Searching for Shangri La

, originally uploaded by The Wandering Hermit.

Searching for Shangri La

I grew up on stories of ancient yogis and fearsome sadhu's and mystics who meditated for thousands of years rooted to a particular spot somewhere in the Himalaya.



They were supposed to have performed legendary feats and there are thousands of natural formations one can find all over India which are still attributed to these ancient supermen standing on one leg and not moving lost in their penance to please the gods much like the giants of Ancient Greece.. Some turned into stone (some became ant-hills or trees as different legends say) and others who became gods themselves.


Of course at some level you never truly believed such stories and such was the case with me too.. it till I saw this "lepcha" which I half expected to get up and start walking alongside me..
.
After this chance meeting I could easily believe that stones could come back to life and show me the way to that hidden Shangri La or Middle Earth of Tolkien

Walking through the fairy meadows:
Nestled as it is in such a surreal setting with Autumn in full bloom and colors galore of different ferns, lichens and wild flowers.which flourish at this altitude of around 13,000 ft.during the descent from Lamuney viewpoint on the Yuksom - Dzongri La Trek in Sikkim..This was one of the best treks that I have done.in the last few years .

Sikkim still retains a lot of character and isn't as commercialized as other hill stations in northern India like Manali have become.

Some of it could be attributed to the hard mountainous terrain where we started off at 9000 ft with almost tropical rainforest's and interspersed with copses of Golden Bamboo forests and finally giving way to alpine rhododendron forests fed by the wet climate and the abundant glaciers of the singilla ridge

The landscape, flora and fauna add that crowing touch which makes the legend of Shangri La come alive for me. It is a lost world in itself a unique ecosystem and one which is constantly under threat.. There is something deeply mystical yet very elemental which you can almost feel surrounding you by spending time walking around such locales.

The Land of the eternal mist inhabited by a smiling people is always a joy to visit..

{This is one of my shortlisted photos for the Banff Mountain Photography 2008 Photo Contest}