Himalayan Apparitions: The Unsettling Force
‘When preparing to climb a mountain-pack in a light heart’—DAN MAY
Post By Colonel Satish Singh Lalotra
Considered as abode of Gods, Himalayas pack in themselves myths and beliefs as bizarre as existence of ‘Yetis, the giant half snowman to the holiest of shrines of various religions like Hinduism, Jainism, Sikhism and Buddhism etc. One voyage to the Himalayas has the potential to bring back you again to its mighty folds.
In fact the ranges are much more than a vacationer’s fancy. These ranges guard places so distant and unimaginable that they sound nothing less than fantasies. With its soaring heights as granite grey walls, steep jagged peaks, precipitous slopes and breath taking verdant blue/green valleys of mesmerizing vistas the range imparts a feeling of eternity and timelessness which is difficult to find anywhere in this planet of ours.
Notwithstanding the above, these frontiers contain within themselves tales of restless souls, who died on these pristine peaks some under the ominous burden of bounden duties as asked by their colonial masters during the hey days of the ‘Great game’, others embraced their snowy death as part of some mountaineering expeditions, whereas some left this world in the lap of these peaks to seek salvation. Most of them left for their heavenly abode without proper last rites.
It should come as no big shock or surprise that stories of such paranormal existence of supernatural bodies are firmly entrenched in the collective psyche ,folklore, and mythology practiced by the millions of our countrymen living in this sub-continent of ours.
The seminal aim of penning this article of mine is to bring forth all too importance of our northern frontiers who have stood in the thick and thin of these personalities and though they having died an unsung death have taken upon themselves to guide or even sometimes caution those who venture or tread the same forbidden heights now.
Laced in the various episodes of these unfortunate beings, is one of my own personal experiences as I found myself unstoppable to recount here that happened twice in my service career in 1992 and 1993.
Much about that later. Indeed the Sherpas have long been under the belief and following that Himalayas have been the protector and care giver to these hapless human beings who fell down to their misery of their own volition.
It is generally believed that anyone who dies in these mountains without a proper burial are doomed to wander as restless spirits or apparitions. And such ghosts are thought to be numerous in these high Himalayas.
The Himalayas have long been a magnet for the adventurous ,pulling in those brave souls ,who would attempt to conquer this rugged place ,push forth into the clouds and mount the last of their strands of patience, single mindedness to summit these snowy highlands. But nearly one third of such climbers die with their bodies preserved in entirety in these forbidden lands. The Himalaya’s geographical spread includes the neighbouring countries of Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan , Tibetan autonomous region and to a certain extent even Myanmar.
The frontiers have been witness to the savagery of Sino-Indian war of 1962, that of 4 Indo-Pak wars beginning from 1947-48 as also the 2 WW air lift via the infamous ‘Hump route’ from NEFA(North eastern frontier agency) the present day Arunachal Pradesh when hundreds of USAF bombers crashed into the mountain sides while attempting to cross the NEFA border heading towards Burma / main land china as part of US effort to support the nationalist Chines army under Generalissimo Chiang Ki Sheikh in the mid-1940s.
Thousands of allied airmen and air force officers are buried deep inside the snowy wastes of the present day Arunachal Pradesh who are regularly searched for by the US via their seminal agency called as US DEFENCE POW/MIA accounting agency or in long form known as US defence prisoner of war /missing in action accounting agency.
It is believed that like mountaineers these soldiers also remain as Ghosts in these highlands. Even otherwise due to the terrain conditions the general terra firma remains sparsely populated and is nomadic in culture and habits. When some of these tribes who are shifting population by occupation and compulsions imposed by the elements of nature pass away these tribes perform their last rites and leave the area for a better place.
The most common type of ghostly activity often reported from the Himalayas is that of encountering shadowy figures that wander through the hostile landscape. One such account was given by a Sherpa Pemba Dorji in 2004 who was climbing in these ranges when he came across a group of corpses scattered around in snow with one of them still dangling from a rope fastened to the rock wall.
He claimed that suddenly he was surrounded by a group of dark shadowy figures presumed to be dead climbers. Incidentally these spirits or apparitions are not particularly evil or malicious but on the contrary often as asking for help or in contrast warning of an impending danger or giving comfort to climbers in dire situations. Such benign presences offering aid have been reported from climbers from all over the world who come to scale these ‘Eight thousanders’.
A very strange encounter was reported in the 1930s by the British climber ‘Frank Smythe’ when in one of his climbing attempts to scale Mt Everest he was approached by one of the shadowy figures to whom he offered even a cake when approached by the latter. Other reports of paranormal activity in these mountains are bit harder on human rationale. A particularly eerie account revolves around Polish climber Wanda Rutkiewicz, who in 1986 became the first woman to successfully climb Mt K2 but died in 1992 while climbing Mt Kanchenjunga . The truly strange part of the story comes after Wanda’s death when her friend Ewa MatuszewskI supposedly received a call from her late at night. Similarly eerie is the case of famous British climber Julie Tullis who had died in 1986 following a frost bite and an injury sustained from camp IV. Her body as well as those of others who died on the ill-fated expedition, was never recovered. In 1992, mountaineers Thor Kieser and Scott Fischer were jolted by a sudden noisy transmission over their radio which allegedly was the voice of Tullis who said—‘Camp IV to base camp do you read over’? This was very unsettling, as no one else was known to be in the area at that time, and certainly no one at camp IV.
In any case tales of ghosts in Himalayas do not always encompass climbers only. There are dime a dozen cases of dead soldiers too. One such case of dead soldiers scaring the wits out of serving soldiers happened with me and my team of LRP (Long range patrol) while in the kumaon hills in 1992 as well as in 1993 thus reinforcing my rational thoughts as having gone for a tail spin.
The place of Chialekyh just short of Gunji on way to the KM Yatrawas one of our slated stops on this LRP. The LRP had a night halt at one of the wooden log huts where we were three officers quartered in and rest of the team in nearby huts. I distinctly remember having bolted the doors of the hut myself after my usual twochota pegs and hit the sack.
Next day I woke up bright ready for the onward footslog. The LRP doctor a Major then broke the ominous news to me that at about 12.30 am the doors of the hut blew open with lots of mist gushing in and our LRP leader screaming on top of his voice as if in agony. I found out later that the same log hut where we spent overnight had been used few years back to keep the three bodies to include two of a hepter pilots and a medical emergency who had crashed to their deaths in a rescue mission .
The same incident happened with me the following year in 1993 forcing me to do a rethink of paranormal activities in the high Himalayas. The eastern sector of our Himalayas carry within its recess the spirit of sepoy Harbhajan singh of the Punjab regiment who was posted near the Nathu La pass .
Two years later in 1968 Sepoy Harbhajan singh while on an official duty carrying rations on mule back slipped into a deep nullah only to be washed away to his death. His body couldn’t be traced but soon he came into the dreams of his two companions and told where they could find his body.
The unit led a search operation as directed in the dreams of his two companions only to find his body lying intact.
The famous ‘Rainbow valley ‘located in the proverbial ‘death zone of Mt Everest; i.e more than 8000 meters high still has maximum number of dead bodies of the climbers who lost their lives and could not go forward or return.
It has also earned the moniker like ‘Green boots’ and ‘sleeping beauty’ for these names have been given to the corpses still left there for decades. The name ‘Rainbow valley’ has a rainbow in it because of the colourful jackets, boots and bags these bodies are covered with.
High altitude climbers come across these rainbow-coloured dead bodies when they summit Everest in the region that is difficult to survive. According to Jeremy Windsor ,a doctor who himself climbed Everest in 2007 ,the climbers of the ‘Death zone’ would be surviving on the last one –quarter of the oxygen one would need at sea-level.
Among the land mark dead bodies most famous is that of green boots, an Indian climber named Tsewang Paljor who died about two decades ago. As if taking a nap, the dead climber lies on his side legs stretching into the path forcing the climbers to carefully step over his neon green climbing boots.
In contrast there are, however other incidents when a climber was presumed to be dead but returns to the base camp after days though in a bad shape. One dead climber’s wife even dreams of him coming to her bed in a mountain suit. She wakes up and cries while dreaming of his ghost. But she gets a lifetime of surprise when he speaks to her on satellite phones reaching the basecamp alive.
However, apart from all these cases of ghost sightings, there is a science behind such unusual experiences in the Himalayas. Most such stories could be hallucinations or illusions as the psychologists define.
There is also a phenomenon known as the ‘Sensed –presence’ effect in which the brain creates the illusion of a ghost presence under conditions of extreme physical and mental stress such as in the case of the mountain climbers.
Can these accounts as related by me in this article by any account be all written off as mere hallucinations or is there something more to it, is a food for thought that I leave for the readers to decide upon. No wonder ‘Dan May’ has written so very aptly—when climbing mountains pack a light heart’.
(The writer is a retired army officer and can be approached on his email…slalotra4729@gmail.com)
