altitude from sea level. When we got down we clearly understood that the place was colder than before and nature was open to greet us with warm adorable hug. Several wooden homes are living along the clean middle way road which tends to move towards Gurudongmar. All houses were having a unique phenomenon. Actually in Sikkim I guess this is their tradition. The curtains were way very different than other places. They had a zig zag design on them and another thing is that most of the households hung a hand fan like of thing made of yak’s tail hairs and they are black in color. Even in many Hindu temples we use such kind of thing [Bengali - Chamor]. I know I was worst explaining the thing but yes hope you got it right, if not pardon. So where was I? Yes, the homes are colorful, like blue, green, red and decorated with  flowers in front and guarded with firepots and from where hot smokes were coming up to make us feel chilled.  From Thangu one can easily spot White Mountain hills. Through those red unknown hilly flowers the height seemed magical. Overall Thangu is a small village with neat scenario. Painter can easily plot their next canvas. There was a point where we could see the green valley which was climbing up in a very tilted way to a monastery. We even discovered the way to go there too. Beside those roads, upon the green valley yaks were all around. Their movements were getting alarmed by the bells they were tied to. We wished to go there. But alas!! That road doesn’t meet the way of Gurudongmar. For this one must stay at Thangu for 2-3 days. At the time of getting in to the car when I saw long and tall Tibetan Om Mani Padme Hum flags were waving by and wind chilling air was touching my ears, I literally felt that I was at heaven and yes that was place where Mukti, Freedom could be derived into soul.


Sweet Arpita Di ♥

Can you spot the monastery ?
Check the hill at far .. 

 



Girls love striking pose ;)

Poses poses and poses ;)


Smoky hot


We were super busy 









Selfie time


to be continued to second part of this post , the actual post on Gurudongmar ....
Posted By Debarati Datta Read about me here blogging since 2011 Copyright © Debarati Datta Privacy Policy