The Mistery of Belicena Villca
Already on the Tibetan plateau , the country of Pey-Yul , we were to march straight to the North ; Von Grossen ' s plan seemed far-fetched at first , although on the face of it , it was not ; and actually produced the results expected . It consisted of reaching the banks of the Brahmaputra , which in the valley of Gangri runs parallel to the Himalayas , from west to east , and embark on a raft to sail in its furious current : the right point to descend ( if we weren ' t shipwrecked before ) would be at 30 º lat . N . and 95 º long . E . where the river " Son of Brahma " violently twists its course towards the South and heads for the valleys of Bengal . With such a tactical procedure we would recover part of the time in which Ernst Schaeffer ' s expedition was ahead of us .
According to the information available to Von Grossen , Schaeffer and his men were travelling along the YungLam road , which ended its 2,000 km . Route in China and its use was only allowed to the post or the officials of Tibet ; merchants , on the other hand , used the Chang-Lam road . But Schaeffer ' s operation , endorsed by the Dalai Lama , was almost an official mission . However , the transit through that path would not be easy because , before reaching Lake Kyaring , seat of the Porche of Shambhala , tens of obstacles had to be overcome ; to give you an idea , neffe Arturo , of how rough they were those communication routes , I will tell you that in only 600 km . of its journey , from Lhasa to Chamdo , the Chang-Lam road went through more than forty mountain ranges , by passes that rose between 3,000 and 5,500 meters ; and that ' s not counting the innumerable streams and rivers , often lacking bridges , that ran energetically through the intermediate valleys .
At Chamdo , Schaeffer ' s caravan would turn off the official path and would take a route of pilgrim lamas , open in parallel to the right bank of the Mekong River , which would transport travelers directly to Lake Kyaring . Once there they would go to the Monastery , or Gompa , of the Turmeric Bonnet lamas , of the Duskha tribe , Guardians of the Porche of Shambhala . That Monastery , known since ancient times as “ Ashram Jafran ” and that we set on fire , was behind the city wall of the Duskhas , a folk of Tibetan breed famous for the variety of saffron , or turmeric , that they cultivated , from which they extracted a narcotic drug for Ritual use and a tincture with which they dyed the bonnets or tiaras of their lamas . If everything went well , that is to say , after these would have accepted the Necessary Victim and opened the Portal , the expedition would continue the trip to the vicinity of Lake Koko Nor , where there is one of the southern ends of the Great Wall of China and also , or just because of that , one of the Gates of Chang Shambhala . Our strategy , of course , demanded that we catch up with Ernst Schaeffer before he arrived at the Ashram Jafran because , otherwise , we would have irremediably lost Oskar Feil .
Anyway , the operation that we were going to carry out had been studied meticulously by Von Grossen and Schmidt , and although the anxiety to aid Oskar filled me with impatience , I had no choice but to trust that they were right . Thus , while Schaeffer ' s expedition was on its way towards the stepped plateaus of Eastern Tibet , crossed by tens of mountain ranges that extended from North to South and as many linked valleys , we advanced at full speed across the plain of the Gangri Valley heading north , trying to reach as soon as possible the Yaru-Zang-Bo River or High Brahmaputra . We would only sail four hundred kilometers down that river but , according to Von Grossen ' s appreciation , in four or five days we would travel a distance that , by land , along the Yung-Lam road , required five times as long .
At a predetermined point on the coast , two rafts of firm construction awaited us , suitable to transport each 10 people and a ton of load : more than enough to cover our needs . The Kâulikas had been in charge of hiring them and the price was high , because they had to be payed the trip to Sadiga and the cost of the tugs that would bring them back again to the Upper Brahmaputra .
The skilled boatmen , stimulated by the promise of an extra remuneration , or frightened by the dangerousness of the Kâulika monks , drove deftly the rafts through the center of the channel , making the most of the river speed . And as the mighty current quickly got me closer to the objective of the mission , I contemplated admired one of the most extraordinary landscapes of the Earth , comparable only , to a lesser extent , to the plateau of Tiwanaku in America . Because that river " Son of Brahma ", which crossed longitudinally a cold valley located 4,000 meters high , had its shores guarded by two mountain ranges so famous for the elevation of their mountains as for the concepts that they deserved to the oldest Religions of Humanity : to the right stretched the Himalayas , in whose system affirms the Asian tradition is found Mount Meru , the Olympus of the Indos ; and to the left the Gangri Mountains rose up , a mountain range that culminates in the West with the Mount Kailas , the Abode of Shiva .
A week later we were heading towards Yushu , in the N . W ., trying to speed up the days by acquiring yaks , since there was an itinerary of passes and openings that allowed to advance with such animals . After travelling an uninterrupted series of small valleys , going through numerous mountain ranges , crossing the mighty Saluen river and many other minor streams , we arrived one day on the shores of the Mekong , about 80 km . of Chamdo . By that time the Kâulikas had already
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