The first impression of Namjagbarwa started with a glimpse of its beauty during my first visit to Tibet in l998.
How beautiful is Eastern Tibet at the height of summer?
The blue river water reflects the snow capped peaks, and the crystal-clear glacier
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winds through the green primal forests. The brightly-colored Tibetan villages, the graceful and healthy girls, herds of cattle and sheep on the pastures, and wild flowers of every color in full bloom form a picturesque landscape unfolding before the eyes of every traveler who, too long fettered by the bustle of city life, yearns for the beauty of a natural paradise.
I stood surrounded by the magnificent Tibetan scenery on the Serkhyim La Mountain gazing at wave after wave of towering mountains. The white clouds surged like tides, casting down shadow after shadow from the snow- capped mountaintops. A bank of cloud attaching itself to the mountain was carelessly driven off by a gust of wind, and this was the sharply defined triangular peak of the Namjagbarwa exposed to view. 1 was immediately captivated by its peerless beauty.
But almost immediately, the rolling clouds veiled the mountain once more. When I tried for a second glance, the sky was clouded again and the mountain shyly hidden.
The Namjagbarwa area is a sea of clouds all year round. Some foreign explorers came here via India in the early 20th century in the hope of seeing its scenery and taking pictures, but they waited for a month in vain; the mountain was heavily shrouded in thick cloud, and they had to leave amidst sighs and regrets. Even local people can see its true appearance only on a few days each year.
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| Lhoba and Monba people live here.Their way of life and religious beliefs are very traditional,and they have a unique morality. |
Tibetans regard Namjagbarwa as the road to Heaven, a holy place which ordinary people must absolutely not disturb. They describe it as "a burning fire of snow and lightening"and "piercing the blue sky like a long-handled spear."And they have endowed it with many outstanding titles too:god of heroism. The spoiled and beloved son of the extraordinary beauty and valor of the Nyanqentanglha Mountain, the brutal brother who cut off the head of his kinsman in a fight. and the self-respecting husband not allowing others to see his grief at being separated from his wife.
The Tibetan metaphors originate from unseen, unverifiable traces of the deities, but scientific metaphor has added a bold stroke to the age-old legends. Geologists have likened Namjagbarwa to a divine needle that pacifies the earth.
The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and the Himalayas have been hailed as mankind's last land of mystery, and even regarded as the "golden key" that can open the gate of the earth. The most mysterious thing is that at each end of the Himalayas two peaks stand on the mysterious tectonic knots: at the eastern end stands Namjagbarwa(7,782 meters)and at the western end Nanga Parbat(8,1 25 meters), the world's ninth highest peak. They not only attach the magnificent length of the Himalayan chain to the southern edge of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, but also fix the Eurasian plate to the Indian plate.
Perhaps it is coincidence, but in the age-old legend of the "Battle at Menling"which is in the vicinity, Namjagbarwa was the divine sword used by King Gesar to rescue the people and safeguard the earth.
In fact, the mystery of the mountain itself is no less interesting than the mystery of these geographical phenomena.
Namjagbarwa has existed for over 700 million years. The first piece of land in the Himalayan region to emerge from the sea, it deserves its title of Number One among
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| The main peak of the Namj-agbarwa pierces the clouds. |
the Eastern Himalayan Mountains. The changes it has experienced are beyond the reach of our current knowledge.
Even today, we still know very little about Namjagbarwa. This is not because we do not admire its outstanding beauty; rather, because the mountain has deliberately made a curtain of the clouds and mists, made a protective screen of the canyon and torrents, thus preventing any alien creature from disturbing the solitude and silence that it has enjoyed for hundreds of millions of years.
Those who have been close to it all know that once you have taken the routes to Namjagbarwa, no others really deserve to be called "dangerous." The first human conquest of Namjagbarwa did not happen until 1992, but the great Japanese climber Takei Yoshitaka was killed in the previous attempt in 1991. Over 10 years have passed, and sophisticated mountaineering equipment means "everything is possible" today, but no one else has tackled it again.
A month after seeing the mountain, I personally traveled part of the"routes"--walking through the Yarlung Tsangpo Grand Canyon.
It is a mystical canyon, concentrating every type of fine environment and natural beauty, where you can experience the majesty of the Amazon and the austerity of the Himalayas. Passing through it, you are enshrouded in heavy mist, sometimes winding around your fingertips, sometimes circling over your head, as if you were living in a fantastic wonderland.
But extreme beauty often goes shoulder by shoulder with death.
After the great Medog earthquake in 1950, everything within the 100 kilometers from the village of Gala to the canyon became a no-man's 1and. haunted almost only
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| Monba people walking in dense woods at the foot of Namjagbarwa. |
by beasts. On the densely wooded mountain ridges, we could walk only on a small path heavily overgrown with overhanging tree branches and bushes.
The road to paradise is never smooth and 1evel. While the body climbed nearly perpendicular rocks, and the hands grabbed for dear 1ife onto weeds and small branches. beneath the feet flowed the guardian of the sacred mountain. the Yarlung Tsangpo, its seething waters roaring down. water mist rising as the waves hit the rocks of the river's many dangerous shoals.
In the mysterious land of the canyon where the earthquake collapsed glaciers to the ground, Namjagbarwa and Gala Village face each other on opposite banks of the river, forming the entrance of the canyon.
The wind swept past the tattered prayer flags on a high platform. The colorful lichen lay as thick as a wool carpet. the six-character-mantra inscribed on a mani stone in earth was faintly visible.The dilapidated walls left after the earthquake reminded US of the mysterious land where Buddhist monks had chanted sutras. But they were a reminder too that Namjagbarwa's violent character originates from the fact that it stands at the heart of the powerful upthrust of the Himalayas.
After making a horseshoe bend, the roaring river turns south, carrying branches and leaves with it. Because of this unusual turn. warm air from the Indian Ocean has an easy passage into the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, and the canyon has become the warmest and moistest region on the plateau.
Straining to look up at the summit until our necks could bend no further back, we could see 0nly as far as the mountain mid-levels. surrounded by chains of white clouds. Several huge ice falls broke through the clouds, sweeping down the misty body of the mountain into the river below, as if huge jade dragons had been ordered to leave the divine halls on the summit to rush upon the intruder at the foot.
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| China's Ten Most Beautiful Mountains. |
A faint mist rose from the bottom of the valley, a light cascade of cloud slipped smoothly from the top, floating white clouds encircled the mountain, and the sword-like gleaming snow peaks were partly hidden, partly visible.
Then, like passing through the final gateway to Heaven, the cold and lifeless atmosphere suddenly disappeared. There was the white of curling clouds, the green of jade-green leaves, the purple of carvin9-like grapes, and the red of blossoming flowers. The beauty of a dimly discernible fairyland was there right in front ofmy eyes.
Looking at the mountain from afar, all you can see are floating clouds. Looking at it from nearby, over 5, 000 meters above you, it is almost invisible. It stands in the world. but very few people can see it. It is hidden in the clouds, but connected with the world we all inhabit. Man has never stopped longing for a distant, unattainable paradise, and Namjagbarwa is precisely that.
Namjagbarwa Peak
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