Nepal - Land of Heaven: Mountain Flight

Mountain Flight to 'Abode of Gods'

The term "Himalaya" - a Sanskrit word meaning "the Abode of Snow" - was coined by the ancient Indian pilgrims who have travelled in these mountains since time immemorial. The Hindu pilgrim routes, the low valleys that abruptly rise up in high mountain ranges, the lovely trekking routes, densely forested areas lying just a mountain range away from barren cold deserts, and the lovely people of the mountains - these are some of the reasons why people have been so fascinated by the Indian Himalayas. To the Hindus this great grandfather-like figure has always been an abode of gods. So they referred to the Himalayas as devatma or God-souled.

 Heaven of Spiritual Practices the western Himalayas teems with esteemed pilgrimages so much so that the entire Kumayun range can be called tapobhumi or land of spiritual practices. Where else apart from Kailash and Manas-sarovar in the Himalayas could an all-abnegating Shiva roam with his bull? Where else apart from Hemkunt Sahib in the Himalayas could Guru Govind Singh have come in his former sagely incarnate for spiritual penance?

Nepal Himalayas containing nine of the world's fourteen highest peaks, Nepal is a true Himalayan kingdom. The Himalayas cover three fourths of the land in Nepal. It is home to some of the highest, rugged, remote and most difficult terrain in the world. The world's highest mountain peak Mount Everest, other high peaks like Lhotse, Nuptse, Annapurna, Dhaulagiri, Manaslu and the presence of some very beautiful trekking routes attract hundreds of thousands of people from all over the world to this lovely Himalayan destination

I was all ready awaiting to board the mountain flight watching the beautiful Himalayan range uncover itself to the morning Sunrise which was absolute spectacle.. A sight beyond any words can describe here. It was like the joy of meeting your beloved and merging in Him.. I felt my heart beat going up by the min as we took off  to get closer to the range . As I watched the Kathmandu Valley fall away beneath me, I was struck how green it was. That lasted just a few minutes, though, then we were into the cloud that had been holding us up for the past 45 minutes.

Soon after, we burst through the top and I looked out onto a scene that resembled white cotton balls, with teeth. This was the tops of the clouds, with the various peaks poking through. We headed towards the peaks, and gradually the clouds disappeared and there we were, less than ten minutes after take-off, gazing out onto the Himalayas. The stewardess, stopped to show each of us where we were on the map, then beckoned me forward to the cockpit. I crouched between the pilots to look through the windshield, onto a scene of pure rock and ice. The captain named one or two peaks near us then pointed ahead: "In front, that one, is Everest". 

There is something magical about that moment you first see Mount Everest, or Sagarmatha to use its Nepalese name. It is awe inspiring, even though it doesn't appear much higher than the surrounding mountains. The history, the stories, the legends, they all sit on this one, glittering peak like an invisible aura, and I found myself gazing in a misty-eyed trance.

The pilot had obviously seen dozens like me and quickly asked me to send the next person up, so I retreated to my seat  and sent the next passenger forward. Over the next half hour the stewardess circulated through the cabin, stopping with each person to point out which mountain we were passing, and which we were approaching, helping everyone to find it on their map and inviting everybody, one at a time, up to the cockpit to look ahead. This personal attention really made the flight so much more of an experience. 

The flight from Kathmandu to Everest takes you past more than half of the ten highest mountains in the world. From Kathmandu we passed fourteen peaks before we got to Everest; of these the tallest are Dorje Lapka (22,854 ft), the solitary Gauri Shankar (23,405 ft) named after Lord Shiva and his Consort, the flat topped Melungtse (23,560 ft), Numbur (22,825 ft), Cho-Oyo (26,906 ft), Gyachungkang (26,089 ft), Nuptse (25,771 ft) then the mother of all mountains, Sagarmatha or Everest, at 29,028 ft. Just behind Everest, Lhotse stands at (27,940 ft) but them we were turning and heading back to Kathmandu.

As we approached Kathmandu, the steward brought out T-shirts for sale, which had an image of the Buddha Air plane against a backdrop of Everest, with the line "I did not climb Everest, but I touched it with my heart". 

Suddenly the black and white vista gave way to green and soon after we landed, the morning cloud cleared and dispersed. As we disembarked, we were given a souvenir flight certificate signed by the Captain. Then the bust took us back to the terminal and I was ready for boarding my next flight to the Land of the God of Nothingness... Stay tuned to unravel with me the birth place of Lord Gautama Buddha!!!