A pilgrim lake on the roof of Rasuwa
People have walked to Gosaikunda for centuries. The lake is mentioned in Hindu tradition as the place where Shiva rested after drinking the poison of the churning of the ocean, and Nepali kings and ordinary families alike made the climb. Before roads reached Dhunche, pilgrims walked for a week or more from Kathmandu, sleeping in rest houses and caves. The trail through Sing Gompa and Laurebina is still lined with stone shelters and shrines. Many families still make the climb as a vow, walking for a sick relative or giving thanks, and some older pilgrims are carried part of the way. The trail is as much a part of the pilgrimage as the lake itself.
Gosaikunda has always had two faces. On one hand it is a Hindu tirtha, a crossing place where bathing washes away sin. On the other it lies in the heart of Tamang and Hyolmo country, and the shamans of these communities, dhami and jhankri, come to the lake at Janai Purnima to renew their healing power. Buddhists circle the lake too. The festival night, with drums, bells, fires and chanting, brings these traditions together on one shore. Outside the festival, the lake is silent: wind, ice cracking in spring, the bells at the shrine. Many trekkers find this quiet face of Gosaikunda as moving as the crowded night of the full moon.
In 1976 the lakes became part of Langtang National Park, and in 2007 the Gosaikunda lake complex was listed as a Ramsar wetland of international importance. Trekking lodges have grown at Laurebina and by the lake, and the route became popular as an add-on to the Langtang trek or a crossing to Helambu. The Newars of Kathmandu know the lake as Silu, the subject of a well-known song about a difficult pilgrimage there. For Newar families in the valley, Silu still stands for a long, hard journey made for the sake of faith, and grandparents tell stories of walking there in their youth.
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