Paryang. is about 4540mtr above sea level, and the day after that it is to manasarover/kailas.  Though it is very cold and windy, sleep was good and after 3am I got up and went outside the tent. Inside the tent you feel the cold, but being close inside the air is stale. Once outside, the chilly air is so sweet, and the stars! Literally there is no way I can describe its beauty. It hung so close, big glittering points, some streaking across the sky, some looks like they are moving and the moon too, so beautiful. In the far off sky there was a searchlight like light sweeping the corner in an arch, but there is no road and no people living nearby. We had camped in a pasture, with visibility all around. I wondered what that light was, and asked the sherpas about that. The head sherpa who has been going around like this for about 7/8 years said this was a phenomena seen in this region, and nobody can explain it. What it is or why it happens! Everybody was up by then and in the kitchen tent the cook and the sherpa boys were busy preparing the meals, shortly everybody was up and packing. All seemed refreshed, may be because of the rarified air. And this year too, though we chose another place Barkha, nearer to Manasarovar for early access to Manasarovar for the puja's.

We started off in the morning. The drive begins once more and this time though it is sandy still, there are streams in between, and in some of the streams, ice is formed and in the morning light it glistens like diamonds. When the jeeps stopped for just stretching the legs, some of us went and touched the water, so cold, so pure, so beautiful, one just wish one can just lie immersed in that water . occasionally you can see smooth, white or coloured boulders, which some time long back would have been carried in a swift flowing river. Here I remember that reading that there is speculation that Tibet was once near the sea it self, but in some violent upheaval of the earth plates, the topography changed to the present.   More sandy landscapes, and on the far off hills some shrubs look like words, that are written in some other language, all grow and spread out, but all spread in circle roundly, never stretching side ways. From far you can imagine it to be some sort of writing on the hills. Because these scrubs are seen only occasionally, it added a mysterious look to the ordinary. Because of the altitude, the air is so rarified, and the suns ray on the mountains, and the shadow of the sweeping clouds, the gathering of mists all combined create a painting that could only be done by the Almighty, so grand, so beautiful!! (This year Our Manager had told us in the day’s briefing that to spend the night on 30^th, that is Paurnami, full moon’s day on the banks of Manasarovar, we are not camping tonight at Paryang, but in another place nearer to Manasarovar, Barkha. to enable us to go in the morning to the the lake for the bath and pooja) We pitch our camps here for the night, and every body is waiting for tomorrow, for tomorrow is the day we will have a glimpse of the mighty Kailas. After a sound sleep, we gather round for hot tea or bournvita and then after a quick breakfast we are once more off. It is still early morning and the drive is on. And now the second line of mountains are all ice clad. And in the far background you can make out one more mountain range. And winding up on the climb we reach the first spot Lalangula pass from where we can see Manasarover,  in the background the mighty kailas. There stands majestic Kailas, abode of Lord Siva, the mighty One. and it is for this sacred Darshan that people be it young or old, undertakes this journey, for in theertha yathraa's there should be hardships , for only then, the real bhakti is tested again and again. Lord Mahadeva, the Supreme, residing in this icy abode with his consort Parvathy Devi. The Kailas; which the mighty Ravana tried to dislodge and take to his kingdom in Lanka. It is said that the horizontal ridge on the Kailasa was formed thus, and Mahadeva in his anger pushed down Kailas with his toe and Ravana's hand got trapped underneath the mountain. The western face seen here is enveloped in ice. And when compared to the majestic northern view, it is this view that is on the minds eye, whenever we remember Kailas.  You have to see the scene, for no amount of describing can reveal its beauty. It is beauty without words. Where everywhere the sand and rolling hill tops are seen, you can see at a distance the manasarover,which is 4740mtr,  which is the highest freshwater lake in the world, which one side is adorned by the kailash. And nearly on the western shore of manasarovar, there is the gurlamadhata mountain range, which is always covered in ice.  This far, the fresh water lake glimmers in a setting of mountains capped with snow. Manasasrovar was born from the mind of Brahma, the creator, and a dip in the water is almost every pilgrims and other pious souls desire, for it brings you salvation.(moksha) about 60 .mtr in radiace,  It is a real sight to beholdAll the jeeps stop, pilgrims alight, and then while some circumambulate the. chorten (chorten is the place where Tibetans worship, in our Sanskrit it is called stupa. It is like a stupa too in some places.) marking the first siting of kailas/manasarover, other pay their obience by doing pranam and circumambulate, and other take photos of the majestic view. The chortens are simple shrines of the Tibetans, where they pray by pranams either  by stacking some round stones on top or paying homage by putting yaks horns on the ground near the chorten. The chortens are decorated by hundreds of paper or cloth flags with the manthra written on it. It seems that the manthra written flags flapping in the winds bring God’s Grace to the traveler or whoever passing through the place .Most of the Tibetans have a maala,( with them, and sometimes you can see them chanting their mantra, OM MANI PADME HUM on rosary ) By now a sort of fervor grips the whole pilgrims, all want to see the manasarover  closely, but first the jeeps start by circumambulating the lake it self, and after that one settles down to a camp outside or in the rest houses maintained. Some times some groups do the circumambulating of the lake by walking, but as it takes about 1or 2 days, most people do the circumambulating by vehicle, then gets down to the lake. It was noon by the time we reached the lake and the beauty of the lake with the ice clad mountains and the majestic kailas with its snow capped head was regal in setting. Whichever and whatever way man paint, draw or construct, nothing can surpass the beauty of the drawings of the Almighty. This time too the tents were pitched in the maidan near the lake and far away it stretched.