Chota Kailash

I have heard a lot about " Manimahesh Yatra (मणिमहेश यात्रा) " from Kangra residents,where I was posted after confiramtion of my job.One of my colleague  went to the yatra religiously eversince he knew the importance of the yatra. The Manimahesh Kailash peak that stands high close to the lake is believed to be the abode of Lord Shiva (Hindu deity). This place is believed to be second to the Lake Manasarovar in its religious significance.
 He kept on convincing me for the yatra till I agreed to go with him during the next yatra season. The yatra is just after janmashtami for fifteen days.I was not too keen on going there leaving my family and small kid in new place with little acquaintance.Besides the climate there is very hostile  and specially in case of heavy rain & snowfall  and it is also coupled  with less oxygen content in the atmosphere.The area may be cut off from the whole world till government agencies help does not come .

The trekking on this yatra is quite enervating for person from plain area as the route is mountainous high altitude  along the river to its source point.I was confident of trekking it easily due to my sainik school training ,where we used to follow a well devised regimen & rigorous physical exercise. I just needed a  warm up session one or two weeks   prior to the climb.The group had their own air resistant waterproof tent of international make  that added to my solace. We had hired a Toyota qualis for the motorable part of the journey till Hadsar( Bharmour) & back to Kangra. We reached  Bharmour same day  by the evening of the start of the journey and stayed overnight there. Early in the morning we reached Hadsar ,the last motorable point for the yatra.The rest of the path was to be covered on foot, about 13 km of steep climb by the banks of Manimahesh Ganga, which originates from the Manimahesh Kailash peak.

As we started to trek we all felt that the  place was  a paradise for amateur trekkers, especially for those who wish to witness nature still in its pristine form.The entire trek to the top goes by the side of the rivulet: Manimahesh Ganga, a tributary to Ravi River, which arises from the the lake at the top. We covered the half the journey and stayed overnight at Dahnchow in our tents. There is a huge waterfall in the Dhancho ,the thundering sound of  water falling kept us wake for the whole night. When we got up in the morning  we could see the dew drops on our tent  frozen to ice. As there was no arrangement for hot water ,the morning freshening up became a nightmare with freezing cold water.We proceeded for the last part of the journey to the Manimahesh Kailash peak . The vegetation en route was becoming less and more herbs &smaller plant dotted the the trek. We came across exotic trees like "bhojpatra" , the ancient saints used to write vedas & ancient scriptures on bark of these trees.The herb from which dhoop is made was also availble in plenty on the bank of the river-let. As our further ascent ,we could feel   breathlessness  ,due to the less oxygen content in the atmosphere. People said the the herbs at these altitude could make one  hallucinated as one has consumed some heroine or some drugs .Hopefully, I did not feel anything that sort during the trek on that stretch. It was almost dark ,when we reached the lake.The lake was actually a prize for those who get there. When we looked up we could see the mighty Kailash in its full grandeur and small Shivlingam was clearly visible in  the  white snow. We camped near the lake and erected our tent very quickly because everyone of the group was enervated and our body  wanted rest immediately. It was fullmoon night and as the moon appeared   behind the mighty Kailash mountain  the moon-rays reflected from the jewel was visible in the Manimahesh Lake as it was clear full-moon nights (which is a rare occasion). It was more likely to be the light reflected from the glacier that adorns the peak, like a serpent on Shiva's neck.The name Manimahesh signifies a jewel (Mani) on Lord Shiva's (Mahesh'es) crown. The whole experience was breath taking and I was mesmerized by the sight...my eyes were glued to the mountain peak for at least ten minutes.

Next day we got up for the pooja of  Lord Shiva by the lake side, when we got down to the lake to bath ,to our astonishment  the whole lake was covered with a thin layer of ice and What  possibly we could do best was to break the ice and take bath by taking water  from a mug . The water was  freezing cold, for few seconds our body parts were senseless  ,but after pouring few more mugs of water  on our body it came to senses. After the bath we were as fresh as mountain dew, the bathing was so refreshing that it had given a new lease of life to all of us. Never in my life I was this much fresh after a simple bath, our pains had vanished like miracle. Then  I realized that why some places on earth  are  so pious to hindus or any community  because they have some miraculous power attached to it.  After the pooja , we had our breakfast and started our descend to the Hadsar. By late evening we had reached Hadsar . For the the night we stayed in Bharmour and next morning we proceeded for our journey back to Kangra.