This morning the Sherpa team put on a Puja for us. It is a Buddhist ceremony which is taken very seriously in front of their Chomolungma.
They had built a plinth that was approximately 1.5m high out of the rocks. On this they put some sacred rocks, food offerings, wine, rice, a cake they had made, beer, biscuits, basically one of everything they had in the kitchen.
I was told to get all of my sharp gear, my crampons, ice axe, walking poles, 2 pairs of boots, my harness and all my hardware. This has to be blessed to ask for forgiveness for piercing the mountain later on.
Then it started, we all sat down in front of the plinth and the lama started chanting. He was singing his prayers, a sound that will definitely stay with me a long time.
We were give a handful of raw rice, when the lama threw some in the air, we all did.
After about 45 mins, there was an intermission where we all got a cup of Tibetan tea. In the intermission all of the Sherpa’s erected a pole with prayer flags attached to it. They added a flag with all of the climbers’ names to it and stood it up, and then they attached 5 long lines of prayer flags from the top to secure it to the ground.
Then we were each given 2 capfuls of whiskey. (now, I haven’t had a drink since August 2011 due to training, but I seriously thought I better not pass this one up)
We were then all given 4 pieces of food from the plate. I took some biscuits, piece of apple and a mars bar.
Some more prayers went on and we all stood up and took a handful ofTampa(dark flour) and after the Lama, we all through it in the air.
I wish I understood more about the workings of the Puja, but nevertheless I feel very privileged to have taken part.