Can a place bursting with Tourists still create a sense of Tranquility ? Yes it can .. Tsomgo Lake 34 kms from Gangtok has that unique capacity. I was told that everyone who visits goes to see this lake. But I was not prepared to handle the landscape enroute nor the serene beauty of the lake that was frozen.
We drove to reach snowline and saw the vegetation change from forests to scrub to mosses and then barren mountains kissed with snow. With gigantic monilith tumbling in ravines and valleys the landscape was as austere and wild as can be described by Emily Bronte in Wuthering Heights. All this and a valley filled with white transulscent clouds rising to reach the limitless blue above them. Craggy overhangs and a narrow road that allows only one side passage. Although it is a two way access. You can not only see and feel wilderness you can actually even smell it .... Perfect !
As we continue to acsend around 8 - 9000ft to reach the lake we drove through Sub Alpine Forests. Silent, meditating trees weighed down by the snow on their branches they stood in quiet habit. The entire landsacpe was black and white not color disturbed the pallette of Nature. And I got a chance to be in this frame and feel this creation that stood before me waiting to be captured. Absolute Bliss !
A bend in the road and we are there - Tsomgo Lake at 12, 400 ft. It lay there ahead of us sheilded by low rise mountains all around it .... The shores were dotted with so many tourists and there was a constant chatter of people and yet it as so easy to melt that and merge with the serenity that you eyes beheld. The lake a huge mass of ice was tranquil. We started our short walk towards Baba Mandir and snow started to fall. The voices died down and we were one with our surroundings ..... the snow was meting and gushing down the slope to meet the lake. A single Prayer Flag at the almost start of the Lake held fort for all. One could 'hear' a chant in silence. You do not need to speak here you do not need to express.
You just absorb ... you inhale the beauty, the calm of Nature. Your mind is clear and your heart is a blissful void and all you can do is smile : )
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