A bath that cleanses not just the body but the soul too is awesome. That too when it is surrounded by a 25,000 feet snow-lit massif, then it becomes an Alive is Awesome bathing experience.
Excitement and experience come together
The Lake Manasarovar in Tibet is also known as Mapham Yum-tso (‘Victorious Lake’) by the locals and is believed to be the source of the four great Indian rivers – the Indus, Ganges, Sutlej and Brahmaputra – as per Hindu and Buddhist cosmology (In truth only the Sutlej originates from here.) Unseen to mortal eyes, Lord Shiva himself floats in these waters taking the form of a golden swan. Poet Kalidasa compared the sparkling water to pearls, dipping in which cleans a lifetime of sins. The ‘star showers’ at four o’clock in the morning is actually an outcome of friction prevalent in high altitudes but the experience is so
awesome that we will go with the local belief that these are gods descending for their daily ablutions.
Myth and mystery abound in equal measure with actual experience in Lake Manasarovar. I chose to take my awesome bath away from the regular tourist hotspots – a few kilometers towards my next stop at Chiu Gompa, the ‘Bird Monastery’. The lake wore a green and gold cloak with a fuscous trim. A bath in these waters will ice you to the marrow but you will really love it. Especially if you believe that you will emerge with a clean slate.
Alive is Awesome at Lake Manasarovar!
