A Travel beyond the Himalayas: Mustang #4!

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Ranipauwa, the only town of Muktinath, is about 45 minutes walk from the Jharkot. The trail, along with the land settings looks perfect: wide enough and neither plain nor steeply uphill. The landscape is rather mild but with very rough terrain.  No greenery around. That may be because of the season. People said it gets a bit greener during summer though there are no trees. Only few adaptive scrubs and herbaceous species grow and bloom when the area receives rain. Rainfall is very scanty. Mustang is one of those areas which receive extremely low rainfall. As I already mentioned on previous post, this is mainly due to the monsoon shaded by Annapurna-Dhaulagiri Massif. One of greatest naturalists, Adam Stainton classified this valley as Inner Himalayan Valley. In his book ‘The Forest of Nepal’, he mentioned that Mustang has similar vegetation to Tibet because of the physiographic and climatic similarity. The only few woody species found modifies their habit into compact and dwarf spiny form. Such life form is called Cushion, which is the best life form to cope the environmental (especially extreme radiation, aridity, temperature and wind) as well as biotic (browsing by Yaks, Naks, Chauries, Horses, Sheeps and Goats etc.) severity. These cushion species are an integral components of trans-Himalayan vegetation.

Landscape of Mustang with Mt. Dhaulagiri on distance

 As I approached Ranipauwa, I checked quite a few hotels but couldn’t see my research colleague. I didn’t have any alternative, so opted to go find him around Muktinath Temple Complex. 

Ranipauwa Town, Muktinath Mustang

 It takes about 15 minutes from Ranipauwa to Muktinath temple. The trail is somewhat uphill but not really hard. I was alone and climbing up towards main gate of the temple. Because of being in high altitude area it was hard to walk, and had to drink water quite frequently with sufficient rest. The souvenir shops on both side of trail were trying to persuade me to buy their stuffs. They were getting excited when I started looking at their shops. But their excitement didn’t last long because I only had bare promises. As of many visitors, who just see their souvenirs, I also didn’t buy. I looked at their shop because there were some really interesting items like ammonites, very thick and attractive woolen scarf, socks etc. They jack up price quite interestingly. I asked a lady who had the largest shop on right side of trail, about the way of fixing prices and percentage they save as profit. 

The souvenir shops and Close up view of the town.

Firstly she denied talking but later after a long conversation on other aspects of her life, she revealed that they fix price observing the costumer. She told that she sometimes hike up the price even up to 200%. It largely based on how much time costumer spent looking her stuffs. For those who looks souvenirs for longer, play with those and gets smaller items, she charges more money. But, that visitor who goes for quick selection gets quite a good discount. However, she argued that she has never charged inexplicably. It is interesting to note that all the souvenir shops were ran by women. Further, they are not so aware about the skin problems they might face because of the intense solar radiation and the dust wind blows, and strikes their skin every seconds. Even if they know they can’t quite the shop – one of the major sources of income for their family to sustain and to educate their kids. Though they are quite adaptive to physical surrounding, they may not be able to tolerate cancer causing solar radiation! Above all they are enjoying, which is great :)

See the people looking at one of the souvenir shops. (sorry for poor quality pic.!

But I was walking slowly and taking longer than I was supposed to. I was planning to wait Gabe outside the complex because I didn’t want to visit the temple that day! It is believed that before entering into Hindu religious complexes, one should be sacred. According to mythology, it is considered to be sacred/ pure if one takes shower and changes clean clothes. Although I showered last evening and was pretty clean, I was not culturally pure because I didn’t washed my body on same day. So, as an inborn Hindu [I’m a believer and do believe on existence of God but just SINGLE. I think, The God for all religion is same (and just ONE) but the way of perceiving him are different so there are many religions around the world], I was not willing to enter into temple complex when I was (so called) impure.

The Holy Muktinath Temple, Mustang

A Thrilling Journey into the Himalayas

Before jumping into my journeys and experiences in the Himalayas, although it may not be new for you, I am going to present a brief introduction of the Himalayas; especially the origin and evolution!

A View of Himalayas as seen from Phyuk Ri, Nuwakot

A quote, my favorite one, about the Himalayas by a famous Nepalese Geographer which, I always appreciate and adore:

“IT WOULD BE MORE REALISTIC TO CONSIDER MOUNTAINS AS DYNAMIC, CERTAINLY NOT FRAGILE”

– Dr. Harka Gurung (2004).

#1. Himalayas: The Youngest Mountains in the World

Mt. Dhaulagiri Range as seen from just above Ghorepani, Myagdi

According to Bob Stoddard, Professor of Geography at the University of Nebraska-Linkon, US; the origin of the Himalayas dates backs some fifty million years ago when the two continental plates that form the cores of peninsular India (Gondwana land) and central Asia (Laurasia) began squeezing together. Previously these huge sections of earth surface were separated by shallow sea, which was receiving the eroded sands and muds that were being dumped into it by rivers emitting from the land masses. As the two continents moved together, they squeezed and buckled these relatively soft earth materials into gigantic folds. As these earth materials became pushed higher, they formed the ranges of mountains – now called the Himalayas. Actually this mountain-building process is still occurring as the mountains continue to rise each year.

Gauri Shanker Himalayan range with (Abeis tree on foreground) as seen in the evening from Kalinchowk temple, Dolakha; 28 October, 2010

The evidences are: one is the limestone beds that compose part of the highest mountains, such as Mt. Everest (Sagarmatha) because the origin of limestone was the former shallow sea. And these days those sedimentary rocks are way far from the sea level standing as a water tower. Next evidence: the fossils found on the slopes of the mountains (e.g. the Ammonites i.e. Saligram Sila found in Kaligandaki valley, Mustang, Nepal) indicate life that once existed in seas before the mountains arose.