I do not know how to begin my story……..everything happened very fast and unplanned and along the way I have no idea where I would be , what is ahead of me, basically I just “go with the flow” on my whole journey to the scared place…..”Shambhala” or it is better known as …”Shangri – La.

When my friend ask me if I would like to join a pilgrimage lead by Mina Rinpoche to Kawa-Kapo at Shambhala, my first instinct told me that I must not miss this chance. On the same day I confirmed to my friend my participation and within one week, my air ticket and visa were all prepared and I was getting ready to go the following week. At that stage I just knew that I would be leaving for Shambhala on 21st August and will be back to Malaysia on 30th August 2003. The itineraries which were planned between the two dates, I have no idea and I do not have to know as I entrust it to my faith and Mina Rinpoche.

On the 20th August, we drove to Johor Bahru and spend a night there because early next morning we had to catch our flight from Singapore to Kumming. We reached Kumming at noon the next day and our flight to Shambhala was in the late evening so we spent half a day at Kumming City.

By the time we reached Shambhala it was already dark and we went straight to the hotel. Mina Rinpoche was with a friend, whom we addressed as “Lama”, had booked the hotel for us. The next day after breakfast, we walked around the town and in the afternoon we visited the “Yee Lah” Meadows. The highlight of the day was eating the Tibetan Cheese, hand made by Mina Rinpoche while drinking tea at “Yee Lah”. He wanted to test if we could take this type of Cheese because if we go up to the mountain track, this would be the only food we get to eat. I appreciated the Rinpoche kindness but Rinpoche did not know that some of our friends had come to the trip very well prepared with many provisions stored inside their travel bags, such as chocolate and muslin bars, seaweed and cup noodles, sweets and biscuits…….. Also I wonder if Mina Rinpoche was aware of the fact that anything given by Rinpoche is considered a “great gift”, so if the cheese tasted horrible we still eat it with gratitude and a smiling face. But I think everyone of us could withstand the strong smell of the cheese.

We were then invited to dinner by one of Rinpoche’s friend who runs a Tibetan medicine factory at Shambhala and after dinner we visited his factory. The most interesting fact I learned was that there is a big prayer room at the top floor of the office building block and the Rinpoche at the factory will do prayer onto the medicine before the medicine is delivered to the customer. I can feel the kindness and the good intention of the Rinpoche when he mentioned this to us. I do not think the medicine we are taking have the blessing from the Buddha and Boddhisatva, so perhaps we should consider taking Tibetan medicine from now onwards.

The next day we were told that we would be going to the De Chin and to spend a night there before we start our trekking to the holy place on the following day. We stopped for tea half way the journey and we drank fresh yak milk. It tasted very nice but we could not have another cup because Rinpoche said that too much of milk would upset our stomach. Upon arrival at De Chin, I realized that we were assigned a very important task……..

We visited the Guru Rinpoche Temple, it is believe that before we climb the Kawa Kapo mountain (the holy place of Guru Rinpoche), we have to do prayer at the Temple asking his permission for us to visit the mountain. To ask for such permission, we leave it to Mina Rinpoche. You might have thought since it is the Guru’s temple, it must be grand and magnificent. To the contrary, the temple is in the middle of nowhere, right behind a mountain and it is definitely not a sight seeing place. You will not see a big bus carrying a group of tourist and if you hope for a souvenir shop to buy something to remember the Guru Rinpoche, you will be disappointed. We were there with one purpose, to pay respect to Guru Rinpoche.

Upon entering the temple, the Rinpoche started his prayer after the offering of lights and we followed his chanting of the mantra. I supposed the Rinpoche was asking for permission. During the prayer session, I felt so strong…….I was thinking, for me to come visit this holy place was such a rare chance, I felt so grateful. Others has told me that I must have accumulated so much good karma from the past to be awarded such a rare opportunity to do a pilgrimage at the Kawa Kapo. But as I was chanting the mantra, I felt that I must have accumulated so much bad karma and only with the kindness of the Buddha and Boddhisatva, they have given me this chance to come here to clear my bad karma away and at that very instance, I felt so grateful I was filled with tears…….I decided to offer a light and I expressed my gratitude and my wish after the prayer session. The prayer session was very moving and strong………On our way back, we saw a rainbow and we believed that could be the signal from the Guru Rinpoche giving us the “go ahead” permission to visit him at kawa kapo and his blessing to all of us.

We reached the base of the mountain before noon the next day. The base we called it “hot spring”. We were told the trek is tough, steep and up, up, up hill……we were wondering if we should ride a horse. After struggling with the decision to go either with or without a horse, I decided to share a horse with my friends. One horse is to help carry our heavy travel bags and the other one we will take turns to ride. But the policy of the “horse renting community” is that sharing of horse is not allowed so three of us ended up having to walk the tough trek up the hill while the rest of the group had already jumped onto their respective horses and on their way up to the holy place…….
The first half of the journey up the mountain was very tough and I was struggling very hard. I kept thinking ‘What if I was riding the horse!’ ….would it be much better? I encouraged myself to continue as I believe this is a good way to clear away my bad karma and since I have made the decision to walk I might as well enjoy the walking. Besides, the mother of Rinpoche, whom we all call her as “Amala” was over 60 years old and was also walking the trek. I was not the fastest one and I was not the slowest either, so most of the time I ended up walking alone and I was by myself. I walked and I prayed……sweat dripping and legs starting to get painful. I felt out of breath and thirsty……but I continued walking……….and then finally, I reached “this place”.

There were many prayer flags, which hung across from one side of the tree to the other side as well as along the trees. There must be thousands and thousands of it, it was so colorful. I do not know whether it was the sight of the prayer flags or the serenity of the place, I suddenly felt all my strength returning to my body and I was filled with boundless energy. My tiredness disappeared and I was very happy. I stood there for a while, wanting to stay longer not because I was tired or I needed to take a rest but a feeling of longing to stay there…..I started to pray loudly “Om Mani Padme Hung” “Om Mani ……………..” while slowly walking……….. continuing my trekking..
Soon after that I reached the top of the mountain and I saw the others who had taken the horses, having their tea before continuing the trek. We would all be going down hill after that and everyone began walking. I was not tired so I just stayed a while and I continue the trek with another friend. It was all the way down so the trek was very tough and half way during the trek my knee started giving me the signal “hey….slow down...”
We reached the base in the evening and then we followed Rinpoche to a nearby construction side where a new monastery was being built. Rinpoche asked us to help out because by helping to build a monastery, one can accumulate good karma.

We stayed overnight on sleeping bags at a farm house of a Tibetan family. Early the next morning, we started our journey to the holy water fall. Instead of feeling full of ache and pain as I would have expected after a long trek the previous day, I did not feel a single pain in my body and I felt a bit odd, but then again there were a lot of things which you could not explain sometimes, especially when you are within the vicinity of holy place. We continued our walk along the river which was pleasant and relaxing. But such pleasure was quickly turned into another tough trekking uphill. By the time we reached the top of the mountain, it was already noon; we followed Rinpoche who gave a prayer at the Guru Rinpoche cave before proceeding to the holy water fall.

Everyone was excited when we arrived at the water fall. We were told to circle 3 times under the water fall. We put on our raincoats and one by one, we took turns walking underneath the water fall. I felt big splashes of water directly on top of my head as I came underneath the water fall and I began to pray “Om Mani Padme Hung” as I made the three circles and ask that may all sentient beings benefit from the karma accumulated.

Then we were told we should bring back some of the holy water back to our relatives and friends, so this time round I went to the smaller water fall and decided to take a quick shower without a raincoat. The water was freezing cold and I bore the coldness as I went beneath the water fall, at the same time I filled up the empty bottle with the holy water. During the split of a few seconds, a rainbow appeared right in front of my eyes at the water fall. It was very pretty but the coldness of the water prove to be too cold and since the bottle was filled up, I quickly walked back to the resting area and changed to warmer clothes.

When time came to leave the water fall, I felt a bit sad…….I wished I could stay a bit longer but we had to get back to the farm house before dark so we moved on. We walked back down slowly but all of us were in an excellent mood. I felt that the objective of our trip had been achieved, which was the reason why I was making this trip; to be blessed by the holy water of the Guru Rinpoche. To experience the feeling of being so close to him at this holy place. I felt as if I have been invited by him to visit this place and I was deeply grateful for that. I know this experience will stay with me for the rest of my life. This was how it felt like…..my first pilgrimage.

On our way back we decided to take some time resting by the river. We did a few minutes of meditation on the riverside. I closed my eyes and listen to the sound of the water and enjoy the calmness of the environment. It was a nice experience for me.

We needed to rush back to the hot spring the next day before noon, so we were recommended to take the horse ride next day to the top of the mountain and then we can walk down after that.

It was a good experience to ride on the horse except I felt a bit uneasy. There was always the concern of falling off from the horse especially when the horse was struggling up the hill. Riding on the horse was very relaxing. I was glad for we would reach the top soon and I could be on my own two feet again and the horse could take a good rest.

Pressured by the fact that we have to reach the base before noon, without taking any rest I set off immediately on foot, going down the hill. We moved faster than expected and half way through the journey, my knees started to give me pain. The pain stayed on until I reached the base. After a hot shower at the hot spring, the pain disappeared somehow and I found it to be very strange….that something so painful could just vanished the moment you left the holy mountain…this was another thing I experienced which I could not explain.

We decided to give the glacier a miss and go back to De Chin the same day. We reached De Chin at night and we went sight-seeing. The next morning we went back to Shambhala.

By the time we reached Shambhala, it was already 27th and on 28th we spent a day at the “Bai Shui Tai”. On the 29th, I took the early flight back to Kumming and then a connecting flight in the evening back to Singapore. I was exhausted but filled with a pleasant feeling with the thoughts of Guru Rinpoche in my heart………………