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Muktinath |
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The ruins of the Mu-khun-srin fort may be found next to the police station, which was presumably built from materials salvaged from the fort. The Mu-khun-srin fort was built in the 13th century by the King of Gunthang, an area to the north east. The fort was described in a 13th century list of forts as being '…for the domination of the Tamang Se-Mon, the Mu-khun demon fort of Lower Lo was built.' The Tamang are the people of the area, Se is short for the ancient kingdom of Se-rib, Mon is a Tibetan name for their southern neighbours. Muktinath was consecrated in the first (good) age by Padmasamba and then again in the intermediate age by the '84 great magicians'. The 84 great magicians sanctified the water of Muktinath spring by sprinkling on to it water carried from lake Manasrovar in Tibet. Below the spring, and surrounded by 108 waterspouts is the Vishnu shrine. To Buddhists it is a shrine to the local naga or serpent deity, dGa'-bo 'Jogs-pa. Worthy buddhists should walk around the shrine. Buddhists who worship here will be freed from all evil committed in this life and will in a future life gain Buddhahood. Pilgrims to Muktinath are able to gain Karma merit in a number of ways. The fire and water temple symbolically represents to Buddhists the life giving butter lamp, that lights the path to enlightenment. Buddhist followers who attend this shrine may attend their own self-perfection. Taking seven steps in devotion at Muktinath frees one from the grievances of a bad rebirth. If you erect a silk banner at Muktinath you will be reborn in a future life as a universal monarch. Drinking the spring water washes away the five immeasurable sins. These five particularly bad sins are: Killing ones father or mother, killing an arhant, causing dissension amongst buddhists and causing a buddha's blood to flow. Presumably it washes away lesser sins too. Repairing the shrines protects one from attack by dangerous creatures. Although this seems very medieval to western minds, Muktinath remains a place of atonement into this 'evil age' or modern era. According to the anthropologist Stan Royal Mumford, tells how in the early 1980s, a son of a high status Tibetan family in Bagarchap ran off to Kathmandu with a woman of 'low birth'. When he eventually returned, he had to undertake a pilgrimage to Muktinath to drink the sacred spring water. Only after this was he considered ready to rejoin his family. Mumford, in his excellent book 'Himalayan Dialogue' quotes Lama Dorje of Bagarchap explaining the special qualities of Muktinath: 'During the good age the whole earth was "chin lab". [Substances are "chin lab" if they have endured pure since the good age.] Now during this bad age there is a deterioration of the nutritious value of the earth. Thus the fortune of humans also deteriorates. But the Buddha has established pilgrimage sites where the deterioration from the good age does not occur. In Muktinath, the original fire burns in water in harmony and the rocks and soils are as they were in the beginning of time. We collect these and bring them back so that we may insert them in our chortens and in the soil of the fields to delay deterioration, restoring to some extent the qualities of the good age'.
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