Seven Weeks In ‘Little Tibet’: Philosophic Travelling in Ladakh

By Hella Naura

A German lady, a veteran Yoga practitioner, travels to Ladakh, also known as ‘Little Tibet’. There she dives as much into life in its bustling capital Leh as into moonlike landscapes and Buddhist locales. She spends a week in a solitary meditation cabin, goes on a trek and meets not just Ladakhis but also interesting fellow travellers from all over the globe.

So is this a travelogue? Or are these musings in a journal? Yes, but also much more. Charmed by her chatty narration, spiced with irony and humour, you are gently led to contemplations on life and living, changes wrought by globalization, man-woman relationships, cultural differences, loss of identities, fear as an inherent part of the human psyche and the burgeoning objects of enjoyment versus the diminishing capacity to enjoy.

Before you know it, you realise that HellaNaura’s deep reflections have awakened in you a need to integrate some spiritual viewpoints into your busy modern life. Why? Because her experiences and many joys, in spite of several difficulties, are a proof that a ‘spiritual’ outlook is an effective antidote to the crafty seduction by material and sensual gratifications. And, as she notes, even parts of Ladakhi society – formerly happy, prosperous and woven tightly together with warmth and intimacy – seem to be succumbing to its lures.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Hella Naura
• Release date: Apr 9, 2019
• ISBN: 9789387242463

Book preview

Introduction

Using one of the catchwords of our times this book could be called holistic. I am pointing this out because while writing it I half foresaw that it would probably be rejected by German publishers. One of their objections might possibly be that it contained too great a mix-up of too many topics. But, then, is not life an often confusing, ever changing mix-up of many contributing factors hard to identify and thus to be dealt with effectively? As a rule, only the wise or even enlightened ones are able to recognize the patterns underlying the ever-ongoing play of phenomena or the red threads running through the lives of individuals.

So this book is about travel impressions, incidental talks with persons of several nationalities, globalization, criticism of some modern trends, reflections of a psychological and philosophical nature, headaches, self-observation, meditation and more. But is it not of bad taste to mention peeing in a book in which philosophers are quoted? Taking a holistic view at man, the answer would be, no, it is not. Man lives at different levels at all times. Thus even the noblest philosopher has to pee, just as the most common pee-r might occasionally become philosophical and wonder about the meaning of life, the dividing line between good and evil, the yardstick for right conduct in a given situation or even the most important question of all: Who am I? True, but still an objection might be that a dry composting toilet, a Ladakhi speciality, is considered here as worthy of reflection as fear as a universal part of the human psyche is? But is it not?

Everything is interrelated, and this interrelatedness spans God, Gods and Heaven above just as well as most basic physical necessities below. Even the ground-breaking great Austrian psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud or representatives of world literature did not find it below their dignity to reflect over calls of nature. Thus the Roman poet Ovid of the first century B.C. advised a spurned and love-sick friend of his to imagine the adored but unreachable woman again and again in the act of evacuating herself if nothing else helped to cure him of his infatuation.

Indian mythology speaks of God Indra’s Net, which I imagine to symbolize some part of the total cosmic network. The modern worldwide web through IT could be seen as a most, most tiny physical manifestation of a greater web in which everything can be and actually is ultimately related to everything else. Subtler mental or metaphysical interrelations I see as manifesting through the Zeitgeist, while the highest, spiritual interrelations I picture for myself as working through a Higher Process based on a Highest Intelligence. And all of this would very, very ultimately and in unthinkable, most wonderful and awesome ways have its origin in God, this intellectually forever unfathomable One without a Second, – as Indian writings often express it. Different religions ascribe different forms to this Greatest One and try to approach IT or HIM or HER in different ways. Unfortunately, in recent times these differences have given rise to quarrel, hatred and even violence between some followers of the great religions of the world. Also religion, science, politics, feelings of lack of an identity, and cultural imperialism seem to be getting often mixed up. This has led to sad and dangerous enmities in many parts of the world.

As against these strives at ideological, national and political levels, people of most different backgrounds might not have any problems in getting along with each other well when they meet at individual levels. Backpack travelling for me has provided many pleasant and easy opportunities for such meetings, which can lessen prejudices and increase appreciation of the otherness of others. Certainly this otherness cannot be understood and looked through in a day, but just enjoying and trying to study and understand it might also be a tiny contribution towards more amicability and consequently less conflict and fear in the world. Being in Ladakh, looking and hearing around and meeting different people gave rise to the following reflections which I am especially happy to present to Indian readers now.

I Have Always Wanted to

See the Himalayas

I have always wanted to see the Himalayas, the country of the pure souls, as I read recently on a book-cover. Are the souls there truly pure, or is this just an invention of publishers and marketing experts? The book I saw was about Ladakh, a 3500 m high plateau of mainly desert, debris and boulders and surrounded by mountains. Is it maybe Ladakh’s turn now to be promoted in the interest of tourism and other industries? Or would this marketing just be a natural process in the present global run of things where countries, cultures, religions and people come closer and closer together through all kinds of means? Ladakh or Little Tibet, called so for its historic, geographic, cultural and religious relations with Tibet, situated in the northernmost part of India and politically belonging to the state of Kashmir and Jammu, was closed to the outside world until 1974. As with everything closed or forbidden, it was surrounded then by an air of secrecy. This has much changed since it was included in the Indian Central Government’s Development Program, covering tourism, introduction of Western education, use of agrochemicals as well as dependency on traffic and fossil fuels considered as required for fulfilling basic needs. In the first year of Ladakh’s opening to the public, it was visited by 527 adventurous tourists. By 2011 their number had increased to 1,78,000, tourists thus outnumbering the 1,47,100 inhabitants of Ladakh’s capital Leh. Their number has gone on increasing as tourism is well promoted.

And this is where I want to go. As said before I have always wanted to see this world’s largest mountain range, a snow-capped majestic, magic and mystic world. Ever since I found it mentioned in writings about Yogis, ascetics, saints and other extraordinary human beings it, in fact, has appeared as pure to me. A centuries-old, maybe immortal Avatar Babaji is said by some to live there helping mankind in its ever-ongoing evolution. The mysterious Shangri-La, land of eternal youth and introduced to a wider public through a Hollywood film, is also supposed to be located there, and so is the land of Shambala, identical for some with Shangri-La. Also Yetis, legendary beings, half ape, half man, stomp through the Himalayas’ eternal snow. And the Kailash mountain reaching here towards the sky, is so sacred to Tibetans and Buddhists of other countries that many take days to piously surround it high up, some of them doing this by prostrating themselves again and again at whole body’s length on the icy ground.

Also Hindus have a very sacred place of pilgrimage there. It was originally at Gangotri that their most holy Ganges River sprang from earth. Yet due to global warming, with an increasing melting of snow, that point has moved upward by about 11 miles. Enduring many hardships, pilgrims climb up these 11 miles to reach the cave in which to worship God Shiva, whom they feel to be present in the form of an ice Lingam. It is Shiva, the multi-facetted God of destruction, yet whose associated animal vehicle is Nandi, a bull, a symbol of potency and fertility but also of justice and virtue; Shiva, the greatest ascetic and Lord of Yoga, yet also the cosmic dancer, in which form he is known as Lord Nataraj. And it is again Shiva who is not above associating with social outcasts and demons and who uses snakes to adorn his body. Another association of the Himalayas is with the mythical mount Meru, supposed to be the axis that supports the world, just as the spinal column supports man’s body. Very powerful electro-magnetic currents are said to run through certain parts of the Himalayas, which Yogis find helpful for their physical and spiritual disciplines which involve great knowledge and experience of bodily electricity. As the macrocosm, so the microcosm, as above, so below, such is many mystics’ and occultists’ dictum.

Thinking of the Himalayas I imagine crystal-clear air, expanses of snow that sparkle under the sun and a deep blue sky, the silence of which is even enhanced by ritual songs and chanted Mantras. So I have always wanted to go to the Himalayas. But, then, why has the larger part of my life already passed without my having done so? Of course, for me in Hamburg, a city in the north of Germany, the Himalayas are not at my doorsteps. Moreover they are so very vast that I cannot just go to the Himalayas as they do not belong to India only, but also to Pakistan, China, Tibet, Nepal, Afghanistan, and Bhutan. So I definitely need to know some specific place. Just sparkling snow or azure sky would not do as a destination I want to buy a flight ticket for. But that was not the obstacle that kept me from travelling there. The obstacle that was in my way in many regards for many years was my body image.

A Body Image Gets Corrected

…Since too long we have seen them (body and mind) as two separate entities, with a mutual influence though but not directly connected with each other. This view has not really changed yet. Our educational methods are still divided into an intellectual and a physical education which have nothing to do with each other. Few sports teachers believe that they can influence a child’s learning capacity through their gymnastic or athletic exercise programs. And in fact they can hardly do this. Yet if mind and body are one then a true physical education should at the same time also be an education of the mind and vice versa. I think the problem is that the concept of unity is nothing but lip-service for us without any actual application in daily life. We believe that we can educate a child’s mind without paying attention to its body. By menacing the child with punishment or predicting failure, we can hammer some information into its head. Yet, unfortunately, information can only turn into knowledge if the former leads to experience, too. And one can only experience whatever happens in one’s body. Depending on how lively the body is, the experiences are lively or faint... Knowledge can only turn into understanding if it is connected with feeling…

– Alexander Lowen (1910-2008, US)

Each thing has its own time. Everyone knows that an embryo usually takes nine months to become a baby. Everyone knows, too, that an apple blossom needs some months to bring forth an apple. Yet how much time is required for certain desires to get fulfilled? I have always had this desire for the Himalayas, so why am I about to get it fulfilled just now at last? Just because everything has its own time and because subconscious movements can only rise into consciousness when the time is ripe for them. All through my childhood and youth I was weakly, had various pains, and hardly one month passed in which I was not bed-ridden for shorter or longer periods. I was of a tender constitution, as one physician had told my mother and of which I was often reminded in the family, half compassionately, half irritatedly. This tender constitution clung to my feet as a great hindrance, just as the iron balls did to the feet of prisoners of old. For much of my life I was burdened by this body image, which had gotten firmly enrooted in me.

I dimly felt that I could never get far in life, as weak, frail, and sickly as I was, as quickly out of breath as I got, as full of pain and attacked by migraines. This only half-conscious, vague feeling or idea must have consolidated into a subconscious overpowering conviction. Little by little, however, something of this harmful conviction started to change when, already at the age of 30, I was advised by a nature curist to totally stay away from white sugar. Seen from my present viewpoint the slight improvement in my physical condition that took place from then onwards was surely also due to total avoidance of white sugar for some years. But at one point I started wondering whether I was maybe overdoing it and somewhat modified my eating habits again.

I think what helped me probably much more than total avoidance of sugar was that for the very first time in my life I realized that I need not remain a completely helpless victim of pain forever. Because my body was not something completely separated from the rest of me, so that it could do as it pleased. Some other component parts of my I, call them emotional or mental or psychic were in some as yet unclear ways connected with my body and could thus exert an influence on it. This was to say that it must be possible that I myself could become active and do something against all these pains instead of just remaining their suffering victim. This was a very new, a very helpful and in some very small measure also a liberating thought for me. With the lift that it gave me I could get a little bit out of my accustomed state of ever ready procrastination and despondency.

However, this was not enough yet to reach down to my subliminal body image. When, at the age of 35, I began to learn about and practice classical Yoga, i.e. not only bodily postures and techniques but also certain attitudes, changes of perspective, a larger view of life and when I, in addition, adopted healthier everyday routines and an all-round better and more balanced diet and whole life-style, as learned at The Yoga Institute in Mumbai, my condition improved very noticeably. Unfortunately, it took me too much time and various difficulties to at last realize how vital the – so far neglected – practice of Yoga relaxation exercises was for me. As for meditation, it was a gradual process to understand what it meant at all and do first steps toward that higher state of consciousness.

My upward trend through Yoga did much to lessen my depressive tendencies, of which I was only dimly aware. I had gotten so accustomed to them right from early childhood that I considered them as my personal weakness rather than a possibly curable disease. My health, energy, self-confidence and enjoyment of life kept increasing through my Yoga practice. This development was harshly interrupted by a phase of illness and crisis, after which I slowly climbed up again, wiser for it but also older by some years. Still it took some more years until my deep-rooted obstructive body image could get corrected. This happened only after I became fully aware of the fact that I had actually become much stronger and healthier than what I was used to for so long and that I was no longer physically inferior to most people. My poor body image no longer corresponded to reality but only fed upon my feelings and experiences of the past. And with this realization, the blockage that had made my going to the Himalayas seem impossible must have dissolved of its own. After all, there were plenty of people who survived high altitudes with their air poor in oxygen. And if I no longer was as weak as I used to be, then I could also do what they did.

Ladakh, Called ‘Little Tibet’

Why did I go to Ladakh, a place, which