An account by Cheh Goh of the recent pilgrimage to Maratika in Nepal organized by Shang Shung UK and the MACO Museum.
Prologue
In 2024 September I met Jacobella Gaetani in Italy at the funeral of the late Nina Robinson. In 2002 Nina was asked by Chögyal Namkhai Norbu to lead Mandarava retreats and did so all over the world, becoming the embodiment of the practice and spirit of Mandarava. Under that circumstance, Jacobella told me about an upcoming trip to Maratika during Losar. I was sold to the idea immediately.
Blessings in Sacred Places
I remember from the Kathmandu 1992 Dzogchen Community retreat something Chögyal Namkhai Norbu said. I paraphrase: “Nepal has many sacred places, and Kathmandu is a powerful sacred place. We should remember that the inconvenience, pollution and difficulties staying here compared to our normal life are very insignificant compared to the benefit of being here.” This is indeed true also of this trip, just on a physical level, because we got to meet several teachers and felt blessed.
In Kathmandu, thanks to the long standing deep relationship with the Bon monastery Triten Norbutse, we got to visit the Khenpo Tenpa Yungdrung followed by watching their “cleansing spiritual dance” the day before Losar. On the first day of Losar, Jamyang Oliphant, our super networking guide, took us to Shechen Monastery to visit Adzam Gyalse, who is considered to be the reincarnation of one of the sons of Adzom Drugpa. Shechen Monastery has the “Kudung” of Dilgo Kyentse, a visit to it is considered to be spiritually very auspicious.
In Maratika, we were able to meet with Özal Dorje, a lama who can also trace his lineage to Rigzin Changchub Dorje. His father was a tertön – treasure discoverer – and, like Chögyal Namkhai Norbu, also a disciple of Changchub Dorje. He stays about a five minute walk away from our Padma Guest House and we were very warmly welcomed by him, who after our presentation of the white scarf kadag, kindly offered us snacks and spoke with us for a long time. He also agreed to our request for some teachings and gave a reading transmission of a terma (a discovered teaching) by our common “grand-guru”, Changchub Dorje. We finally ended with a group photo plus 50 separate individual photo shots with him, because he looks remarkably like Chögyal Namkhai Norbu, this made several people cry.
On the last day before our return from Maratika to Kathmandu, we finished our practice in the lower Heruka cave to discover many people lining the two sides of the road leading to the monastery where we opened the dance mandala to do Vajra Dance the day before. Shortly after we heard a helicopter arriving nearby with the “yangsi”, the reincarnation of Trulshik Rinpoche. I caught a glimpse of the nine year old boy under a somewhat ineffective parasol, heavily surrounded by various people. The entourage quickly moved on to enter that monastery. Later in the afternoon, we were informed that we could go to the monastery for some blessings. It was a routine present-kadag give-money-offering return-kadag go-away parade. Perhaps I am so schooled in the habit of “blessing is not enough; I want some teachings”, I found it unfortunate that the little reincarnation boy was working really hard ringing the bell and beating the damaru leading some 10 to 15 monks in a ritual of some sort. I didn’t even have the kadag put on my neck by the boy himself; it was returned by his assistant together with a consolatory red thread. It was all very strangely free of meaning, like an illusion.
Caves
Visiting Maratika means going to the Mandarava cave to me. My ignorance was exposed when we arrived in Maratika because there are many caves in that area. Not only the Upper Heruka Cave and the Lower Heruka Cave, there is also the “secret cave of Mandarava”, the Garuda Cave, the Naga Cave, the Tara Cave, the Majushri Cave… It turns out that Guru Rinpoche went to so many places to do his retreats. Everywhere he or Mandarava went, that location became a power place and an important sacred location.
The trouble is that Guru Rinpoche could – so I understood – fly, or could spontaneously appear in a cave (I think) without having to climb the hundreds of steps on the steep hills. We poor mortals have to purify ourselves with the knee wrecking long descent and ascent – the secret Mandarava Cave for example – in order to visit any sacred hole in the mountain. Once there, it felt like the painful knees or sore feet were all worth it, however. After all, isn’t a pilgrimage a journey of purification as long as we still have some strength even though we are mostly retired?
The most interesting caves were probably the Secret Mandarava Cave and the Naga Cave. Both of them have very narrow passages from the cave entrance to arrive at the inside that opens up.
In the Secret Mandarava Cave, we bared our feet so as to negotiate the seemingly impassable gap, pulling our own bodies across the rock to arrive at a space big enough for five people to hang around. Our wonderful guide Min was able to encourage and reassure us so that we got in and out of the place like lizards.
The Naga cave is even more challenging, where one literally has the rock a few centimetres behind one’s back and above one’s head when crawling chin tucked in through these slits. Before taking up the challenge, we passed through a rock chamber with many snake-like shapes on the wall and ceiling, clearly showing why it was called a Naga Cave, where Guru Rinpoche was said to have subdued the Naga and made them the guardians of the teachings. After successfully going through the cracks in the rock, we arrived at a large space and a statue of Mandarava. The space was good for six people to rest a bit and to chant the mantra of Mandarava. We did not stay too long, as the air was not circulating and we wanted to get out before any sign of oxygen shortage hit anyone!
These caves were lit as the caretaker had set up electric cables and light bulbs to enable visitors to see the interior of the tiny space. Great merit to the caretakers indeed.
The Practice Cave
I was most looking forward to visiting what I call “the practice cave”, where Rinpoche taught and did the practice of Amitayus in 1984. It is called the Lower Heruka Cave at Maratika. The spaciousness is extraordinary. The spot where Rinpoche selected to sit down 41 years ago still has that strong presence, feeling which we sat around the spot to do our practice. Our group of about 40 people could spread around comfortably, while other visitors looked around or did some chanting and tour guides gave explanations of the symbols on the rock faces.
A place like Maratika is considered to be a sacred place, with special power to bless the visitors. Clearly, the best blessing for our Dzogchen Community people would be to help us with the practice of Guru Yoga. And sure enough, to do a complete tun of Mandarava with great clarity is much easier there than in the city where many of us live. Even though the burning of all sorts of things such as supposed “butter lamps”, or incense of the Indian variety, and other things I didn’t recognize caused a certain level of pollution within the cave itself leading to sore throats in many people, I have a feeling there is some truth in what was quoted by a lama: “Doing practice in the cave for seven days is equivalent to doing practice for seven years in an ordinary place.”
Another highlight of doing practice in the cave for me was the 12A Vajra Dance we did after the mid-morning Mandarava practice. It was absolutely amazing. Later in the trip, Kyu, our Vajra Dance teacher, managed to put her mandala there and did the long dances. All Vajra Dance dancers would be delighted to experience the dance in the Lower Heruka Cave for sure.
On the edge of this huge space, several Tibetan lamas were doing some long pujas. They were always there before we arrived in the morning at 7 am, and when we left after our third session in the afternoon at 5 pm. There were also many occasional Hindi and Newari worshippers either in bus loads or small groups, some chanting as a chorus, some making murmuring prayers and many offering incense and listening to their guide explaining about the cave.
On Guru Rinpoche day, some lamas put up significant decorations and thangkas in front of which a group of 25 or so people dressed in the same way were doing an elaborate puja. I was told that it was a group of practitioners from the Newari Tantric tradition, which is kept very secret. Without being part of the tradition, one would not be able to know much about what they do.
Cave Manifestations
The walls of all the caves are full of figures, manifestations, appearances or traces of all sorts. The most commonly found are the handprints, knee prints, crown prints and the footprints of Guru Rinpoche. He appeared to have changed size in the series of manifestations, because to my untutored eyes, some are bigger than others, and the alleged impressed-in-the-rock prints definitely did not share the same size. Similarly, there were Mandarava-looking statues and rock formations in many places, and of various sizes.
The size of Guru Rinpoche or Mandarava or their handprint was not the pressing issue for me, because in many cases, when our guide shone a beam of light to tell us that some symbols or prints or something were on the wall, I simply could not figure it out. It was clear that my inherent lack of visual imagination and a terrible insensitivity to vibrations and power of sacred walls stood out nakedly to confront myself.
I secretly made a general prayer that everyone else could see and thoroughly enjoy the self-arising Tara, or Garuda, or Ganesha and everything the tour guide said existed.
Practice
A major purpose of our pilgrimage was to do practice at the sacred location. Hence, we had a full program of three sessions of Mandarava practice every day: a short version at 7:00 am plus a long version at 10:00 am and at 15:30 in the afternoon. Then, there was a suggestion that maybe we could do our Sogtig in the open space on the rooftop of our hotel, and catch the sunrise at 6:01. So in the last three days of our stay, the fourth practice sessions were added. There were at least four people fanatical enough to show up each day at 5:30!
Unfortunately, the weather did not support the early morning practitioners’ efforts. We had the space, but not the blue clear sky – only mist and cloud and a mixture of mist and cloud.
Steps
48, 312, 90, 90, 222.
No, they are not magic numbers that appeared in my vision after nine days of practice.
In order to go Buddhist style to the practice cave, we have to climb clockwise up 48 steps to the square outside the Upper Heruka Cave, before going clockwise down 312 steps to arrive at the entrance to the Lower Heruka Cave. Then we need to climb another 90 steps to arrive at the wide open platform area where we did our daily three sessions of practice.
Once we were done, we would go back down 90 steps to arrive at the cave entrance, and climb 222 steps up to where we started at the beginning. On route, on the very first day of our practice retreat, we could see the Himalayan snow capped mountains directly. It was truly a sight to behold. Afterwards, the weather became misty or cloudy, and we did not have a chance to see such beautiful peaks again.
For those who had difficulties walking, a jeep brought them to a field about 30 steps below the cave entrance, and the friendly driver carried their folded chairs and backpacks up and down the 90 steps within the cave. The driver was very helpful indeed.
When we returned to Kathmandu, I decided not to visit Pharping, fearing further trudging up and down the stairs of the important temples and caves might finally destroy my knees and spoil this wonderful and beautiful experience thus far. So I did not have a number for the steps in Pharping!
Food and Drink
By all accounts, the food we had at Padma Guest House, our home for ten days, won universal praise. Yes, the thukpa, the bean soup, the chapati, the potato dishes were excellent. Yet, after eight days of similar food for three meals per day, the Italians decided to help the kitchen staff have some time off. The Italians will cook pasta!
The result? Two big pots of spaghetti. Yes, no parmigiano, no ground pepper, no bread on the table and no vino rosso. But Maurizio got a standing ovation when the hungry pilgrims ate the pasta the way an Italian would cook it. He won everyone’s heart.
On the last evening before the return to Kathmandu, we finally got some whiskey into the big guest house kitchen. But we had a relaxed time, washing down delicious Greek cheese with three bottles of whisky which were emptied at a steady and rapid pace. There was presence and awareness throughout our mildly alcoholic session. Bravi!
Arrival and Departure
Our excellent organizers shone in their attention to details in taking care of the participants in all the arrivals and departures from Kathmandu.
I was met on my arrival on 25 March evening by the pickup at Kathmandu airport and effortlessly checked into the guest house which is a 7 minute walk from the Boudhanath Stupa. The departure 15 days later was also perfectly timed. In equally meticulous fashion, we got ourselves organized into different Jeep numbers and travelled without a hiccup between Kathmandu and Maratika, with no luggage missing. This smooth arrangement was similarly experienced by other groups joining the trip.
The time in Kathmandu before traveling to Maratika was packed with visits to various historical buildings, temples and stupas. The venues included Bhaktapur Durbar Square, Patan Durbar Square, Kathmandu Durbar Square, the Thousand Buddha Temple, the Bijeshwori Temple, Swayambhunath Stupa, Triten Norbutse Monastery, Shechen Monastery and the shopping heaven Thamel!
Epilogue
I do not like to travel on packaged tours. This trip was a rare exception, and a happy and beautiful exception. Things ran smoothly. I was not aware of any hiccup or trouble. All practitioners were friendly, aware and collaborative. To experience a pilgrimage plus retreat with such a great atmosphere throughout the eleven days is to experience the miracle of successful application of Rinpoche’s teaching: be present and work with circumstances.
If there is another Maratika trip organized next year, I will seriously consider going again!
