Disclosure:
By the FTC guidelines, I'm required to inform you that some of the links may be affiliate links. When this is the case, if you PURCHASE products through these links, then I receive a (really modest) commission. This blog is independently owned and the opinions expressed here are my own.

Booking.com

08 February 2008

Valley of the Death in Tibet

гора Кайлаш (Кайлас)
«гора Кайлаш (Кайлас)» на Яндекс.Фотках

I passed different hours to look for the description of this valley in non-Russian Internet and did not find too much about it. To be more precise, I did not find practically anything. I wanted to have a sort of independent point of view on this place, but... I have to tell you what I could find.

If you look for "Valley of Death" or "Death Valley" in search engines, you'll find National Park in California, US ( an arid desert basin of eastern California and western Nevada)

Now I tell you about an other Death Valley, in Tibet, near the Mount Kailash (-s).

This Valley of the Death is on the North-West of the Mount Kailash, 5680 m over sea level. It's about 3 km long and finishes with a half-round wall of the glacier. 2 red great stones guard the entrance in the valley. The entrance is near the mount Titapuri. This name is translated "home of hungry spirit" and they say it can be bound with the name "Tibet".

So, what is interesting in this that seems to be a naked place?
They say, yogis go there to die, somebody tells the soil is covered with human bones there (others deny it).
Because thin energies help to reach Enlightening there, many persons wanted to visit this valley. But if somebody had an empty life, he can finish his way suddenly. You have to follow only the official path if you enter it.
They say, 4 relatively young persons come out destroyed from there a year or 2 ago, become old in little time and were dead shortly. So if you want to go there you have to be very brave.
An other story says, you can sit between those 2 "guard dogs" (red stones) and will feel something special.

These are all fables about this place. As said, I could not find neither conferms no any additional information. There wasn't even any map to add to my post. So it would be very interesting if you add something to this story.

Sources (all in Russian, but there are numerous photos ecc)
http://ufolog.nm.ru/tibet.htm if you have the possibility to translate, read it. Amazing. But there are many persons that say Muldashev invented all this.
http://prometheus.al.ru/ufo/tibet1.htm the same more or less
http://www.kp.ru/daily/23789.3/58468/ (photo on the right is from this page) here there are many photos and maps -contrary point of view (from the first link)
2 part Kailash and kora http://www.kp.ru/daily/23781.3/57940/
3 part monastery Garugem and Lama Tenzin Wandra http://www.kp.ru/daily/23793.3/58795/
4 part Lhoku http://www.kp.ru/daily/23820.3/60498/

Well, after a week of intense research, I present to you my findings!
I thought it was strange that an area like this in such a famous region of Tibet should be unfindable, and so I searched around on a detailed map for anything related.
It turns out, the Mount Titapuri mentioned in the article is actually Tithapuri, wich means "Village of the dead", a small town near mount Kailash famous for it's hotsprings. It's also famous for being right next door to a certain "Garuda Valley", within which lie mysterious caves which have never been fully explored. Garuda's are nothing like Hungry Ghosts, but perhaps the comparison or mistranslation could have been drawn from this description of Garudas: "It symbolizes freedom from hopes and fears, the vast mind without reference point." The free mind, without a reference point, could be alot like death. Also, Muldashev is a notorious liar (I also found), so he could have just been making it sound more romantic.
Aparrantly a large town at the time of Guge Kingdom lived in the valley, but archaeologists can't believe how this was possible as there would have been no way for them to cultivate the land and no water source. Also, the mysterious caves they supposedly lived in are carpeted with bones...
That is all the reliable sources I have found, and all the ones on Muldashev point to him being a very unreliable character. He also claimed that Atlantis, and Atlanteans, live beneath the Tibetan plateau.

I hope this has helped at all, it is everything I could find, and I even asked my lecturer who is an expert on Tibet.

Yours,
Ten

Here are some sources:
buddhism.kalachakranet.org
drsethufoundation.org/
redicecreations.com
Also the Lonely Planet Guide to Tibet.


I asked help by different bloggers that have blogs related to this thematic. Some of them were so kind to dedicate their precious time to look at this post and to answer me. Here I add their blogs.
Thank you, Friends!
Yak Butter Tea,
Himalman’s Weblog
Nepalese and Tibetan Arts Blog
Gesar's Footprint
Yak's Diary

20 comments:

  1. Hi, your travel talk is very interesting. I learnt something new from this post about Tibet today.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm happy, people like this blog. :))) Maybe because I like to discover something new and tell about it to others. ?

    ReplyDelete
  3. When someone says Tibet , I think enchanting mysteries , because it is hard to get there,but I heard the nature path there is gorgeous.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Unfortunatelly, for me the word "Tibet" has first of all this significance. Too much testimonials I heard and saw in the last zears...

    ReplyDelete
  5. This is amazing! Could you give me the original link to the information? I really want to find out more about it.
    I can't help you much with the exact place, however, I have heard of "graveyards" in Tibet, where sky burial remains pile up and create a sea of bones. I know that these places are important for certain high-level tantric practises like Chod, but that is all.
    I tried to search google about it but with no luck, it wouldn't even recognise Mount Titapuri. I really want to do more research into this however, so I'll update you if I find anything.
    Your friend,
    Ten

    ReplyDelete
  6. Sorry, I didn't see that you'd already gven the links - my apologies. :)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Thank you, Ten, for your interest. I asked different persons to help me. Maybe we will do it all together.

    I added the links to the body of the post. They are really interesting -photos, maps, but content too.

    For Chod is important not the precise place, but every place where there are our greatest fears.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Try now, I wrote first and than added the links.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Hi Liudmila,
    You have very good blog and learn many intersting things about Tibet.
    Thanks For visit My blog and ask for help. as soon as possible i will try to find some information about vally of death in tibet.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Thank you, Tibet Arts, for your time! I think this theme is interesting from different points of views. And know, that's difficult to find reality among the fables. Will be very happy if we will find it. All together.

    ReplyDelete
  11. This is the answer I received by mail from Amrit:

    Hi Liudmila,

    I think I have watched several news and mainly discovery channel and found the similar story about "The Death Valley." But the story that I am familiar with is from India (I think). Lots of scientists have been gathering around that place and now all the tourists and even the local people are restricted from that area. The remains of lots of dead body (mainly skeleton) can be found in thousands there. Is that the same Death Valley? I am also a bit confused. I will try to gather more knowledge and research more and let you know if I find anything about this matter. I love the story that you have collected and the fact with the pictures taken seems to be quite interesting.

    Best Regards,
    Amrit.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Hi Liudmila,
    I am still didnot find Much Information About it. But Get much Information by your given Links.

    They are in russian but I use Google translate tools and able to Read in english. here is the link for the Redaers who can not read russian language.
    http://books.google.com/translate_t

    ReplyDelete
  13. Thank you very much for this link, Tibet Arts.
    I'll post it in the right part of the blog now for benefits of all readers of this blog, because I use often information from Russian internet that is often very interesting.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Well, after a week of intense research, I present to you my findings!
    I thought it was strange that an area like this in such a famous region of Tibet should be unfindable, and so I searched around on a detailed map for anything related.
    It turns out, the Mount Titapuri mentioned in the article is actually Tithapuri, wich means "Village of the dead", a small town near mount Kailash famous for it's hotsprings. It's also famous for being right next door to a certain "Garuda Valley", within which lie mysterious caves which have never been fully explored. Garuda's are nothing like Hungry Ghosts, but perhaps the comparison or mistranslation could have been drawn from this description of Garudas: "It symbolizes freedom from hopes and fears, the vast mind without reference point." The free mind, without a reference point, could be alot like death. Also, Muldashev is a notorious liar (I also found), so he could have just been making it sound more romantic.
    Aparrantly a large town at the time of Guge Kingdom lived in the valley, but archaeologists can't believe how this was possible as there would have been no way for them to cultivate the land and no water source. Also, the mysterious caves they supposedly lived in are carpeted with bones...
    That is all the reliable sources I have found, and all the ones on Muldashev point to him being a very unreliable character. He also claimed that Atlantis, and Atlanteans, live beneath the Tibetan plateau.

    I hope this has helped at all, it is everything I could find, and I even asked my lecturer who is an expert on Tibet.

    Yours,
    Ten

    Here's some sources:
    http://buddhism.kalachakranet.org/symbols_tibet_buddhism.htm
    http://www.drsethufoundation.org/page20.html
    http://www.redicecreations.com/specialreports/2006/06jun/atlanteanunderworld.html
    Also the Lonely Planet Guide to Tibet.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Thank you, Ten, for your incredible research! I prefered to post it directly in the article. Hope, you are not mind about it.

    About Muldashev... You know, I would not repeat "Also, Muldashev is a notorious liar "... Not because I like or not like him -I have not enough information to judge him.
    But. Thanks to him I and millions of persons know some more about this interestng piece of Earth -and we are soooo interested in it. As for me, just this fact speaks positively "pro" Muldashev.

    From other part, if we remember Troya, for example. A century ago there was nobody who believed in this legend. There was only one mad man. And he found the town... Maybe not Troya-Troya but...

    And for more than 2000 years everybody believed to Plutarсh, the false legend he invented against the famous enemy of Athene(read about it in my post about Sparta)

    ReplyDelete
  16. Hi,

    Some other interesting facts about Tithapuri, also known as "Tirthapuri". I have never been there, but I just consulted one of my favorite books,"The Tibet Handbook" by Gyurme Dorje, which is actually an indispensable Tibet travel book (Lonely Planet doesn't even come close.

    He writes about a cave in Tirthapuri on page 349:

    "Inside a temple enclosure is a small cave where Padmasabhava meditated with his Tibetan consort Yeshe Tsogyal. It contains two granite stones in which indentations of their footprints are clearly present, and a hole through which Padmasambhava is said to have extracted the consciousness of the ogress who previously inhabited the cave...Around the cave are dozens of unusual rock formations, almost all of which have become imbued with religious significance. Events from the lives of the buddhas bodhisattvas are associated wand recounted with each place, in accordance with the Tibetan concept of 'sacred outlook'."

    And, in regards to the hot springs and the geysers there:

    "From one of the blowholes, however, small white flecks or 'pills' of lime can be found. Tibetans strain the water for these and use them for medicinal purposes, since they are said to have a consecrated power to cure disease".(pg 350)

    I thought that was interesting!

    ReplyDelete
  17. Tibet is so fascinating. I had the privilege to visit Tibet last year .It along with Bhutan are great place to travel. Just hope both these places can make their visa procedures a little easier.

    ReplyDelete
  18. I would like to visit once both these countries. But my friends told me about very difficult clima conditions there...

    ReplyDelete
  19. I hope places like tibet, nepal and bhutan can maintain their pristine beauty and do not fall to pollution.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Ehhh... They say they are just full of junk...

    ReplyDelete

Where To Next?

 
Subscribe
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...