Everest Base Camp - Puja

 I knew something was up when even the quietest, generally most humble of Sherpas had a glint of mischief in their eyes. The tiny monk, dressed in a burgundy “Helly Hansen” branded jacket over a wine coloured ‘robe’ with grease stains along the hems began to chant louder in what appeared to be the climax of the puja as his yellowed fingers followed the cyrillics on the prayer book in front of his knees. He sat cross legged in front of the stone “stupa” (a sort of stone alter) which was covered from top to bottom in offerings flour, cakes, precious oils, cut up Bounty bars, Mars bars, Snickers bars… as well as an assortment of beverages including Everests’ finest whiskey as a sacrifice to Chomolunga.

The monks intonation increased to an even higher, louder decibel as he threw his arms in the air releasing handfulls of flour as clouds of yellow dust high into the sky. The Sherpas, fully prepared for the move, eagerly followed his lead. An arc of grey ‘dust’ flew through the air and for one brief moment seemed suspended in time - a halo of cloud superimposed over the omnipresent plume of spindrift circling ominously above Everests’ peak.

The Sherpas laughed at our surprise as the flour fell back down to earth and enveloped us in a giant cloud of dust-flour. It took about one mili-second for us to follow the Sherpas lead as we too thrust our handfulls of flour into the air - or rather, tactfully launched the handfulls of flour at a nearest possible victim. Screams of adrenaline could be heard around the camp as we chased each other around the stupa with the ultimate aim of covering the potential victim with the ‘flour wipe’ of good luck and good fortune.

There were about 45 of us - the entire expedition team from all ranks and all walks of life - who participated in the puja. The purpose of the ceremony is to make sacrifices to Everst - or Chomolunga as the Tibetans call it. The ceremony lasted about 1.5 hours in total and ended formally with the flour throwing and informally with an afternoon of gorging ourselves on chocolate, beer, line dancing with Max and singing of Irish jigs with Noel. It was an extremely enjoyable and fun-filled yet richly symbolic morning. The end of the puja ceremony symbolised that we were officially allowed to begin our ascent of Everest and that the appropriate prayers, blessings and sacrifices had been made.

The whole expedition now seems even more ‘real’. The 1.5 metre stone monument stands as a prime focal point in the middle of our ‘tent city’ giving the skyline a truly authentic look as 5-streams of prayer flags in the colors of red, green white, blue and yellow radiate from its core to various points in the Camp.

Before the monk left to join the Sherpas for a last ’hurrah’ and some of Everest finest brew in the Sherpa tent, we each received an individual blessing from the monk, bending humbly on our knees as he placed a blessed silk scarf around our necks as well as a thin piece of red cord to be worn throughout the duration of the expedition. These would serve in the future to protect us and lead us to a safe return after our individual summit attempts.

It felt “humbling” to be a part of something which is so clearly an integral part of the Sherpa tradition and Sherpa beliefs. There is a certain indescribable ‘power’ surrounding Everest that certainly puts into context the significance of such a ceremony. As I look out at the panorama from my tent - the stupa with its realms of multi-colored prayer flags flapping in the breeze against the clear blue sky and in the shadow of ‘The Mother Goddess’ herself, I can not help but feel part of her spell, her magic, her power.