Manaslu: A Trekker's Guide
Manaslu: A Trekker's Guide
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Syala - Samagaon - Samdo
Distance: 9 kilometres (5½ miles)
Time: 3–3½ hours
Start altitude: 3500 metres (11,483ft)
High point: Samdo, 3850 metres (12,631ft)
Height gain: 350 metres (1148ft)
It will be evident that the Buri Gandaki’s valley has once again changed character. Above Syala it is no longer a narrow, deeply-cut swathe through the mountains, but a broader, more gentle moat, with open spaces and scant pastures where yaks graze. The trek through it leads to Samagaon, at the foot of the Manaslu Glacier, where the route curves northward to Samdo, the final village on this eastern side of the Larkya La. Samagaon is a large village with an important gompa, resplendent with decorated pagoda-style roof set in full view of Manaslu. The mountain, however, is severely foreshortened from this point, rising as it does almost immediately above the village. Samdo, on the other hand, gazes down the valley and enjoys a privileged panoramic overview of Manaslu’s neighbours, though not of Manaslu itself.
On leaving Syala the trail goes through a patch of forest and within ten minutes crosses a stream, beyond which you climb among trees and shrubs, cross a boulder slope and a second stream, and gain a shrub-covered spur (3535m, 11,598ft; 30mins). This provides a viewpoint overlooking the plateau-like section of valley at the far end of which Samagaon is settled. A line of large white chortens can be seen marching across the valley towards the village, and above that you should also be able to detect the gompa on its hilltop. A great backdrop of snowpeaks completes the scene: Manaslu like a double-horned summit with its glacier sweeping valleywards, and Naike Peak seeming almost to block the valley ahead.
The path descends to the broad, flat fields of buckwheat, and a little under an hour from Syala passes through a decorated kani whose paintings are well preserved on the inner walls. From there you look onto SAMAGAON[1] (Sama, or Rö; 3530m, 11,581ft; 1hr) tucked below in a sheltered scoop with a stream flowing by. A huge mani wall and a stupa, or large chorten, with the eyes of the Buddha surveying the scene, stand at the village entrance. It’s a sizeable village with numerous houses, most of which appear to have small wall-surrounded courtyards. At the end of the harvest buckwheat straw as well as brushwood is stacked upon the rooftops. The path goes alongside the stream for a short distance before climbing towards the gompa, or monastery. Just below the gompa there’s a small but pleasant campsite beside the stream.
Sama gompa[2] is a handsome white-walled building with an elaborately decorated roof spire, and is surrounded by about thirty small houses in which the monks and nuns live who study there under a head Lama. If you can locate him, ask the caretaker to let you into the gompa, for it is full of interest. The main building contains various Buddha images and some attractive decorations, while the building adjacent holds racks of religious manuscripts more than 100 years old. Please remember to give a donation before leaving. On emerging from the darkened room Manaslu dazzles with its glaciers and snowfields directly ahead.
The trail now crosses a broad open yak pasture which makes a good campsite. Should you decide to stay here there are three excursions worth considering as aids to acclimatisation. The first visits the Pung-gyen gompa, rebuilt after having been destroyed by avalanche in 1953. This is located on a ridge south of Samagaon. The second, and longer, option visits Manaslu Base Camp, and the third goes up to a moraine bank at the foot of the Manaslu Glacier, where there’s a small lake into which ice-floes broken from the glacier are often seen drifting.
Having crossed the yak pasture, with its streams meandering through, the trail winds among shrubs before sloping down to cross a glacial stream on a wooden bridge. Upvalley the way continues through another broad pasture (Kermo Kharka) with one of the longest mani walls of the district. Rising gently through the valley by way of a series of natural steps, the trail eventually descends to the Buri Gandaki, spanned by a wooden bridge, reached about three hours from Syala. There then follows a short sharp climb to a simple entrance kani, and a few minutes later you pass through a more elaborate, white-painted kani from which there are some magnificent views to enjoy back downvalley. So enter SAMDO (3850m, 12,631ft; 3hrs 30mins), built on a levelled moraine spur at a junction of valleys.
Samdo has only existed since the Chinese invasion of Tibet in the 1950s, the inhabitants here having come over the mountains from Riu, a trading village reached by one of two nearby passes: the Gya La to the north at the headwaters of the Buri Gandaki and the Lajyang La to the north-east. The village huddles at the foot of a steep hill, gazing south to a generous panorama of ice-clad mountains. Immediately in front of the village is a fan of cultivated fields, with two or three areas used by groups for camping. (Some choose to continue a short distance upvalley to more sheltered sites, but these lack the views enjoyed at Samdo.) A police check post is found near the village entrance, and there’s a water supply nearby.
This is an ideal place to spend at least two nights to aid acclimatisation. Whilst there, consider climbing the steep hill immediately behind the houses. A trail begins at the north-eastern end of the village, and twists up to a cluster of prayer flags, from which you look directly down onto the toy-sized buildings of Samdo, about 300 metres below. Continuing up by a narrow hint of a path among juniper scrub and low-growing berberis, you can either go to the summit cairn at about 4600 metres (15,092ft) or stop anywhere that appeals and enjoy views to the chisel-shaped Larkya Peak and the saddle of the Larkya La seen off to the west. Above to the east rises Pang Phuchi, a graceful mountain of 6338 metres (20,795ft), while downvalley a wall of gleaming white is created by Ngadi Chuli, Himalchuli and Baudha at the point where the Buri Gandaki makes its curve at Samagaon.
Another recommended acclimatisation hike goes up towards the headwaters of the Buri Gandaki and the Gya La – unless, that is, your liaison officer prohibits you from going there on account of the vicinity of Tibet. If no objection is made, you’ll find that a good trail, used by generations of cross-border traders, heads upvalley from Samdo; after a bridge spans the Buri Gandaki, about twenty minutes from the village, the way forks. The route to the Larkya La is the left-hand option, while the trail to the Gya La climbs off to the right. This remains on the west side of the river and rises steadily through an uninhabited glen. Wander as far as you feel comfortable before returning to camp.
Points of interest:
1: SAMAGAON is where members of the Japanese mountaineering expedition of 1954 met with such hostility that they were turned back from making their planned attempt on Manaslu, as a variety of mishaps were blamed by the locals on climbers from a previous Japanese expedition who had upset the gods. These earlier mountaineers were thought responsible for an outbreak of plague, for the loss of sheep and cattle, and for the destruction of the Pung-gyen Monastery by an avalanche with the loss of eighteen lives. The monastery was rebuilt largely with a generous donation from Japanese mountaineers.
2: SAMA GOMPA was described by Snellgrove as ‘manifestly Nying-ma-pa’; he wrote of the frescoes, painted on wooden panels and set against the wall, of the terracotta image of Padmasambhava (‘Lotus Born’), a similar large one made of bronze, and of three smaller images. Being a scholar of Tibetan culture and religion, his observations may be accepted as being authoritative, and it’s worth reading his descriptions before making your own visit (see Himalayan Pilgrimage, pp244-45.) Clearly, to make the most of a visit to any gompa it is preferable to have some background understanding of the Buddhist faith, although even without that understanding a few minutes of peaceful contemplation of the images contained within the building will be sufficient to gain something of the atmosphere that prevails.
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