Blessed By The Lama
By Marshall Thompson
We had the honor yesterday to be blessed by the Lama Geshe, one of the more learned lamas in the Khumbu, who has a particular understanding of the religious significance of the Himalayas. He was a delightful older gentleman who entered and sat in a sunny corner of his home and explained to us what precautions to take while climbing Mount Everest. He then tied a blessed piece of string around each of our necks and put his forehead to the forehead of everyone in our group.
Apa and some of the other climbing Sherpas stuck around for a more extensive blessing from Lama Geshe. I didn’t understand anything, but it was filled with incense, mantras and ringing bells. The Lama Geshe has quite a sense of humor, apparently. He kept cracking jokes that had Apa rolling on the floor. It was a very nice ceremony.
It’s very important for the Sherpa to do several rounds of prayers and blessings before attempting to climb Mount Everest, as we’ve discussed earlier in this blog. To that end, Apa left early this morning to make a long trek back to Thame to be blessed by his hometown lama. Then he will race back and catch up with us before we get to base camp. Thame is just about 30 miles away from Dingbouhe, where we are today.
We’re over 14,000 feet now and we’ve crossed into a new environment. So far we’ve been hiking through evergreen forests and granite rock cliffs with raging rivers echoing from far below. Now we’re above the tree line in shallow valleys lined with juniper shrubs. We are in the midst of the snowy mountains. We’re getting close.
Just letting you know that a bunch of us are cheering you on and watching the progress.
Wow. I had no idea of the religious and spiritual significance of this climb. My prayers are with you and all of your expedition to be safe and edified in the process.