BENGALURU: The Shaman could only converse in the Limbu Language and requested Sonam to translate. We Limbus are the people of the snow and believe that the first man was created from the snow of the Sewalungma. It is the home of our goddess, Yuma Sammang and the other divine deities from our pantheon reside there. We have all descended from the mountain and for us, it is most sacred.
Our ancestors once resided in the Mayel valley, located somewhere in the upper reaches of the mountain and hidden from the world by a gigantic rock, immovable by all but divine force. Human beings are forbidden from entering the valley and the entrance is guarded by fearsome demons. The valley is the gateway to immortality for it contains a gigantic blue lake known as the lake of immortality.
When one dips into it, one ceases to be human and transcends into the divine to become immortal. Humans and gods once coexisted there but human arrogance and their penchant for anger, greed, selfishness and other baser instincts led to them being banished from the valley with a promise that they would never return. It is now solely a preserve of the divine.
For several millennia, the human race adhered to this rule and stayed away from the Sewalungma.’ The group was mesmerised by the story and listening with rapt attention. Helmut, however, considered myths to be obnoxious fairytales and sat there disdainfully. The shaman took a sip of his hot yak butter tea and continued, ‘Lately, however, humans are increasingly reneging on their promise and are committing sacrilege by setting foot into the realm of the gods.
The all-powerful Yuma Sammangis incensed by the desecration of her home. She has kept silent for all these years, but soon, her rage will manifest itself into a destructive force and consume all those who dare offend her!’ The shaman’s eyes lit up as he said these words. The faces of the Sherpas and guides went pale with dread and the Europeans too experienced a degree of trepidation. Sonam ushered the shaman away and escorted him to his hamlet. The last thing he wanted was to scare away the mountaineers for they brought in the big bucks and were an important source of livelihood for the people of the region.
Helmut had observed this entire episode with immense derision and was annoyed with himself for having sat through what he considered to be mumbo-jumbo and the ramblings of a deranged old man. He stood up and retired for the night. The following day, the party recommenced their journey, trekking through several scree slopes and glacial moraines, past the stunning Kanchenjunga glacier, and enjoying spectacular views of the snow-capped mountain ranges. After two days, they finally reached the Kanchenjunga base camp. The group was at the South base camp on the Yulang glacier at an elevation of 5,400 metres.
From here, they would begin their climb to the summit of the Kanchenjunga, which, at 8,586 metres, was the third-highest place on earth. After a few days of training and practice, they began their climb to Camp 1. The terrain was mixed—rock interspersed with ice—and they encountered several grassy slopes, rock slabs and moraines. The most challenging part was an almost vertical climb up a section of rock and ice, past a moraine and onward onto a steep snow ridge.
While some of the group were struggling, the experienced mountaineer in Helmut waded effortlessly through even the most technical of climbs and impressed the Sherpas and guides. Over the course of the next week, they walked through ice and snow, braved cold and bone-chilling winds, climbed virtual ice walls using ladders and ropes set up by the Sherpas, jumped through narrow crevices and finally reached Camp 3, at a height of 7,300 metres. Helmut grudgingly admired the mountain climbing abilities, skills and untiring endurance of the
Excerpted with permission from ‘The Rock Babas and Other Stories’ by Ameya Prabhu, published by Westland.