The Plateau before Renjo La Pass
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The Plateau before Renjo La Pass |
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The 5345m high Renjo La Pass is slightly off the beaten track but it offers spectacular view of the incredible Himalaya Range including the mighty Everest (8848m), Makalu(8481m) and Lhotse (8516m) as well as other snowy giants.
The trail to Renjo La Pass (5345m) skirts along the shore of the Third Lake before climbing qiute steeply up the side of a cliff to reach this plateau - the actual pass is just beneath that rightmost thumb-like rock of the very jagged peak in front.
Behind a circular cloud hovers right above Mt. Everest.
Battered by the high wind, the prayer flags danced a menacing rhythm against a majestic landscape dom...
Immediately after the hard slog up the cliff I took a breather and took this photo looking at the imp...
The descent from Renjo La Pass on this side is quite straight forward as the trail is well paved with...
The twin lake of Relama after Angladumba Tsho is not frozen yet and there are quite a few waterfowls ...
Gokyo Ri at 5357m is a small peak by the side of the Third Lake (seen here as the largerest of the th...
The River of Lhanjo Khola below drains the glacial lakes of Angladumba Tsho and Ralama Tsho successiv...
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.
