Pilgrimage to Muktinath, in
the Nepal Himalaya near
Tibet, is a richly symbolic
event in all its
expressions—social and
religious, in legend, myth
and fable, in history and in
its spatial or geographical
dimensions. High mountain
sacred sites, like Muktinath,
are all the more efficacious
because they are so much
closer to God. The precise
way in which Muktinath was
designated as an especially
holy space by Hindus, over
two thousand years ago, is
not known. The clues,
however, are still present
and obvious. The historian
of religions Mircea Eliade
postulates that the choice
of holy space is not random
but is found and identified
by the help of mysterious
signs. In Muktinath some of
the signs are its high
mountain location and its
headwaters site, and the
presence of certain natural
elements such as fossils and
fires; these have tempted
Man, in the search for god
on earth, to create a
supernatural field, a sacred
world where Vishnu and other
deities are believed to
abide. It is not natural
features, however, but
anomalies in nature that
give Muktinath a special
sanctity and attraction. At
Muktinath, these include
such wonders as fire burning
on water and the fossils of
primitive sea creatures
(ammonites) found high in
the mountains, many
thousands of metres above
sea level and thousands of
kilometers from any
contemporary ocean. These
are some of the ‘mysterious
signs’, rare and sacred that
Hindu devotees seek in the
religious field of which
Muktinath is the central
feature. It is clear that
several of the natural
features found at Muktinath
and within its larger sacred
field are imbued by its
devotees with supernatural
characteristics. It is safe
to say that in the overall
sacred environment, these
natural-supernatural
elements take on prime
importance and are of
considerable attraction to
all pilgrims, Buddhist and
Hindu alike. Alongside, the
three natural elements at
Muktinath -- the spring
water, natural gas fires and
fossils, there is also a
sacred grove of poplar trees
of the species populous
ciliate, locally called lekh
pipal or bhot pipal…
Location
Muktinath is situated on the
upper part of the river Kali
of Buri Gandaki on the north
side of the main Himalayan
rang and south of Lo-Manthang
or Mustang. Its precise
location is 29° 11’ N.
latitude and 83° 53’E.
Longitude, at an elevation
of 3,8000m (or approximately
12,500 ft) on the western
slopes of the Damodar Himal,
northern extension of the
Annapurna Himalayan massif.
Muktinath is in the high
Himalayan arid zone
bordering China’s Tibetan
Autonomous Region (Xizang).
This northern region of
Nepal is often called Bhot
(Tibet), and its inhabitants
‘Bhotia”. Muktinath shrine
is near the headwaters of
the Jhong River, a tributary
of the Kali Gandaki in the
north-eastern corner of Thak
Khola, a dry trans-Himalayan
valley in Nepal’s Mustang
District.
