If you’re planning to make an Everest Base Camp trek, chances are you know some of the local mythology about the mountain – almost everyone has heard of the Yeti, or “Abominable Snowman”, and no one would be surprised to know that Everest was considered a god’s abode, or a god in its own right, in old mythologies. Yet there are many other traditions concerning the highest mountains in the world, and knowing some of them might make your Everest Base Camp trek an even richer experience.

Tibetan Mythology

As devout Buddhists, the Sherpa people of the Khumbu (Everest) region practice Tibetan Bhuddhism. In Tibetan mythology, mountain gods have immense power and influence over humankind and even the other deities. This is because the mountains themselves are such an influence on the Tibetan world. Visually they are massive, dominating the horizon and, close up, the sky; and the weather systems surrounding them are equally difficult to ignore. The clouds, wind, thunder, hail, snow and rain are intense. The weather’s changeable nature is reflected in the mountains’ imagery in ritual, which over time changed from animal images to human-like figures including the ones below.

The Five Sisters of Longevity

The myth of the Five Sisters of Longevity is popular in the Everest region and each sister is identified with particular mountains in that area. The greatest sister is Bkra-shis-tshe-ringma, typically depicted as a young and beautiful woman, riding a white lion and holding a sacred arrow used for taking auspices (favourable signs). Tied to the end of the arrow are dice made of white conch and a mirror. She wears white silk, a cloak of peacock feathers and a white scarf around her head. Her sisters are Mting-gi-zhal-bzang-m, typically a green goddess riding a wild horse and holding a magical mirror; Mi-g’yu-blo-bzang-ma, the yellow goddess, giver of grain and riding a golden tiger; Cod-pan-mgrin-bzang-ma, the red goddess of wealth, who rides a red doe and holds a plate full of treasures; and Gtaddkar-vgro-bzang-ma, another green goddess, who rides a dragon and holds a sacred arrow in her hand, and possesses dominion over the animals. These five sisters offer cleverness and wisdom to mankind, and all live on the peak of Everest. According to the myth, five icy lakes lie at Everest’s foot – each coloured to correspond to the goddesses. Sadly, you’re unlikely to encounter these mythical lakes on an Everest Base Camp trek, but the mountain’s size and splendour might well convince you that goddesses dwell at its heights.

The Heavenly Rope

Ancient Tibetans living near the particularly high mountains such as Everest believed that a rope or step connected the mountaintops to heaven. This originated not only in the height of the mountains, reaching far into the sky, but from weather-related illusions – rainbows, for instance – that might look like bridges or connections between realms. Originally, deities that moved between the heavens and the earth were given animal form, such as yaks and wild horses; there was a myth of the horse and the wild horse who met in the air and descended to the land. Gradually these animals became depicted as human figures. When Tibetan historians came to writing the history of the royal family, they connected it to these figures, so that the first generation of Tibetan kings descended from the heavens to the sacred mountains. If you aspire to turn your Everest Base Camp trek into the beginning of an attempt at the summit, you might be following, in reverse, the steps of Tibet’s first kings.

Author Bio: Jude Limburn Turner is the Marketing Manager for Mountain Kingdoms, an adventure tour company who have run a classic Everest Base Camp trek for over 20 years. They now offer treks and tours worldwide, including destinations in North and South America, Europe, Africa, and Central and South East Asia.

Category: Travel
Keywords: Everest Base Camp trek