Lake Tilicho, Manang - There is a strange sight on the shores of the world's highest lake these days. Up here at nearly 5,000 metres above sea level, pilgrims from sea level are camped out on a religious retreat. Dozens of identical blue tents dot the shores of this idyllic lake, and right by the icy waters is a yellow pandal. That is where a famous Indian guru is reading the seventh chapter of the Ramayana and 250 pilgrims have flown in by helicopter to listen.

Nepal is full of religious sites holy for Hindus all over the world. There is Pashupatinath, Gosainkunda, Muktinath, Janakpur and just across our northern border are Mt Kailash and Mansarovar. But Lake Tilicho is a new phenomenon and devotees think they are sure there is a reference to it in the Ramayana. And that is why they are here.

But up in Nepal's scenic Manang Valley, the temporal meets the mundane. Caring and catering to 250 pilgrims and their support staff inside a nature sanctuary and an altitude at which bio-degradability is almost zero is a constant worry. Local Manangi herders rarely venture up to the lake, except sometimes to look for straying yak. Some way from the lake, conservation officials, local villagers and trekking leaders are looking down at the tents and strategising how to dispose of the waste generated by the group over a course of two weeks. They finally agree that human waste deposited in tented toilets will be transported by Sherpas to a pit dug a distance away from the lake-a tiring task in the oxygen-deprived atmosphere. Plastic and tin will be flown out to Pokhara, and paper and wood will be buried or burnt.

"At present, everyone is more focussed on making the Ramayana reading a success, and satisfying the clients. But before they leave, they have to ensure the area is left clean," says Krishna Gurung, one of four Annapurna Conservation Area Project (ACAP) liaison officers accompanying the group. Since early August, Hindu pilgrims from around the world have set up camp here and they have gathered to listen to Sant Shri Murari Bapu (regularly featured on cable television) to recite and reflect on the seventh chapterof the Ramayana.

Their presence has triggered a flurry of activity among villagers. Manangi elder Kyung Tsering is up at the lake for the first time. He's hiked up with a cow that supplies Bapu Murari with a daily supply of fresh milk. Volunteers help collect garbage and ask pilgrims to refrain from bathing in the lake. They hope the this visit will attract more tourists and that the relatively good track from Manang to Tilicho, and the track being planned from Tilicho to Jomsom, will encourage more tourist traffic between the neighbouring mountain districts of Manang and Mustang.

The faith of the pilgrims from India, Canada, US, England, and South Africa-many in their sixties-seems to be standing them in good stead in the cold thin air at this altitude. The temperature is below zero in the mornings, and the sun plays hide-and-seek with monsoon clouds that storm over the Manang Valley by mid-morning. Oxygen cylinders are set up in the four-person tents which have cots and four-inch mattresses. This is the middle of the monsoon, and few choose this time of year to venture this high. Even the pilgrims did not walk, they were ferried in on fixed wing flights from Pokhara to Jomsom (2754m) and by a Mi-17 helicopter from Jomsom to Tilicho.

"You've got to give them credit for taking the initiative to come here at such a time," says Samanta Tuladhar, general manager of the Jomsom Mountain Resort. The resort, normally quiet at this time of year, has had a good month. Unfazed pilgrims sang bhajans and chanted prayers as they waited out the weather in Jomsom. It is just a 10- minute shuttle to the lake from Jomsom, but with the monsoon clouds, craggy terrain and altitude, it is a challenging flight for the pilots. The heavy chopper waits for a break in the clouds and flies off, rotors whirring and gulping for air to generate lift. This is the future for off-season tourism in Nepal: Hindu pilgrims who want to come to holy lakes in Nepal during the auspicious month of Srawan. Says Tuladhar: "Most people just talk about off-season tourism, these people are doing the homework for us."

The pilgrims believe that this is the lake that is referred to in the Ramayana where the crow recited the Ramayana to Garuda and where Shiva found solace after the death of Sati. Organisers of the Tilicho Lake Pilgrimage Tour 2001 say they cannot prove it scientifically, but they are convinced this is indeed the Kak Bhusundi Sarovar mentioned in the Ramayana. The Ramayana gives some clues, and says the lake is "at the base of the Annapurnas and north of the Nilgiris." Indeed, south of Tilicho loom the icy ramparts of the Annapurna, carved by glaciers which plunge down to the lake itself. In fact Tilicho Lake is the collected glacial melt of the entire northern slopes of Annapurna and Thorung Peak. Scouts came to the area last spring on a reconnaissance mission to check whether this indeed was the holy lake, and were convinced it was. Water samples proved the lake was cleaner than Mansarovar where a similar group of pilgrims had gone for a prayer vigil for world peace in 1997. That trip paved the way for this one.

It's a nice story, but when pilgrims who are not trekkers decide to organise a trip here, it is a logistical nightmare. Organisers Highland Excursion say that more than 30,000 kgs of food, tents, the pandal, generators, gas cylinders, water pumps, and a portable prefabricated kuti for Bapu Murari had to be flown in by helicopter. About 100 oxygen bottles, 13 Gamow bags for those suffering from altitude sickness, and two doctors are on standby if anyone develops health problems.
Underneath the portable pandal at Tilicho, devotees listen intently as the bespectacled Bapu Murari says he's neither an aastik (believer), nor a naastik (non-believer), but a waastawik (realist). Bapu has been urging pilgrims who cannot deal with the altitude to return home. "Without health, one can't do bhakti," he says.

"This is the first and probably the last time we'll deal with such a large group," says a harassed-looking Uma Khakurel, marketing director for Highland Excursions. "In terms of management, safety, and sheer logistics, it has been enormously challenging but a big headache, too."

Tilicho is not a prohibited area but by virtue of its remoteness and altitude, few tourists take off the popular Annapurna circuit to hike up to the lake. But it does lie within the Annapurna Conservation Area Project (ACAP) which has very strict rules about littering, firewood burning and carrying capacity. The motivation in this case was different than the usual desire to walk new routes. Even though everything was planned with military precision, in between doses of Diamox, Khakurel's patience is running thin. She not only has to deal with the demands of moneyed clients, but also local village politics, eagle-eyed inspectors from ACAP and the weather so the helicopter ferries go smoothly.

The group still has to solve the problem with Bapu Murari's prefabricated kuti (holy hut)-equipped with a compact kitchenette, a bedroom and a bathroom. Flown in from India especially for this occasion, pilgrims would like the kuti (advertised as environment-friendly and weather-proof) to remain at Tilicho for future trekkers and pilgrims to use. Villagers would like the same. But ACAP rules are unbending: the structure should be carted out and the shores of Lake Tilicho should be left in as pristine a state as before the pilgrims got here.