The Long Descent to Dragnag
par Arroz Marisco
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The Long Descent to Dragnag |
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Often referred to as the second Chola Pass, a subsidiary ridge about a hundred metre or so in elevation soon after the knee-wearing descent from the actual pass takes most trekkers by surprise. Taken after this so-called last hurdle, a long descent begins to the hamlet of Dragnag.
The view taken here is from an outcrop on a side trip before the final descent to the village of Drag...
At 5420m, this pass is physically more demanding than Renjo La Pass on the east as it entails climbin...
It's not over yet here - which surely is a turn-off as soon as one realizes the difficult and tricky ...
The little hamlet of Dragnag provides much-needed accommodations for knacked hikers after tackling th...
Normally covered in debris and dirt, the longest glacier in the Himalayas at 36km is turned into a sn...
Dzonghla which amounts to no more than 2 ramshackle hostels sits on a strategic route for trekkers en...
The is the First Lake of Gokyo, also known as Longpongo Tsho and is the smallest of a series of six l...
The 2nd Lake of Gokyo is almost half-frozen by mid-December. Here the view of Cho Oyu(8201m)lying bet...
A view taken on the ridge adjoining the longest glacier of the Himalayas, the Nguzumpa Glacier - the ...
A hamlet that is also the place of a tragic avalanche that killed 40 people back in 1995, Phangka sit...
Nepal lies between India and China and it contains Mt. Everest, the tallest mountain in the world. The Himalayas here are pretty rugged terrain.
The first civilizations here date to 600 BC in the Kathmandu valley, where the capital is now located. According to Buddhist tenets, the Buddha was born here in 563 BC, incarnating as Prince Siddhartha Gautama and leading the world to enlightenment through liberation from suffering. Many small temples and shrines like this one exist for Buddhists to stop and offer prayers.
Early support of Buddhism gradually gave way to Hinduism and today Nepal is the world's only Hindu monarchy. The kingdom of Nepal was united in 1768 by King Prithvi Narayan Shah, who fled the Moghul invasions of India. Soon after that there was a period of conflict with the British East India Company leading to a treaty recognizing the independence of Nepal -- in 1923!
After WWII Nepal was ruled by monarchy but it arrived at the 1990's split by an official ban on political parties. Intense protest by the pro-democracy movement and the Maoist guerrilla Communist movement led to free elections in 1991, only to be followed by violence between the Nepalese government and Maoist guerillas.
Since the turn of the millennium there have been several important steps taken in the peace process, including a new Constitution for Nepal and a cease fire agreement with the rebels. A compromise government was achieved whereby a Maoist was elected prime minister without his taking control of the armed forces of the country.
At the time of this writing it has been one week since the compromise government has collapsed. We offer our hopes that the citizens and government of this beautiful country will come to a peaceful agreement soon.
Text by Steve Smith.
