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And that was Manasarovar for me.
Highlights
And that wasManasarovar for me. A visit to Mount Kailash Manasarovar by a devotee or a tourist is not an ordinary venture as it requires courage, robust health and strong commitment to walk and treck for miles on snow for 26 days to enter into the other country’s territory to have the glimpse of the Manasarovar in Kailash Range (Gangdis� Mountains), which is part of Transhimalaya in Tibet. It is considered as a sacred place in four religions: B�n, Buddhism, Hinduism and Jainism.
A visit to Mount Kailash Manasarovar by a devotee or a tourist is not an ordinary venture as it requires courage, robust health and strong commitment to walk and treck for miles on snow for 26 days to enter into the other country’s territory to have the glimpse of the Manasarovar in Kailash Range (Gangdisê Mountains), which is part of Transhimalaya in Tibet. It is considered as a sacred place in four religions: Bön, Buddhism, Hinduism and Jainism. The mountain lies near Lake Manasarovar and Lake Rakshastal in Tibet. The mountain is known as Kail’sa and its elevation is 6,638 m ( 21,778 ft ). It is a pillar of the world and is located at the heart of six mountain ranges symbolising a lotus.
Y Venugopala Rao (66), took voluntary retirement from United Commercial Bank in 1997. During his career, he worked for more than 15 years in foreign offices viz, Hong Kong, USA, UK, China, Singapore and China and toured more than 32 countries. He became a seasoned traveller and learnt many things about the values, thrills and benefits of travelling.
Venugopala, said, his nature of assignments across the world, prompted him to take a chance of visiting the Kailash Manasarovar in 2010 from Hyderabad when he was 63 years old. He said, “I am a strong devotee of Lord Shiva as he is an inspiration to me. To see Lord Shiva in the form of snow, who meditated on this abode along with his wife Parvathi, Jayalakshmi, my wife, encouraged me to visit the Kailash Manaarovar. She felt that if I see the lord, we will be blessed.”
Apart from Manasarovar, he has also visited the Kedarnath, Amarnath and Vaishno Devi temples.
He added, “I was only person selected from Andhra Pradesh from the entire state in 2010. Our 26 days of tour was really thrilling, adventurous and risky. Our batch consisted of 46 members of which 11 were women. We had covered 200 kms up and down by walking and trekking in cold climate conditions. We were greeted at various points by Indians and Tibetians and others. They prayed to God for our safety and provided us with food and donated winter clothes to protect ourselves against the cold winds. The Tourism Department of Govt of India is the authority to select 960 applicants by giving visas every year between May to September. They give good guidance and help to make our travel safe and memorable though the element of risk exists. Medical fitness is very tough to get through. The cost of the tour package comes to 1 lakh but we do not get a subsidy of 25% unlike pilgrims from other states.viz Gujarat,UP,Karnataka and Delhi.”
Venugopala added, “The only risk,we faced was due to decrease in the atmospheric pressure with increasing altitude. The atmospheric pressure of oxygen is half that of sea level at 18,000 ft, but the percentage of oxygen remains the same. About 1/5th of the people ascending to 10,000 ft in less than a day develop symptoms and signs of altitude sickness and in some cases it could be fatal. In our batch we were lucky as no such incident took place. However after reaching back safely, we felt we got a second life by the grace of Lord Shiva.”
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