Sacred Lake

No meat, no garlic, no onions, no eggs – not the day or night before and certainly not the day of. These were the rules for going to the sacred lake above Khaling, known to Bhutanese as Daling Tso. We were supposed to be as clean and pure as possible. Once we reached the lake, if we reached the lake, no alcohol, no swimming, no washing your face in the lake. There is a lot of superstition surrounding the most sacred lake in Eastern Bhutan. There are certain times of the year when it’s okay to go and certain times of the year when you must not go. If any of these rules are broken, it could mean losing your way, a violent rainstorm, even an earthquake. Once, supposedly, a few boys decided to swim in the lake. The next day, an earthquake occurred. Because of this, the lake is also shrouded in mystery. Many Bhutanese who live in Khaling are hesitant to reveal how to get to the lake for fear that their directions may cause a natural disaster. Visitors in search of the lake have been told it takes anywhere between three hours to two days to get there. No one wants to be at fault for disturbing the sacredness of the lake.

Scott and I had known about the lake for some time, had heard stories of failed attempts. We were definitely interested. Khaling is located less than an hour’s drive from Kanglung and the hike didn’t sound that strenuous. Rinchen’s husband had just told us stories from his secondary school days of hiking from school to the lake and higher onto the ridge. He said from the school to the lake it took about 4 hours. So when Sonam Tashi, a lecturer at the college who Scott was co-teaching a First Aid course with, found out that Scott and I both like to camp and hike, he proposed an overnight trip to Daling Tso. Of course, Scott and I said yes.

It’s the getting to places that’s usually the greatest adventure. Scott and I have hitchhiked and walked many kilometers since being in this country. For this trip, we had the advantage of Sonam Tashi’s car. We – Sonam Tashi, an assistant lecturer Sangay, Rachel, Scott and I – left Kanglung after work on Saturday and were in Khaling by lunch time.

Most of the group wanted to get something in our stomachs before starting the hike. A person is hard pressed to find anything in a Bhutanese food establishment that doesn’t have onions. So we ate rice with fried cheese and a side dish of chilies. After lunch, we drove to Khaling’s renowned higher secondary school thinking that it was the jumping off point for the hike. We were wrong about it being the starting point, but we ended up running into Nick, a Canadian teacher with BCF, who enlisted some of this students who’ve been to Daling Tso to help us with the beginning of the hike. He had offered to get one of his students to actually take us the whole way, but we declined thinking about lack of tent space and the amount of food we’d brought. I think we also declined because we thought it wouldn’t be that hard to find the lake. We left the car at the school, walked back to town, and soon we were on the outskirts of Khaling on our way to the lake.

Not too far into the hike, the secondary school boys had to leave us. They thought long and hard

and produced us with a map of how to get to the sacred lake.

Off we went. The day was glorious. There were some clouds but the sun was out. Blue skies. A perfect day for a hike. We were all in good spirits. Scott, Sonam, and Sangay walked ahead as Rachel and I hiked at our own pace having good conversation.


At one point, Sangay remembered that he had doughnuts in his bag. At first, we debated calling some people to find out whether doughnuts have eggs in them. Since none of us knew for absolute certainty, we abandoned them at a yak herder’s house just to be safe. That’s how strict people are about this lake. No eating eggs, not even a trace of egg in a doughnut (that is, if doughnuts indeed have eggs).

We followed the “map” as best we could. Around 5:30, we got to a nice spot and decided to set up camp. Even if we had reached the lake that first day, we wouldn’t have camped near it. Sonam wanted to drink alcoholic beverages and, of course, we couldn’t do that near the lake. Tents went up. I started cooking a curry on Scott’s camp stove, Sangay set to making rice over a fire, and others went looking for water. The search was not fruitful, but we weren’t concerned; we’d get water the next morning from the lake. We hadn’t carried enough for two days of hiking as well as cooking.

We had a great night by a fire eating dinner, drinking some beverages, and talking. The temperature had cooled and although it hadn’t rained yet, we were almost sure it would. We kept hearing thunder getting closer and closer, and lightning lit up the valley.

A lot of the conversation was filled with excitement about the next morning and getting to the lake. We planned to wake up early, pack everything up, and eat breakfast by the lake. We figured it wouldn’t take more than an hour at most.

We happened to kill the fire and slip into our tents minutes before the sky opened up and unleashed hours of rain. Thank God for good tents with reliable rain flies. Most of us slept fitful sleeps – except for Sangay who, I heard, slept like a baby – before waking up around 5:30 to start the day.

At this point we were still optimistic about reaching the lake in no time at all. Partly because we were pretty much out of water, and partly because we believed the map and the boys’ directions. We reached a pile of rocks. The map showed a branching off to the right, so we explored to the right of the rocks. It didn’t look promising, so we continued up. And up. And up. Soon, hours had passed and there was still no sign of the lake. We were all hungry, somewhat dehydrated from drinking the night before, and not as optimistic as we had been at 6 am. Actually, that’s not true. Rachel was still very sure the lake was somewhere close, nearby. She sensed we were almost there.

Soon it started to snow, and we got to a point high enough where the snow was sticking. Sometimes I hate snow. I hated it at that moment and for many moments afterward.

We decided to stop, melt snow for water, and cook breakfast. Scott’s camp stove was acting up, as it sometimes tends to do, so Sangay and Sonam built a fire. We ended up staying at that spot for a couple of hours. It took some time to collect enough snow to melt and boil for tea, an oatmeal breakfast, to fill up our water bottles, and to make more rice for lunch (at the insistence of Sonam and Sangay. I love rice, but the Bhutanese love rice). After getting some tea and hearty oatmeal into us, we all started feeling better. I stopped hating snow as much, especially since it was our savior.

Despite Rachel’s strong belief that the lake was just around the corner, we all unanimously decided to turn around and head back. We were hours from our campsite and still more hours from Khaling town and Sonam’s car. We would look for the lake on the way down. Mother Nature was not as generous with good weather as she had been the day before. We headed the way we came in a thick fog.

Maybe this was all the magic of the sacred lake. Maybe the Bhuddist God looking down at us didn’t believe our group deserved to reach the lake. Maybe we had been too cocky and sure of ourselves.

As we got lower and lower, Scott, Sonam, and Sangay explored different ways we could’ve gone, looking for the elusive lake, but to no luck. It was nowhere. We even consulted the map a few more times.

Eventually we admitted defeat, reached our campsite, and continued our trip towards town, having not reached the sacred lake. All was not lost, though. Our group was intact. We were still enjoying each other’s company. The rain had not come down in more than a drizzle. No earthquakes had started. We knew where we were going. And we had a full pot of rice strapped to Sonam’s bag.

When we got to the streambed, we stopped for lunch. Even though it wasn’t as hot as when we first passed the tempting water the day before, Scott took a dip, a quick dip. Then we all settled down to a lunch of rice and cabbage ezzie (cabbage mixed with chilies and onions) and whatever other morsels of food we found in our bags.

We had no problem getting back to town. Past various camps for yak herders, past sheep and horses, down a steep forest, and eventually back to Khaling.


As much as we all wanted to reach the lake, I think most of us knew deep down that there was a chance we wouldn’t reach it. By the time we reached town, I was over it. I was just happy to be back on flat ground. We piled into Sonam’s car and I happily sunk into the back seat expecting to fall asleep on the way back to Kanglung. Early on in the car ride, Sonam turned down the car music and spoke like a camp counselor, giving us a pep talk about how we shouldn’t be disappointed, that we all still had an adventure. Somehow I felt that maybe Sonam needed to hear the pep talk himself.

A look back at where we'd just been. Where we reached was covered in clouds.