(By Tsem Rinpoche)

Pemako is located in southeast Tibet. In Tibetan, the word “Pemako” means “Lotus Array” or “Lotus of Great Bliss”. It is a land that intrigues many Western explorers as it is thought to be the sacred land of nectar and bliss as described in Buddhist scriptures.

Pemako is thought to be one of the 16 earthly paradises, a promised land where humanity will survive in the event of worldwide famine or calamities. It was also referred to by Guru Rinpoche as the “supreme hidden land”. Guru Rinpoche had concealed 108 “beyuls” or “hidden valleys” in the Himalayas to be revealed at specific times during the degenerate age. Shambala is the greatest hidden valley, Pemako is another one of them. The Buddhist texts describe these hidden valleys as being reminiscent of paradise. They can only be reached with enormous hardship, and those who force their way through may encounter failure or even, death.

The landscape and geography of Pemako is shaped like that of Vajrayogini’s sacred body in a sleeping posture form.

• Her head is Kangri Kangpo (White Snow Mountain)
• Her two bosoms are Namche Barwa and Gyala Peri (both mountains)
• The lower part of her body lies in Yang Sang (upper Siang region of Arunachal Pradesh)
• Her sacred triangle is at the confluence of Siang and Yang Sang (rivers)
• Her sacred vulva is at Kila Yangzom
• Her navel is a small Nyingmapa monastery called Rinchenpung 

The lakes, rocks and forestry are often regarded as being especially sacred as it is the worldly abode of supernatural beings. Gathering of resources is allowed, but nothing in excess. The animals are protected as no killing is tolerated… because of this some endangered species have called this place their home, like the Himalayan Black Bear and the Musk Deer. The sacredness of beyul’s also discourages humans hurting other humans.

In the beginning of the 20th century, many natives of the Kham region made the long trek to Pemako seeking refuge. Between the 1990 to the early 2000’s, many expeditions were done by Westerners. These expeditions were mainly kayaking expeditions as the land was famous for whitewater kayaking.

I have added a lot of information below about Pemako. I have added it for educational purposes, and have added the links to the original source for those who wish to know more… I wish for everyone to be educated on beyul’s and Pemako. I especially hope for people to aspire to trek in Pemako.

Tsem Rinpoche

PEMAKO: highlight

[Extracted from: http://www.aborcountrytravels.com/lower-pemako-trek.html]

For nearly 2000 years the nation of an earthly paradise or Shangri-La hidden amoung the peaks of Asia has captivated the human imagination. Western explorers eombed the region in search of this land of bliss and nectar described in ancient Buddhist texts as the Pemako or the Lotus land.

According to Buddhist tradition Pemako is one of the 16th earthly paradise, a promised land free of worry, the ultimate hidden haven. The place is where, it is prophesied that the seed of humanity will thrive at the end of the world in famine and calamities.

In the beginning of the 20th century many Khampas from Tibet made a long, ardous trek to Pemako in quest of succour and refuge. They are one of the major inhabitants of the region, along with The Adis, The Mishmis who were the original inhabitants here. The region is a melting pot of different tribal cultures, where all the tribes exist in complete harmony amoung themselves and the nature. Walking through Pemako one can see Adi, Memba, Khampa and Mishmi villages with their distinctive culture, faith and lifestyle.

The Pemako is consecrated to female divinity of Dorje Phagmo and its sacred geography is mapped to the body of this sleeping goddess. Her head is the Kangri Kangpo, her two breasts is Namche Barwa and Gyala Peri respectively. The lower part of her body lies in Yangsang or the innermost Pemako which is the upper Siang region of Arunachal Pradesh. In the confluence of Siang (Tsangpo) and Yangsang is the sacred tringle Kila Yangzom the vulva of Goddess Dorje Phagmo. This the supreme of scared lands is now open to the world to discover and marvel.

Every year pilgrims traverse the area on Kora (circumbulation). Coverung the scared Devakota, the gathering place of Dakinis, The holy Titapori mountain, Penashree and Tiru Tala (Eko Dumbing for Adis). 

Photo Of The Day – Spine Of Vajra Yogini

[Extracted from: http://en.paperblog.com/photo-of-the-day-spine-of-vajra-yogini-303973/]

The Siang River, as it is called in Arunachal Pradesh, is one of the mightiest of rivers in Asia. Known as Yarlung Tsangpo in Tibet, Brahmaputra in India, and Jamuna in Bangladesh, the 2840 km long river travels for 1600km in high Tibet, before taking a mysterious U-turn where it forms the world’s deepest gorges, and entering Arunachal Pradesh in India. The most charming references for this water body can be found in Buddhism, where each and every element the river crosses through is regarded as extremely sacred and are an actual part of Vajra Yogini’s body, as the land of Pemako.

THE TIGERS of PEMAKO

[Source: http://2007.tibetmagazine.net/english/2007-1/8C78C751ADD8C4AA5461F2C13CF2578E.html]

 Namjagbarwa Mountain Summit. Photo by Lu Zhi

We struggle through deep snow toward a pass, the Doxiong La. On the other side in the remote forests of Pemako or Motuo are the last tigers in Tibet. Far below us, the Yarlung Tsangpo enters the deepest gorge in the world, rushing between Gyala Pelri and Namche Barwa, both peaks   over 7000m high, then turns east and finally south toward India. With me are three coworkers, Lu Zhi of Peking University, Zhang Endi of the Wildlife Conservation Society, and Zhang Hong of the Tibet Forestry Department, as well as eighteen porters to carry our one-month supply of food and equipment. Our task is to survey the wildlife in this isolated region guarded by rugged ranges on three sides and the Indian border on the fourth. It is mid-May 2000, and the mountain passes are open only from now to October.

We hurry on, away from the desolation of rock and snow, toward a basin with stands of fir and birch where we will camp. Two monal pheasants glide downslope and we record their presence in our notebooks. The region had been given protection as the Yarlung Tsangpo Great Canyon National Reserve, 9168 sq. km in size, the previous year. About 15,000 people, mostly Tibetan, Moinpa, and Lhopa live in scattered villages throughout the reserve. Many practice agriculture,  converting forest to field, and many hunt wildlife such as takin, goral, muskdeer, macaque monkeys, and black bear for meat, hides, and other products. We have come to assess the impact of such activities. 

Renchengpeng Monastery in Metdog. By Schaller

I am particularly interested in the status of tigers. Once half a century ago, tigers were so abundant in parts of China that they were exterminated as pests. Now this symbol of power and strength is on the verge of extinction in the country. Stragglers from Russia visit northeast China, though some may stay awhile, and a few tigers endure in the southeast. Does Pemako with its last Tibetan tigers have a viable breeding population? Tigers were widespread here as recently as 1980, we are told, but now they are rare. Yet villagers complain to the government that tigers kill their cattle and horses.

Tigers and other wildlife do, I hope, have a safe haven in Pemako because it is a sacred place. I can describe a landscape its mountains, forests, and wildlife. However, a place may have meaning beyond its reality in that people are aware of hidden and intangible forces that I cannot see. The Indian sage Padmasambhava visited Tibet in the eight century and established Buddhism by converting belligerent deities and demons into protectors of the new faith. During his wanderings he created hidden lands or beyul, sanctuaries of inner peace and outer tranquility, earthy paradises filled with mysterious power. He wrote guidebooks to these hidden lands and secreted them, knowing that those of faith would ultimately find them. Dechen Pemako, The Lotus of Great Bliss, is one such beyul, not identified until the 17th century. Is wildlife thriving in this land of peace and purity? 

Tropical warmth wraps itself around us as we descend.  Bamboo, wild bananas, and tree ferns crowd the path. Leeches, malarial mosquitoes, biting flies, and heavy downpours hide from me the spiritual aspects of this land. The Monpa and Lhopa practice slash-and-burn agriculture in which forest is cut down and burned and a crop planted for a year or two before the fields are abandoned.  More forest is then cut, often on steep slopes to cause erosion and landslides. The main crop on the slopes is maize, used to make an alcoholic drink, the ancient forests sacrificed for a beverage.  I wondered if the people could not instead have a sustainable income from the forest by collecting and selling edible mushrooms, medicinal plants, conifer seeds for making cooking oil, and other products. We see no wildlife other than fleeting flocks of babblers and warblers and an occasional cryptic thrush. Tigers? Yes, sometimes one wanders through, we are told at villages, but it does not remain.

We are not only in a sacred hidden land but also are moving through the body of the female deity Vajrayogini who envelops the region with her protective spirit. For example, the Yarlung Tsangpo is her central energy channel, Gyala Pelri symbolizes her head, Namche Barwa one of her breasts, and the small gompa Rinchenpung her navel, the center of bliss. As ecological pilgrims we too travel to Rinchenpung high in the hills, braving whatever adversity put in our paths by demons. Yet it is clear that Vajrayogini has not been able to instill a reverence and compassion for all living beings, the basic precept of Buddhism, in all those who make Pemako their home.

THE ANCIENTS
Shangri-La Found

The following is an article that appeared in newspapers around the country, around January 8, 1999.  It was sent to us by a reader:

From The Chicago Tribune News Service

EXPLORERS FIND ELUSIVE SHANGRI-LA IN WORLD’S DEEPEST KNOWN GORGE

No record exists of people ever having seen the 100 foot-high waterfall and lush subtropical garden in the Tibetan Himalayas until now

WASHINGTON – Explorers finally have found Shangri-La.

It might not be quite the storied, verdant, Utopia Himalayan paradise of James Hilton’s 1933 novel “Lost Horizon” and subsequent movie of the same name. But it is verdant, it is a kind of paradise, and it is hidden deep within Tibet’s Himalayas in a monstrously steep gorge within a gorge. There is no record of any person having visited, or even seen, the area before. 

Tucked beneath a mountain spur at a sharp bend of the Tsangpo River Gorge, where the cliff sides are only 75 yards apart and cast perpetual shadows, the place failed to show up even on satellite surveillance photographs of the area.

“If there is a Shangri-La , this is it,” said Rebecca Martin, director of the National Geographic Society’s Expeditions Board, which sponsored the trek. “This is a pretty startling discovery, especially in a time when many people are saying, “What’s left to discover?”

Tentatively named by the explorers the Hidden Falls of the Tsangpo and located in a forbidding region called Pemako that Tibetans consider highly sacred, the elusive site was reached by American explorers Ian Baker, Ken Storm Jr. and Brian Harvey late last year, though the society did not make its confirmation of their success official until Thursday.

In addition to a spectacular 100-foot-high waterfall- long rumored but until now undocumented- they found a subtropical garden between a 23,000 foot and a 26,000 foot mountain, at the bottom of a 4,000 foot high cliff.

According to Martin, it’s the world’ deepest mountain gorge.

“It’s a place teeming with life.” Storm said in telephone interview from his office in the Minneapolis suburb of Burnsville. “It’s a terribly wild river, with many small waterfalls, heavy rapids and a tremendous current surging through. Yet there are all kinds of flora; subtropical pine, rhododendrons, craggy fir and hemlock and spruce on the hillsides. It’s lush. Just a tremendous wild garden landscape.”

The animals there include a rare, horned creature called the Takin, sacred to Tibetan Buddhists.

Difficult as the gorge was to reach, Storm said one of the hardest aspects of the expedition was leaving to return to civilization.

“The last we saw of it was looking down… with clouds sealing the gorge and side-stream waterfalls jetting out into the river,” he said. “it’s probably the most romantic landscape I’d ever seen.”

This was the seventh expedition that Baker, a Tibet scholar living in Katmandu, led into the Himalayas in search of the mythic falls.

In addition to Storm, a book and game dealer turned explorer, and Harvey, a National Geographic photographer, the team included another scholar, Hamid Sardar of Cambridge, Mass., two Tibetan hunters, a Sherpa guide and eight porters – though Baker, Storm and Harvey were the only ones to make the demanding descent to the gorge and falls. 

Among other things, their discovery proves that two great rivers of Asia – the Tsangpo, which runs completely across Tibet, and the mighty Brahmaputra, which runs through the Indian state of Assam and Bangladesh to the Bay of Bengal–are connected.

Reminiscent of the fabled “source of the Nile” that English explorers Richard Burton and John Spede raced each other to find in the middle of the 19th century–both making controversial claims to have found it first–the Tsangpo falls and gorge proved so far beyond explorers’ reach that they were declared nonexistant. 

The southern approach up the Brahmaputra posed the most obstacles.

“It’s tremendously difficult terrain of jungles and insects and tigers,” Storm said. “The lower gorge area was protected by Abhors and Mishmi, Burmese tribal groups. They protected that area pretty fiercely, and early British attempts to penetrate were frustrated.”

In 1911, two British explorers were able to locate all but 30 to 40 miles of the river connection. A local guide named Kintup was later hired to continue into the inner gorge and try to find the sacred place by traveling as a Buddhist pilgrim.

He claimed to have found a connection between the two rivers but said the only high waterfall was not on the Tsangpo but up a smaller tributary.

In 1924, British botanist Francis Kingdon-Ward advanced to a point that narrowed the unknown stretch of the river to three or four miles. He found a waterfall as well but measured it at only 30 feet. Finding further penetration impossible because of the steepness and narrowness of the gorge and bad weather, he turned back, declaring the long sought high falls nonexistent.

Although the Tsangpo River starts at 7,000 feet above sea level, it rapidly descends and cuts through the Tibet plateau by way of the only gap in the Himalayas open to the heavy weather of the Indian plains and wetlands below.

“The weather pours up from Assam, which is one of the wettest places on Earth, and you have notoriously terrible weather in there.” Storm said. “You can go weeks if not months with clouds and rains and snow at the higher elevation. You have a river literally eating its way through these mountains in this great gorge.”

Lasting 17 days, Baker’s expedition approached the Tsangpo from the north, following animal trails and the advice of their Tibetan hunters and descending some 4,000 feet. Using mountaineers’ ropes to get down the last 80 feet of the cliff, they found themselves at the “great falls,” which they measured with laser range finders – a Shangri-La just a quarter of a mile from where Kingdon-Ward turned back.

“It’s a powerful sight to experience,” said Storm, who said he plans to return. “it’s a rather humbling feeling just to have taken part.” – END

***

When Ian Baker finally found the legendary Hidden Falls at the bottom of the world’s deepest gorge, was he really on the verge of paradise? Or would he have to settle for fame and fortune?

The Washington Post – Washington, D.C. 
Author:  William McGowan 
Date:  Jun 6, 1999 

In January the National Geographic Society announced that (Ian) Baker had led an expedition into a remote mountainous area of southeastern Tibet called Pemako– “The Hidden Land of the Opening Lotus,” as it is known in Tibetan. There he had discovered a long-rumored but never before documented major waterfall on Tibet’s mighty Tsangpo River. Clawing their way down mist-cloaked, nearly sheer 4,000-foot cliffs into a rocky gorge-within-a-gorge so deep it remains in perpetual shadow and can’t even be seen on satellite surveillance photographs, Baker and another team member were able to reach and measure a waterfall approximately 108 feet high, naming it Hidden Falls.

“It’s not just a place to go take pictures,” Baker recalls the lama explaining. But once Baker conveyed his serious interest in the spirituality of the search, the lama told him to come back in the summer, and be prepared to spend a month alone in a cave. When Baker returned, the lama sent him off with two nomads who led him to a cave deep in a remote valley.

But he hadn’t abandoned his interest in the beyul tradition. The lama who’d sent him off to the cave told him beyuls were described in obscure, coded texts that dated from the 8th century. Eager to get his hands on some of them, Baker sought help from the Dalai Lama himself. In Dharmsala on academic business in 1987, he expressed his interest during an audience. Getting a “faraway” look in his eye, as Baker recalls it, the Dalai Lama directed a monk to help Baker locate a dusty tome from a high, dimly lit shelf in the Dharmsala library. This, like other similar texts, was, as Baker puts it, a kind of “Fodor’s Guide to the fourth dimension,” which advised pilgrims on how best to navigate landscapes that are invested with spiritual and mystical properties. Baker eventually expanded his collection of beyul texts to nine.

Space Imaging’s IKONOS Satellite Images Prove Crucial for Tsangpo River Expedition in Tibet – Kayak Expedition Team Conquers One of the Last Great Adventures on Earth

DENVER, May 23, 2002 – During a recent descent of Tibet’s Tsangpo River by kayak, satellite images from Space Imaging’s IKONOS satellite proved to be a crucial planning and mapping tool for the 87-man Outside Tsangpo Expedition Team. Sponsored by Outside Magazine and Chevrolet’s Chevy Avalanche, a team of the world’s best expeditionary kayakers joined forces to attempt the historic first descent of the Tsangpo Gorge. The Tsangpo River is the highest river and the deepest gorge in the world. The river is thought by many professional adventurers to contain the most feared whitewater on the planet.

Space Imaging’s IKONOS satellite took this 1-meter color image of Rainbow Falls and Hidden Falls along the Tsangpo River May 9, 2000. 

After a 1998 National Geographic Society-sponsored kayaking expedition of the Tsangpo River, Space Imaging took the world’s first commercial high-resolution satellite images of the remote Tibetan river. That expedition was called off before completion because of the tragic whitewater death of a kayaker.

Then, in the summer of 1999, Scott Lindgren, a 29-year old world-class kayaker and Emmy-award winning cameraman, started planning to take a team to descend the Tsangpo. He turned to Space Imaging for the IKONOS satellite images that were taken in May 2000.

“The satellite images were an absolute key to the success of the expedition,” said team leader Lindgren. “The images were like being in a helicopter above the water. They gave us a bird’s-eye view of the entire river before we ever left the U.S. Some areas of the Tsangpo Gorge have never been seen by man, that is until IKONOS took these amazing pictures.”

Showing rapids, steep canyon walls, trails and mountain passes, the set of 20 images, valued at more than $48,000, was loaded into the team’s laptop computers and viewed with ERDAS’ ViewFinder software. The very accurate, high-resolution images allowed the team, by using GPS coordinates, to navigate along specific sections of the river and know in advance what lay ahead. The team developed entry and exit waypoints that were then programmed into GPS receivers to keep the team on course. Large image-maps, overlaid with latitude and longitude grids, were also printed out and laminated, and were used daily by both on- and off-river teams.

“We spent days pouring over the satellite image-maps. They gave us a far stronger understanding of what we were to encounter than I ever expected. I can’t imagine doing another expedition of this magnitude without satellite imagery,” said Lindgren.

The entire expedition, which started on Jan. 21, 2002, took more than a month to complete. Not only did they complete the first descent of the Tsangpo Gorge, but they were also only the third Western expedition ever to traverse the Gorge, the first two being done on foot – Frank Kingdon Ward in 1924 and Ken Storm, Jr.’s team in 1998.

Lindgren and other team members filmed the historic trek for Outside Television Productions. The expedition TV special, “Into the Tsangpo Gorge,” will air on NBC Sports this Sunday, May 26, at 2:30 p.m. ET. Outside Magazine’s coverage of the expedition will be its cover story in the July issue and is currently featured on Outside Magazine’s Web site at www.outsidemag.com. Also, Lindgren is scheduled to be interviewed on NBC’s Today show on Friday, May 24. 

Beyul of the Himalaya

[Source: http://www.sacredland.org/beyul/]

Throughout the famed Himalayan mountains are large, hidden valleys known as beyul, places of peace and refuge revered by Tibetan Buddhists. These secret lands of legend have drawn Buddhist seekers for centuries, and one called Pemako is thought to have been the inspiration for Shangri-La, the mystical Himalayan utopia described in James Hilton’s 1933 novel “Lost Horizon.” Because of their remote and isolated location, and the respect with which they have been treated by the communities that reside in or near them, the beyul contain high levels of biodiversity in a setting of tremendous beauty. However, outside influences like globalization, nationalization, cultural assimilation and tourism have begun to erode the power of the traditional beyul concept in many places, while development encroaches on the physical landscape. If modern conservation and management efforts are to be successful, they must find ways to preserve and integrate longstanding traditional beliefs and practices. In his introduction to the Ian Baker book “Heart of the World,” the Dalai Lama writes, “From a Buddhist perspective, sacred environments such as Pemako are not places to escape the world, but to enter it more deeply.”

The Land and Its People

The beyul are large mountain valleys, sometimes encompassing hundreds of square kilometers, found in the Buddhist areas of the Himalaya in Nepal, Tibet, India and Bhutan. They originate from the beliefs of the Nyingmapa sect of Tibetan Buddhism, which has a rich tradition of respect for natural sites. According to ancient Buddhist texts, the beyul were preserves of Padmasambhava, also known as Guru Rinpoche, who introduced Buddhism to Tibet and founded the Nyingmapa tradition in the eighth century. Information on their locations was kept on scrolls hidden under rocks and inside caves, monasteries and stupa (shrines). Some beyul are now inhabited, others are occasionally visited by spiritual seekers and adventurers, and some are still unknown. The total number of beyul, discovered and not, is often said to be 108.

One of the most legendary beyul is Pemako (“the Secret Land Shaped Like a Lotus”), in southeastern Tibet, east of a dramatic Tsangpo River gorge known as the Great Bend, where the river curves sharply into the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh. The Tsangpo Gorge is three times deeper than the Grand Canyon, with enormous waterfalls in which the river drops more than 8,000 feet in a 150-mile stretch. These waterfalls, where several explorers have lost their lives, are said to be a gateway to a secret inner part of Beyul Pemako. The Tsangpo River connects Pemako to one of Tibet’s most sacred mountains, Mount Kailash, and the landscape of the Tsangpo-Pemako area is said to represent the body of the goddess Dorje Pagmo, with the river her spine and the surrounding peaks her breasts.

In Nepal and Tibet, around Mount Everest, are the Khenbalung, Khumbu, Rolwaling, Rongshar, Kyirong and Nubri sacred valleys. Khumbu was discovered by ancestors of the Sherpa people, who had left Tibet to escape religious persecution in the 15th and 16th centuries. They entered the valley to seek refuge and made a new homeland there. Buddhist monasteries and sacred mountains have brought many spiritual travelers to Khumbu, more accessible than the mysterious Pemako.

Many other beyul are known only to local people and they often transcend political boundaries. The exact geographical locations of beyul are often debated because their locations are also spiritual. A person might follow instructions from the ancient texts but still not be able to see or experience the beyul if not in the proper spiritual state.

Beyul are religious conceptions, but because of the reverence with which they are treated by local residents, hunting, fighting and disturbing the natural landscape are considered inappropriate behaviors and are avoided. As a result, beyul have become significant oases of biodiversity as well. They typically have plentiful water coming from the surrounding mountains, and their terrain is covered with forests, lakes, alpine meadows, and snow and ice fields. These valleys cover large areas and have vast elevation ranges. Their size and topographic variations provide a home for a diverse array of plants and animals; their isolation and inaccessibility generally means low levels of human disturbance.

Within the beyul, particular natural features such as lakes, rocks and patches of forest are often regarded as especially sacred because they are home to supernatural beings. Some gathering of plant resources, such as medicinal plants, firewood and timber, is allowed, but collectors make sure they have not harvested more than is needed. The animals in beyul are protected by the Buddhist taboo against killing. The residents of the Kharta and Rongshar areas in Tibet, for example, challenged British explorers who wanted to hunt when they arrived in 1921. Endangered species that live in beyul include the snow leopard, musk deer, red panda and Himalayan black bear.

The sacredness of the beyul also means that human conflicts are spiritually discouraged. In Beyul Dremoshung in the Indian state of Sikkim, two groups, the Lepchas and Bhutias, hold an annual festival that commemorates the signing of a peace treaty. The festival celebrates the deity of the beyul’s Mount Kangchendjunga, who is supposed to have witnessed the treaty signing.

Current Challenges and Preservation Efforts

Today, most beyul in the Himalaya are designated as some form of park or reserve by their respective governments. In the process, the centuries of protection the beyul concept has provided are being forgotten, and regulation and policing are taking precedence over communities’ faith-based conservation. Many beyul are no longer so isolated because of modern modes of transportation and communication. Education in outside languages often erodes local cultural values and traditional knowledge. When children adopt cultures that are alien to their own land, traditional concepts such as the beyul begin to lose their grip on people’s minds.

In the age of global economic systems, voluntary faith-based approaches may also not be adequate to ensure continued environmental protection, as development projects are authorized from outside the communities. Roads now run through Ronghsar and Kyirong and there are airfields near Khumbu and Khenbalung. Burning of forests, livestock overgrazing and soil erosion are becoming problems as community respect for the beyul declines. And since the higher-elevation and more isolated areas tend to be economically poorer, the money to be made from tourism and development is a powerful force. Adventure tourism like trekking is often unregulated, and increasing numbers of visitors are taking their toll on fragile areas. Recent migrants to the area often serve as commercial and trekking porters, and they do not share the religious and cultural traditions of long-term inhabitants.

Pemako is currently threatened by China’s plans to build a hydroelectric dam, twice as big as the controversial Three Gorges Dam, which would harness the power of the Tsangpo waterfalls to pump water to northeast China. The project would displace the traditional Tibetan villages above the gorge and impact millions of people downriver in India, who will be deprived of river water and the nutrients its flood levels bring into soil. The artificial lake created by the dam would also submerge untouched forests and wildlife.

Sagarmatha National Park, which encompasses Beyul Khumbu, near Mount Everest, was established in 1976 and declared a UNESCO World Heritage site three years later. It is the second most visited national park in Nepal’s Himalayan region; tourism increased from 3,600 tourists in 1979 to 21,570 in 2001. The Sherpa continue to live in the park and grow food through traditional methods. However, there are pressing concerns about the increased harvesting of fragile and slow-growing high-altitude vegetation such as shrub juniper and cushion plants, which the growing population uses for fuel. Tourism has brought them some financial benefits, but the growing numbers of people disturb fragile ecological zones, and tourism income is not equally distributed throughout the region.

For protected areas to be successful in the long term, park managers and government officials need to learn more about the spiritual underpinnings of the beyul concept in order to gain support from the local communities who are the real guardians of the hidden lands. Regulations should complement traditional use rules instead of override them. A full survey of beyul throughout the Himalayas needs to be conducted, alongside interviews with community spiritual leaders to document the principles by which they govern their beyul. Local schools should incorporate beyul traditions into their curriculum so adults can pass on indigenous knowledge and practices. Outside visitors and migrant workers should also be educated in the local culture and conservation ethics; their respect and interest will further encourage community members to preserve their heritage.

Some community groups and NGOs are currently working to strengthen local attachment to the beyul and educate communities about the value of ecotourism, which can provide income while also protecting the sacred valleys. The Mountain Institute’s Himalaya Program works with local communities in the eastern Himalayan valleys of Nepal and Tibet to preserve mountain cultures, improve mountain livelihoods and conserve ecosystems. Its Sacred Sites Trail Project has constructed a trail in Sagarmatha National Park to keep tourists away from fragile areas and direct them to lesser-known sacred sites and villages in the Khumbu region, thus spreading the economic benefits to isolated communities and lessening the impact on better-known places. The nonprofit Vision Builders runs the Lhundrüp Topgyé Ling School in the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, which serves local students and Tibetan refugees by teaching literacy, Buddhist principles and cultural traditions.

Protecting ecosystems across political boundaries is also vital for long-term conservation. Toward that end, the Mountain Institute has supported the governments of Nepal, India and the Tibet Autonomous Region in creating a network of transboundary protected areas including Sagarmatha National Park, Makalu-Barun National Park and Tibet’s Qomolangma Nature Preserve. These adjacent parks jointly protect nearly 40,000 square kilometers around Mount Everest in the heart of the Himalaya, including six beyul.

The Yarlung Zangbo Grand Canyon

The Yarlung Zangbo Grand Canyon is a deep and long canyon in China. The Yarlung Tsangpo River, usually just called “Zangbo” (also spelled “Tsangpo”, meaning “purifier”), originates from Mount Kailash and running east for about 1700 km drains a northern section of the Himalayas before its enters the gorge near Pe, Tibet. The canyon has a length of about 150 miles as the gorge bends around Mount Namcha Barwa (7756 m) and cuts its way through the eastern Himalayan range. Its waters drop from 3,000 m near Pe to about 300 m at the end of the gorge. After this passage the river enters Arunachal Pradesh, India, and eventually becomes the Brahmaputra.

The gorge has a unique ecosystem with species of animals and plants barely explored and affected by human influence. Its climate ranges from subtropical to arctic. The rare takin is one of the animals hunted by the local tribes.

Since the 1990’s the Yarlung Tsangpo River has been the destination of a number of teams that engage in exploration and whitewater kayaking. The river has been called the “Everest of Rivers” because of the extreme conditions of the river. The first attempt to run was made in 1993 by a Japanese group who lost one member on the river.

In October 1998, a kayaking expedition sponsored by the National Geographic Society attempted to navigate the Tsangpo Gorge. Troubled by unanticipated high water levels, the expedition ended in tragedy when expert kayaker Doug Gordon lost his life. The largest waterfall of the river, the “Hidden Falls” of the Tsangpo Gorge, was not reached by outside explorers until 1998, by a team consisting of Ken Storm, Hamid Sarder, Ian Baker and their Monpa guides. They estimated the height of the falls to be about 108 feet. The falls, which, along with the rest of the Pemako area, are considered a sacred site by Tibetan Buddhists, had been concealed until then from outsiders, including the Chinese authorities.

In January-February, 2002, an international group consisting of Scott Lindgren, Steve Fisher, Mike Abbott, Allan Ellard, Dustin Knapp, and Johnnie and Willie Kern, completed the first descent of the upper Tsangpo gorge section.

Its beauty, remoteness, and mystique make it one of the places thought to have inspired the notion of Shangri-La in James Hilton’s book Lost Horizon in 1933.

While the government of the PRC has declared the establishment of a “Yarlung Tsangpo Grand Canyon National Reservation”, there have also been governmental plans and feasibility studies for a major dam to harness hydroelectric power and divert water to other areas in China. The size of the dam in the Tsongpo gorge would exceed that of Three Gorges Dam as it is anticipated that such a plant would generate 40,000 megawatts electricity, more than twice the output of Three Gorges. It has been estimated that construction may start in 2009. It is feared that there will be displacement of local populations, destruction of ecosystems, and an impact for downstream people in India and Bangladesh. The project is criticized by India because of its negative impact upon the residents downstream. Analysts think that the livelihood of up to 100 million people could be at stake and therefore voice fears that the completion of the water diversion component of the project could sparkle an Indian-Chinese water war if no proper management is taking place. However, another type of dam, the inflatable, is possible that would obviate any necessity for a huge concrete structure. R.B. Cathcart, in 1999, first suggested a fabric dam—inflatable with freshwater or air—could block the Yarlung Tsangpo Caynon upstream of Namcha Barwa. Water would then be conveyed via a hardrock tunnel to a point downstream from that mountain, affording the generation of tens of thousands of megawatts—power which would have to be distributed internationally and equitably through a Himalayan power grid.

Journey to the Hidden Land of Pemako

[Source: http://www.elephantjournal.com/2011/08/journey-to-the-hidden-land-of-pemako/]

In one of the stamens of the flower of the world is Pemako in the shape of Vajra Yogini lying down. Outer, inner and secret levels correspond to the levels of the mind. In the secret chakra of Vajra Yogini there areflowers coming in winter also. If people die here, they do not take karmic rebirth; they go to the Pure Lands. I do not tell lies. It is like that.

Keep it in mind.

Guru Rinpoche from the Guidebook to Pemako

Pemako is the supreme hidden land, says Guru Rinpoche. Predicting the dark times when the elements will be so imbalanced that it affects meditators, he concealed 108 valleys in the Himalayas as terma or hidden treasure with guidebooks to be revealed at precisely the right time.

Pemako straddles south-east Tibet and extends into the most north-easterly corner of India. The word itself means ‘lotus display’ and is said to be the actual body of Vajra Yogini. From head to navel she is in Tibet; from the navel downwards she lives in India.

The name has resonated in my mind for many years. Stories of trees with edible bark and streams running with milky water, dogs who attain rainbow body by eating the grass, sacred treasure taken from a poisonous lake, magical herbs that induce siddhis and enable realization of emptiness, make it sound like a mythical lost paradise. But, the legend tells also of cannibalistic tribal people in loin cloths with blow darts who guard the hidden land from intruders, poisonous snakes, tigers, leeches and dense jungle.  All this makes Pemako intriguing, like a shape shifting dakini.

The renowned explorer-botanist Kingdon Ward, had a less exalted view of Pemako.

Not only is Pemako extraordinarily difficult to reach from any direction, it is still more difficult to penetrate and explore when reached. Surrounded on three sides by the gorges of the Tsangpo, the fourth is blocked by mighty ranges of snow mountains, whose passes are only open for a few months in the year. Beyond these immediate barriers to east, west and south are trackless forests inhabited by wild unfriendly tribes… Add to this… a climate which varies from the subtropical to the arctic, the only thing common to the whole region being perpetual rain, snakes and wild animals, giant stinging nettles and myriads of biting and blood sucking ticks, hornets, flies and leeches, and you have some idea of what the traveler has to contend with.

The Riddle of the Tsangpo Gorges, Kingdon Ward, 1926

Pemako was both heaven and hell. I had to experience it for myself to see my own mind, but how could I get there?

My first attempt was in 1994 when our group of three, led by the translator Gyurme Dorje,  got as far as the Guru Rinpoche cave of Thimpei directly below the Doshong-la pass where Kingdon-Ward had made his entry to Pemako in 1925.

It was full moon day as we were walking along the path to Thimpei. The dagger shaped mountain of Namchak Barwa erupted from its white shroud and instantly we saw a rainbow circling the sun.

Inside the cave a massive skylight shaped like a phurba or ritual dagger marked the place where Guru Rinpoche had subdued a demon by throwing his phurba at it. It hit the rock exposing Namcha Barwa, the phurba shaped mountain, at the point where the surging Tsangpo twists around the mountain in a hairpin bend, disappears into the gorge – three times the depth of the Grand Canyon – and after dropping 11,000 metres in an unexplored five mile stretch, emerges serenely into the Brahmaputra in Assam.

This was the heart of the mystery surrounding the inner hidden land. Was there a precipitous waterfall to account for that drop? In The Riddle of the Tsangpo Gorges, Kingdon-Ward described his failed attempt to discover the waterfall which supposedly hid the  doorway to the mystical inner level: the fabled Chhimed Yangsang Ney.

After crossing the Tsangpo, we camped on a grassy stretch of land. It was in the late afternoon as we were having tea that a village man appeared dressed in the local style. He told Gyurme Dorje, he had something for ‘the lady’. From inside his jacket he took out a dark object wrapped in a cloth and put it in my hand. It was a black oval stone with a prominent white eye marking its peaked surface and a clear line around the perimeter. ‘This is from my father’s treasure box. When he died he left it with me. I know it’s something special, but I don’t know what it is,’ he said.

As my hand clasped the pitch-black stone I could feel it pulsing as if it were alive. I knew immediately what it was but said nothing. I took out one hundred yuan, placed it in his hand, and said, ‘Please take it.’ He smiled, put it in his pocket and disappeared over a grassy slope.

It felt like a present from Guru Rinpoche. It seemed he was saying, you will get to Pemako. This stone is my promise to you. I wrapped the stone in a brocade bag and took it everywhere with me, like a talisman.

We never made it  into the hidden land on that trip.  An avalanche overtook our expedition to Milarepa’s famous tower – the last of the many impasses on that fateful trip. Only the stone, held, admired and blessed by all the high Lamas, was there to remind me of Guru Rinpoche’s promise as the years passed.

In 1996 I began to hear about the exploits of Ian Baker: Buddhist, scholar, adventurer, and mountaineer, with a Pemako obsession. Over dinner at the Vajra Hotel in Kathmandu he showed me some of his photos of the Tsangpo gorge. People were crossing ravines balancing on rusted cables! I felt utter dismay. ‘ This is Indiana Jones’, I said staring dismally at their prowess. ‘I can’t do this,’ I told him. ‘It gets worse’, he replied enthusiastically, taking out another photo of sheer rock face with a drop into endless space. ‘We had to climb that.’

In June 1996 I received a letter from Ian telling me of his hazardous explorations into the Tsangpo gorge.

…this trip was arduous in the extreme involving hazardous stream crossings on rusted cables followed by two weeks of total wilderness in which we depended much on climbing ropes descending slick mosscovered cliffs and traversing across precipitous gorges. We stayed in caves which were filled with vipers until our fires drove them out and rain was almost perpetual. Nevertheless we reached our goal: the unknown reaches of the Tsangpo’s innermost gorges and discovered there a world of waterfalls and caves encrusted in crystal. This was a region prophesied by the terton Gampopa as containing magical plants that could enhance siddhis – the elusive tsa kuntuzangpo, but apart from strange varieties of psylocibin mushrooms, we found no specific plant that could be claimed to fit this category….

In 1999 Ian’s tenacious expeditions revealed at last the mysterious waterfall hidden in the Tsangpo Gorge and he rose to stardom as National Geographic explorer of the year. The Chinese retaliated by closing off Pemako to the foreign devil.

I tried every possible way to get a permit to Pemako from the Indian side. But NE Arunachal Pradesh where Pemko lay, was restricted: it was a military zone bordering China and a tribal area. For years the Indian Home Office said No, loud and clear, in spite of my entreaties that I was a Buddhist pilgrim and not a spy. I gave up.

In 2004 my karma with Pemako ripened. After the death of Shabdrung Rinpoche of Bhutan, whose companion I had been for five years, I met the manager of his travel company in Delhi. Like everyone on the Pemako trail, Basant was enthralled by the dakini. His eyes lit up when he talked about her; and even more astounding, he had explored ithe hidden land from the Arunachal side with the help of Ata, a native Pemako guide. The Indian Government now granted permits, he informed me.

My heart was beating wildly as I told him I had to go. In 2006 he arranged an itinerary to Devakota Mountain, the heart of the lotus flower, and in March 2007, we left Delhi – three women and a crew of fifteen. We were lured into the jungle by a description in Basant’s brochure from the Guru Rinpoche Guidebook to Pemako:

Devakotta mountain is the clear-light realm of dakinis and deities of the Mother Tantra, …It is the dwelling place of Chakrasamvara with his 725 accompanying deities….Those of fortune who merely come to this place will experience spontaneous realization. By practising meditation here one can in this lifetime attain perfect Buddhahood, or upon reaching the bardo state can attain the Sambhoghaya, the Enjoyment Body of complete enlightenment. For whoever makes one complete circumambulation of Devakotta Mountain the door to all lower rebirths will be closed.. A single outer circumambulation of this holy place will bring ten million siddhis while making thirteen circumambulations in one day will lead one direct to the transcendent state, beyond distinction of virtue and non-virtue. All explained herein is the infallible truth.

Devakota Mountain sounded worth a visit.

Four hours from Delhi we stepped off the plane in Assam, at Dibrugarh. The following day we crossed the Brahmaputra in yellow and red painted riverboats barely large enough to hold two land cruisers and thirty people. After three eight- hour days of twisting around mountains, we came to the end of the road.

On the full moon day we arrived at Tuting, a Tibetan village, where we abandoned our land cruisers for the trek into dense jungle. Ata, whom we had picked up en route, seemed a direct descendent of Guru Rinpoche with a quirky touch of the Wizard of Oz. The way his moustache curled upwards in a cheeky point, like the Guru and the frequent intensity of his wide-eyed gaze – were surely family traits.  Gold wellies, a rainbow umbrella and a long pointed walking stick  used to spear stray bits of litter, completed the ensemble.

Ekajati Mountain with cloud shaped dakini

He pointed to the first landmark: Ekajati Mountain. Mary, Margaret and I gazed mutely at the formation above it: a white cloud shaped like a dancing dakini.

A halo of rainbow lights encircling the full moon lit the pathway to a half hidden wooden hall where a Nyingma feast ritual was in full swing.

Full moon with rainbow in Pemako

Through the dimly lit room we could see women pouring liquid into cups and heaping steaming food onto plates. Like wanderers in a foreign land coming upon a fairy feast, we stood for a moment absorbed in the buzz of happiness. I was used to seeing monks in maroon robes performing these rituals, but here was a family. Men and women served and practised the rituals equally as lay practitioners. We were seated and served the feast offering: swollen succulent mushrooms like fairies’ bonnets, the juicy green tips of ferns, glasses of chang tasting of sweet nectar followed by whisky with a potent medicinal blessing, so strong you could smell the herbs. The smoke offering was made from local juniper and filled the air with a pungent aroma. It felt like the quintessence of all smells, tastes, sounds, shapes was here and we were absorbing them.

‘’Your arrival on this full moon night is auspicious’ said the Lama.

‘It’s taken me a long time to get here,’ I replied moving closer to show him my stone. I told him where I’d received it.

‘That is the most powerful cave of Guru Rinpoche’, he said. ‘Everything that comes from there is connected with him. This is a very special stone.’

Had he ever heard of a terton called Pegya Lingpa who took treasure from a poisonous lake? He nodded forcefully. ‘Of course, we all remember that,’ He retold the story. ‘On top of a mountain there was a lake surrounded by thick forests, where no one dared to go. Pegya Lingpa made some prayers; took off his clothes and ran up the mountain with all the people following him. After submerging in the lake, he appeared carrying a round, black fruit-like substance never seen in that area. The naga of the lake was very powerful and all the poison went into his body turning it black. He washed himself with milk and water and made an offering to the naga.’

I knew now why it had taken me so long to get to Pemako: my connection was with the Indian side.

First suspension bridge across the Siang

When the first suspension bridge came into view my body stiffened. Anchored to a massive boulder, it stretched hundreds of feet across a chasm. ‘There are five suspension bridges’, said Basant. ‘ This is the best – and longest, that we’ll have.The last one to Devakota,’ he shrugged his shoulders to dismiss concern, ‘we don’t know yet what condition that’s in.’

As we negotiated every footstep on the swaying bridge, the mind became one pointed and still. Distraction was dangerous. We walked for several hours on a narrow stone path balancing on logs over sudden steep drops until we came to a tribal village.

Ata with tribal leader

Inside the community hall, were the tribal elders in loin-cloths downing home-made brew with abandon. They sat us down and filled our glasses while Ata narrated the opening of Pemako.

It was predicted, that the reincarnation of Achar Saley (one of the twenty five disciples of Guru Rinpoche in the 8th century) would reveal the hidden land. Accordingly, Terton Ngang Gey came to Pemako one hundred and fifty years ago.  The tribesmen tried to halt his progress.  Now partly civilized by Christian missionaries, at that time they were wild naked cannibals killing randomly for food. Terton Ngang Gey got angry. As he shook his long hair, sparks of fire came out setting the houses alight until the whole village began to burn. Recognising his powers, the Tibetan settlers prostrated to him, with the Adis following their example. They agreed to let him enter  Pemako if he would stop the fire. Since that time the Adis have co-operated to help any Buddhist traveling in their area.

As we walked up and down following the trail into jungle where tree ferns towered to the height of cedars, we passed some of the other tribal inhabitants, the Mishmis. Their costumes resembled medieval doublets, with peaked hats, and they carried blow guns. In silent amazement we gazed in wonder like time travelers caught in a curved loop. Ata seized a banana leaf from a Mishmi unfurling it to reveal a cluster of frogs skewered up like a kebab.

‘They kill everything,’ he said sadly. His own white t-shirt was splattered with drops of blood from leeches, left to feed on his body. He could remember when the leeches were so numerous, blood from his body would flow like water.

In the Guru Rinpoche Guidebook which Ata read aloud every evening like a bedtime story, the topography of Pemako is described as many cows’ horns pointing steeply upwards. We sat down to rest before the 900 metre descent to our camp site at the Yangsang River trying to confirm the literal truth of the Guidebook: the birds sing dharma words and the water sounds like the chanting of mantra.

While we were listening carefully to distinguish the sound of a particular mantra, Ata burst into the Guru Rinpoche chant in tune with the birds. Our laughter hung in the air with birdsong blending with the sound of wind, water, birds, trees, insects.

Absorbed in this natural state of non-meditation. I started to chat with Guru Rinpoche, as if he were right there, complimenting him on Pemako. ‘So this is what you did. You made a place that shows the natural state, as it is. Now I understand.’

Halfway along the trail, we arrived at a stupa enclosing an impressive image of Guru Rinpoche’s face with bulging eyes staring into boundary-less space – and entered the inner hidden land.

Now we were inside a Buddhist world of prayer flags, moss covered stupas, technicolour boulders and the occasional Tibetan village of primitive wooden houses inhabited by meditators absorbed in contemplation – aided, it seemed, by very potent chang.

The jungle blend: chrome yellow and orange banana flowers, massive tree ferns, small ferns with curling spring green tips, mushrooms spiralling into umbrellas, grasses and plants that could colour the skin like rouge.

Tropical jungle undergrowth

Ata used his stick like a wand to douse the general area, then scratched into the ground and came up exultantly with an almond like nut. ‘This is very special. It’s called khandro drunbu. It’s the dakini’s protection.’ We all scratched into the ground near the spot Ata had located. Triumphant, we all found at least one. The dakinis were with us.

‘Some grass here is so powerful, said Ata, if you taste it you can fly. A goat ate so many different kinds of herbs, it went into meditation and when it died it produced ringsel.’

It is said five types of supreme magical herbs grow in Pemako making it an apothecary’s paradise of mind expanding, bliss bestowing elixirs.

From Khamtrul Rinpoche’s visionary Guidebook to Pemako:

The magical herb that increases happiness is white in color and tinged with red. Its flowering bud is five in number and smells akin to medicinal elephant bile. Its petals are small and shaped like the curled hand of a small infant baby.

The magical herb which actualizes immortality is a red lotus flower tinged with black. Smelling it, releases the scent of camphor, which is carried by the wind. Its eight petals are shaped like wings taking flight in the sky. Its leaves are orange in color and shaped like the webbed hands of a frog.

The magical herb which grants all supreme and mundane siddhis, is a golden flower tinged with red. Smelling it reveals an odor of nutmeg and the tips of its six petals are slightly curled. It has blue leaves which hang downwards like silk tassels.

The magical herb which empowers one to fly in the sky like the Dakini, Vajra Varahi, is a blossoming red flower like red coral that has been polished with oil. Smelling it reveals the aroma of aloe wood and the pungent taste of cumin. It has three petals and is shaped like a Garuda soaring in the heavens as its leaves are formed like a peacock with a breast of lapis lazuli.

The magical herb which is the summation of all intrinsic realization is a blue flower shaped like a bell. A single whiff will intoxicate the mind with its scent of white sandalwood, its petals are circular in circumference with its anthers shaped like bulbous and shiny seeds the shape of a Vajra. It has green leaves like the feathers on the crown of a light green rooster.

This describes the five types of supreme magical herbs as found in the Beyul Pema-kö. The definitive means for recognizing them is during the day they display a shower of rainbow light and at night, they burn like fire and jiggle and wiggle with dancing light. These herbs contain magical power, are sacred to this holy land and are extremely difficult to find.

On the morning of the third day we reached Devakota mountain, an island sitting in the bow of the Yangsang River which flowed anticlockwise around it, imitating on an outer level the visualization of a mantra circle in the secret place of Vajra Yogini. After a quick dip in the fast flowing cold waters, we had to cross the most challenging of suspension bridges.

Bridge to Devakota

Every step over the frail wooden slats had to be focused and fully present; a last triumphant step onto land at Devakota and we began the middle korra of the mountain. A treacherous path with sudden narrow passages opening into empty space, and massive tree roots lying in wait to sabotage careless steps, again composed the mind to meditative absorption.

In the second cave, more hidden from view, and narrower, Ata came back with some red earth which he daubed on our foreheads. ‘This is Yeshe Tsogyal’s cave’, he explained ‘and this is her cindura.’ We scrambled onwards and came to the third cave, a very open, spacious rock overhang, like a living room window with inviting views of the tree cliffs dropping towards the river. Ata introduced us to ‘the real Maratika’ where Guru Rinpoche and his consort Mandarava attained the siddhi of immortality.

Norma and Ata completing kora of Devakota

We sat and meditated, listening till all sounds blended with the nature of mind. Hours passed before we slowly came to our feet and walked the stone stairs to the top of Devakota. A clearing showed a modest stone temple – built by Terton Nang Gey then damaged in 1950 in a massive earthquake and rebuilt – a wooden shack for pilgrims’ retreats, another larger primitive wooden dwelling for guests and a jubilant band of proud cockerels who had been saved from the chop. A Lama with a white wispy beard and long gown, crinkled his face in ageless joy as he showed us to our beds in the guesthouse. He could have played the deathless Lama in Lost Horizon.

I walked to the temple to examine a pitch-black stone throne standing magnificently beside it. ‘This is the most important terma treasure of Pemako,’ said Ata. ‘It’s the stone throne of Guru Rinpoche. When Dudjom Rinpoche gave the Rinchen Terdzo here at the age of sixteen, not even he sat on the throne. Inside that throne there are more treasures than in the rest of the world.’

I circled the temple three times, magnetised by the throne.

‘The cockerels welcomed us in the dawn light with a boisterous cockadoodling, like an entire orchestra with percussion, wind instruments and lead singer belting his heart out. I meditated for an hour, then circled the temple, clutching my black stone in its red brocade bag. I found myself crawling involuntarily up the stairs and touching my small stone to the massive throne. It started to vibrate as though charging up, until my hand was tingling. A surge of gratitude filled my heart. ‘Thank you Guru Rinpoche for  bringing the stone back home’.

The secret place of Vajra Yogini was not revealed until the return journey. Before reaching Tutung, we walked steeply downhill off the path until eventually we came to a clearing in a thickly forested area. It was like cutting through a veil and entering another dimension. Prayer flags festooned a gigantic rock shaped like a stone-age bird with heavy wings folded by its side.

Garuda rock at the Vajrakilaya secret place of Vajra Yogini

Ata introduced us to the Garuda rock explaining that the Garuda was the protector of the deity Vajrakilaya who resided in the secret place of Vajra Yogini. It had weathered into the landscape like a prehistoric creature, covered in moss with knobbed bones beneath.

I asked Ata about the secret doorway to the inner hidden land that was supposed to lie behind the waterfalls in the depths of the Tsangpo Gorge. ‘This place here is called Chhimey Yangsam Chu’, said Ata emphatically. ‘This means the immortal most secret place of the dharma.’

The location of the secret gateway to Pemako, I concluded, could not be a fixed geographical point. It could only be known at a deeper level of mind. We saw its auspicious signs, tasted its plants, touched its soil, heard its sounds, smelled its fragrance and sat in stillness within its body.

Penetrate the depths of Pemako? One of our porters who used to be a hunter, told us a story. At Pema Shri he looked out over the valley and saw lots of small lights like a big village. The other hunters with him also saw the same phenomenon. Then, to their amazement, the lights disappeared. On many occasions, rainbows encircled him.

Pemako is a dakini manifesting appearance and emptiness to remind us of what reality truly is.

Weather Report: March 2007

No leeches, perpetual rain or mosquitoes

No stinging nettles, venomous bugs or poisonous snakes

Occasional scattered showers

With outbreaks of gentle sunshine throughout

Unusual rainbows at night circling the moon

And auspicious cloud formations 

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