Sacred Geography

I spend most of my time in Melemchi, though I have climbed Yangri Gang and visisted Milerepa's cave. It always seemed worthwhile to take a tour of the sacred spots of Yolmo. In 1994, Aryn Baker did just that, basing her pilgrimage on an old text. With her permission, I am posting her account of that trip, Pilrgims Progress as a PDF file. It does not have the photographs, her beautiful map, or the Tibetan characters, but in the fullness of time I will add some illustrations.

Yolmo is a "hidden valley", opened by Padme Sambhava and other Tibetan Buddhist saints. Though there is no direct record of Guru Rinpoche's visit, residence, meditations and miracles in Yolmo, there is a powerful local tradition of his past presence. He left many terton, texts and objects to be discovered centuries later when needed, and places where he lived,meditated and taught are well known to local residents.

In the 11th century, the Yogi poet Milarepa lived down stream from what is now Melemchi.