Saga Dawa Festival – 15th June 2011 / 12 day trek

Photograph © Mads Mathiasen

This trek is the shortest but one of the most culturally rich trips you can do in Humla. The valley is reached in a day’s walk from Simikot. Nyinba, a Bhotia community also called Bara-Thapalya, inhabit this valley in four major villages in the area.

The Saga Dawa Festival is the most important annual festival in Humla and it is held each year on full moon of the fourth lunar month of the Tibetan calendar. In 2011 this will be June 15th 2011 and when most of Nepal is feeling the onset of monsoon, Humla’s skies will still be clear. This festival is celebrated in honor of Sakyamuni’s enlightenment. And this auspicious day coincides with three important events in Buddha’s life: birth, nirvana and death.

The crystal peak also can be scaled, (June-October) via the pilgrim’s trail leading to the top. It requires extra day while at Raling Gompa. It also can be shortened returning back from Bargaon to Simikot depending on your schedule.

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