In the evening, we finally arrived at the first day's accommodation, Zhire Temple. The temple sits north and faces south, and was founded by Guchangpa, a master of the Kagyu sect of the main Papa. According to legend, when Gu Cangpa turned the prayer path in order to explore the sacred mountain, when he arrived here, a wild female yak suddenly appeared in front of him, and the master was terrified and suddenly realized that this wild female yak was the incarnation of the lion-faced empty walking mother (Tibetan called "Sendoma", a female protector god with the head of a lion).

Gu Cangba saw that the huge wild female yak was walking steadily to the east, and when it came to a rather conspicuous rock, it was nowhere to be seen. So Gu Cangba searched around, and finally found clear footprints of the wild mother yak after disappearing on a boulder on the top of the cave, so this hole is called "Zheripu" (female yak hidden trace hole).

The master used this cave as an ashram. Since then, many great monks of the Palpa Kagyu school have also practiced in this cave. It was not until later that the famous master of the Palpa Kagyu lineage, Dingqin Dunzhu Tongmei, built a temple centered on this cave, and the temple became famous from then on, and the abbot of the Lordpa Kagyu school has never been interrupted.

After staying overnight, I learned from the mouth of the precept that there was a very hidden temple nearby, built on the rock wall of a mountain near the temple, which was the annex of the Prajna Vajra-in Temple. It's just that ordinary people don't want to find it, even if they look from the outside, they can only see a barren mountain, it turns out that this courtyard is built in a hole, and the entrance of the cave has been concealed.

When I entered this courtyard, I found that there was a cave inside, the open cave space was bright, there was pumped up groundwater and sufficient electricity supply, and there were bronze Buddha statues all around, and it was the Tibetan Maitreya Buddha statue in front of me.

The monk took us to the main hall, where four great lamas sat down and recited the sutras. After a brief introduction of my identity, several lamas led us to the inner sanctum, where in a side room, we saw an old lama sitting on the ground with a golden bowl on the ground in front of him.

After exchanging with several great lamas for a while, I saw that after the old lama sitting on the ground lifted the golden bowl that was upside down on the ground, a gray yin ghost floated out of it, and it turned out that the yin ghost that had been caught near the holy lake two days ago was trapped in this bowl.

After this yin ghost appeared, he was obviously extremely afraid of the lamas around him, but he had nowhere to run, so he could only look at everyone tremblingly, looking pitiful and deplorable.

Jienian already knew that this yin ghost had followed the two demons of the "Dragon" to Tibet to open the seal of King Gesar, and he hoped to ask for more information from this yin ghost and take this opportunity to rely on the strength of the Tibetan Prajna Vajra Monastery to get rid of the "Dragon".

The back and forth interrogation, coupled with a little coercion and temptation, the yin ghost has told all the news that can be explained to the lama of the Prajna Vajra Temple, and the precept has not received more information, it seems that this yin ghost should be just a small minion under the dragon spirit, and does not know the other inside story, according to this yin ghost, the two ghosts are still hovering near the holy lake, and it seems that there is a next step.

At present, the Tibetan Prajna Vajra Monastery has sent a master to protect the seal of King Gesar near the holy lake, it seems that all the problems are focused on the seal of King Gesar, if there is a follow-up action on the spirit, the two sides are likely to meet head-on, thinking of this, the precepts did not stay much in this courtyard, and after saying goodbye to a few great lamas, we returned to the hotel.

When we heard that there was a celestial burial ceremony at a nearby celestial burial platform the next morning, our group got up at 6 a.m. in order to appreciate the unique celestial burial customs in Tibetan areas. On the one hand, it is necessary to catch up with the day of the sky burial, and on the other hand, you must also get to know the local monks, because after all, there are still some taboos about the Dharma of the deceased.

As an important part of Tibetan traditional culture, the culture of sky burial is actually a long historical process. In Tibetan culture, it is believed that after death, if the body can be devoured by birds and animals, all sins in the world will be washed away, so that the soul can fly to heaven and not suffer from hell.

As a result, many Tibetans who believe in religion and traditional Tibetan culture hope to have their souls liberated and ascend to heaven through celestial burials after death. Celestial burials are generally located near some monasteries in Tibetan areas, and there are special celestial burial masters in charge of celestial burial ceremonies, and there are also lamas who chant sutras on the side. In addition to this, the deceased can also designate a person who loved him or her to be buried in the sky, and it is said that those who perform the sky burial for the deceased can receive great blessings.

I heard that in a recent celestial burial ceremony in the local area, the deceased was an 85-year-old woman, who loved her grandson very much before her death, so she hoped that her 25-year-old grandson would have a celestial burial for herself. This is the first time that the young man has carried out a sky burial with his own hands and as the main executor, after the sky burial, the young man has been drinking until he is unsteady on his feet and vomiting wildly, because he himself personally cut the meat from the old grandmother one by one to feed the birds of prey, and even the red, yellow, blue and green of the internal organs, it must be unacceptable for a while.

For those of us in the city, sky burials are extremely exciting and scary things, but we want to see them.

According to custom, the corpse must be sent to the burial platform before dawn, and we are afraid of missing every link, so we stand in the freezing wind early and wait. Sure enough, before dawn, a wagon covered with tarpaulins brought five corpses, and the lamas lit a bonfire and began to chant sutras and transcendence, and special personnel removed the corpses from the van for other preparations before the sky burial.

To be honest, the process of sky burial is very unbearable to watch, especially after opening the body bag to reveal the white corpse.

The lamas added special fuel to the bonfire, causing billowing black smoke to rise from the bonfire, and after the explanation of the precepts, we know that this black smoke is a signal to summon nearby vultures.

At this time, the light of day has dawned, the black smoke has risen, and the scriptures have been recited, and it is time for the celestial burial master to appear to carry out the final procedure. There were two celestial burial masters, both dressed in black raincoats, and both of them walked to work in front of the five corpses placed side by side with a sharp short knife in their hands.

I saw that they cut off the flesh from the corpse and threw it aside, and even the organs and eyeballs were torn out and cut into pieces, and finally, the corpses were almost stripped into skeletons. In the process, we smell a large corpse stench, and the cruelty in front of us makes us turn our heads one after another, and Lili and Xiaohui have even run away to vomit in the distance.......

What's even more terrifying is that dozens or nearly a hundred huge vulture birds have gathered in the surrounding clearing, these vultures have hairless heads, sharp eyes, and wings that can spread up to four to five meters, all of which are surrounded and are eager to eat.

It seems that these vultures are obviously frequent visitors to the celestial burial platform, and I don't know if these birds of prey, who are accustomed to eating human flesh, are willing to eat other food, and the five corpses let them eat cleanly, and many of them even surround the corpses and peck at the brains in the skulls. However, these guys are also polite, and they cooperate very tacitly with the celestial burial master, and they will only surround them to eat after the celestial burial master greets them, and they will definitely not attack other living people present.

After watching the sky burial, everyone's legs were a little weak, and Lili and Xiaohui vomited and almost suffocated. Human beings are nothing more than that, leaving our souls and wisdom behind, they are just a flesh and skin. According to the believers, if we leave our clothes, hair or even a few drops of blood here, it will represent a symbolic death and alleviate our sins.

Leaving the Heavenly Burial Platform from the Zhuomala Pass down to the Menqu, the five-kilometer downhill road is almost straight down, which is the most dangerous section of the whole mountain road, due to the high altitude and dangerous terrain, people will die here every year in the mountain.

When the mountain was finally turned, all of us were almost exhausted, and our calves and stomachs ached, so we hired someone to help us carry our luggage on our backs.

Back at Tachin to rest, we had a good night's sleep. The next day, we depart for the next destination, the holy lake "Mapanyongco".

Along the Puran Highway, we saw a lake from the car in the distance, and the precept said that it was the holy lake "Ma Panyong Tso". This sacred lake, recorded in the "Records of the Western Regions of the Tang Dynasty" as the Yao Pond in the Western Heavens, Tibetan compatriots believe that the water here can wash away the five poisons and spiritual troubles.

The Tibetan meaning of the sacred lake, also known as the "invincible lake", is named after a religious battle fought around the lake in the 11th century, where the Kagyu sect of Tibetan Buddhism defeated the original Tibetan religion of Bon, and changed the original name of the lake from "Ma Trai Tso" to "Ma Pan Yong Tso".

The area of the sacred lake is more than 40,000 square meters, the deepest depth is 88 meters, and the transparency is 14 meters, making it the most transparent lake in China. When I arrived at the lake, the lake water was indeed crystal clear, I dare to say, I have never seen such a transparent and clear lake water when I grew up, under the illumination of the sun, the lake surface glowed with bright brilliance, like a pool of crystal crystal clear, five colors and ten lights.

We finally saw the holy lake, and stood on the edge of the holy lake, the refreshing air and a pure lake water, so that we were all thoroughly washed in this atmosphere, and became carefree and relaxed.

According to the itinerary, we will stay in the holy lake for two nights and two days to fully feel the ethereal environment and atmosphere here, and also let each of us fully release the fatigue of the spirit here. Unlike in Kailash, we don't have to trek to complete tasks like driving mountains on the shores of the sacred lake, we just need to enjoy our leisurely state of mind.

Of course, in our plan, it is indispensable to turn around the "ghost lake" Laonco, which is adjacent to the holy lake. In fact, the ghost lake Laang Tso and the holy lake Mapanyong Tso should have been connected, but later due to the drop in the lake level, it was divided into two lakes, and there is still a river between the two lakes, and the water of the holy lake can flow into the ghost lake. But what is very strange is that the holy lake is one of the purest freshwater lakes on the plateau, and the ghost lake that is closely attached to each other is a saltwater lake, in addition, there are many water birds on the side of the holy lake, there are plateau aquariums in the lake, and the lake is grassland cattle and sheep, which looks vigorous and full of aura, but it is lifeless and lifeless by the ghost lake, and it is a dead and desolate scenery.

Compared to the sacred lake of Mapanyongtso, the ghost lake of Laangco has been neglected since ancient times, mainly because of its rumors: it is the main gathering place of the devil Rakshasa king, and the nine-headed rakshasa king who abducted the beautiful Sida in the ancient Ramayana Tales of India lives here. Some people even say that at night on the lake, not only can you hear the sound of the devil wailing, but you can also see countless ghosts haunting the lake. It is also strange to say that the ghost lake is often windless and has three feet of waves, because it is a saltwater lake, the lake surface is glowing with a strange light of white phosphorus, and when you look at it in the moonlight at night, when there are waves coming, it looks like many ghosts are rushing to your face.

There is a small island in the center of the lake, which is also dark red, and the shape of the island is also very strange, if you look down from a high altitude, it looks like a broken skeleton.

What's more interesting is that the Holy Lake and the Ghost Lake are shaped like the rising sun, and the other is like a crescent moon, like the sun and moon two lakes, one left and one right. In fact, this kind of feng shui level, from the Taoist gate is also called "yin and yang pool", the holy lake is the lake that absorbs the qi of the positive yang, and the ghost lake is the yin pool containing yin qi, from the perspective of feng shui, the water of the yin pool is the easiest to cultivate sneaky and demonic things, if it is not the holy lake to suppress it, after the ghost lake absorbs enough yin qi of heaven and earth, it will inevitably give birth to the great demon of heaven and earth.