According to the official website Sripada or Adams Peak is a depression in the rocky summit of a mountain 7,360 feet high.
The depression resembles a huge footprint, which has been venerated as a sacred sight from remote antiquity.
The footprint was identified by Buddhists as the Buddha's footprint, by Hindus as that of Shiva, and by Muslims as Adam's.
Reading that description and seeing a picture of a monastery at the top of the mountain I felt compelled to see it with my own eyes.
Climbing that mountain was one of the hardest physical challenges I've ever experienced.
I awoke at 2 AM, or rather I should say I got out of bed at 2 AM. As I said in my previous post I wouldn't quantify the rest I got as sleep.
My traveling companion and I were out the door at 2:30 with the intention to be at the summit before sunrise. There were other people, all Westerners, who were also starting their ascent.
The walk round-trip is 12 km or about 8 miles. The elevation gain is about 3500 feet and there are 5200 steps.
When you read the word "steps" you probably envision American steps which are uniform in height and width. These are not American steps however, these are Eastern steps.
Some are high, some low, some narrow and some wide. They were uniform only in that they were all made of concrete.
Although I started the walk with my travel companion she and I move at different speeds. She naturally has a faster pace than I so we agreed that we would each take our own pace and I would meet her at the top.
It did not take very long for her to become a shadow in the night; which was fine with me. I preferred this to be a solitary experience.
Since this was a pilgrimage I decided to do japa (mantra meditation) the whole way up the mountain. For three hours and ten minutes (the time it took me to reach the summit) with only occasional breaks for thought, I repeated the same mantra.
The first 25% of the walk has elevation gain but is not terribly steep. Because this is high pilgrimage season the path is illuminated.
There are stalls on each side of the path, many of which are closed that hour. The ones that were open sold tea or food or water; some played chants which sounded somewhat haunting.
The first interesting thing I noticed was that all the white people were on their way up and all the Sri Lankan people were on their way down.
The information on the web, which is written in English and geared for tourists, advises one to arrive at the summit at dawn.
I asked a few young Sri Lankans what their custom was. They said people start ascent around 6 PM and they stay awake at the top and leave sometime before dawn. By the time I reached the top at dawn the only Sri Lankans left up there were a few policeman and temple keepers.
One gets a sense of how the path traverses the mountain when standing in town at night because of the path lighting. When you're actually walking the path it is impossible to tell the distance to the top.
About an hour into the climb the steps got significantly steeper and the going got considerably slower.
About 45 minutes after that I started to feel it in my legs a bit but just kept repeating my mantra and putting one foot in front of the other. (Imagine you have been on a stairstepper machine for one hour and 45 minutes continuously).
I saw many people much younger than myself panting and sweating at this point. As I mentioned to some of you, I have been in training for this trip for the past six months; at this point I was thanking myself for all of the asana, healthy food and lack of sugar.
The path just got steeper and steeper. At some point iron railings on both sides appeared so one could pull oneself along with their arms as well as their legs.
Finally I started getting really tired. The travel of the previous day coupled with the lack of sleep was starting to get to me. But I said to myself "there is absolutely no way that I am not going to finish this".
I knew that I had to be most of the way there because when I looked down I could see far in the distance the lights in town below and the moon looked much closer than it had when I started.
Around that time I saw a western woman walking down and I asked her how much further it was to the top. She replied "you are two thirds of the way there but the last part is really steep".
I thought to myself OMG it's been incredibly steep for what feels like a long time already! In some sections I'd had to pull myself hand over hand up the steps.
But I just kept repeating my mantra and taking one step at a time. I could see the sky beginning to lighten as I got to the top. It was packed with people.
There is a very small temple where one pays respect so I bowed down and then looked for a place outside to watch the dawn with the throng of camera wielding westerners.
I found nothing sacred or spiritual in that scene. It was completely different than being in the Temple of the Tooth or at that "Bodhi Tree Temple". At those other temples the devotion was evident.
At that moment I wished that I had known that the Sri Lankan people were up there earlier. I would have preferred to sit quietly with them.
By the time I got to the bottom (which took me two hours) legs shaking and hips screaming I was completely spent. There was no gas left in the tank.
And yet somehow after only 20 minutes of rest at the hotel I found the energy to pack up, take a five hour tuk tuk ride (those of you who have ridden in a tuk tuk understand the significance of this), a 1 1/2 hour bus ride, arrive in a new town without a hotel reservation, find a good hotel and watch the sun set into the Indian Ocean.
For me the sacred was the climb itself which was a metaphor not the experience as of standing at the summit with a group of people at dawn.
The pilgrimage is having faith and preventing the mind from getting in the way.
It was not the body that couldn't handle the climb it was the mind, doubt, that could have given in.
The metaphor is starting the path in darkness and after great dedication and effort seeing the light burst forth.
The metaphor is not being able to see where the path leads but trusting that it leads someplace positive.
It was an incredible day.
The depression resembles a huge footprint, which has been venerated as a sacred sight from remote antiquity.
The footprint was identified by Buddhists as the Buddha's footprint, by Hindus as that of Shiva, and by Muslims as Adam's.
Reading that description and seeing a picture of a monastery at the top of the mountain I felt compelled to see it with my own eyes.
Climbing that mountain was one of the hardest physical challenges I've ever experienced.
I awoke at 2 AM, or rather I should say I got out of bed at 2 AM. As I said in my previous post I wouldn't quantify the rest I got as sleep.
My traveling companion and I were out the door at 2:30 with the intention to be at the summit before sunrise. There were other people, all Westerners, who were also starting their ascent.
The walk round-trip is 12 km or about 8 miles. The elevation gain is about 3500 feet and there are 5200 steps.
When you read the word "steps" you probably envision American steps which are uniform in height and width. These are not American steps however, these are Eastern steps.
Some are high, some low, some narrow and some wide. They were uniform only in that they were all made of concrete.
Although I started the walk with my travel companion she and I move at different speeds. She naturally has a faster pace than I so we agreed that we would each take our own pace and I would meet her at the top.
It did not take very long for her to become a shadow in the night; which was fine with me. I preferred this to be a solitary experience.
Since this was a pilgrimage I decided to do japa (mantra meditation) the whole way up the mountain. For three hours and ten minutes (the time it took me to reach the summit) with only occasional breaks for thought, I repeated the same mantra.
The first 25% of the walk has elevation gain but is not terribly steep. Because this is high pilgrimage season the path is illuminated.
There are stalls on each side of the path, many of which are closed that hour. The ones that were open sold tea or food or water; some played chants which sounded somewhat haunting.
The first interesting thing I noticed was that all the white people were on their way up and all the Sri Lankan people were on their way down.
The information on the web, which is written in English and geared for tourists, advises one to arrive at the summit at dawn.
I asked a few young Sri Lankans what their custom was. They said people start ascent around 6 PM and they stay awake at the top and leave sometime before dawn. By the time I reached the top at dawn the only Sri Lankans left up there were a few policeman and temple keepers.
One gets a sense of how the path traverses the mountain when standing in town at night because of the path lighting. When you're actually walking the path it is impossible to tell the distance to the top.
About an hour into the climb the steps got significantly steeper and the going got considerably slower.
About 45 minutes after that I started to feel it in my legs a bit but just kept repeating my mantra and putting one foot in front of the other. (Imagine you have been on a stairstepper machine for one hour and 45 minutes continuously).
I saw many people much younger than myself panting and sweating at this point. As I mentioned to some of you, I have been in training for this trip for the past six months; at this point I was thanking myself for all of the asana, healthy food and lack of sugar.
The path just got steeper and steeper. At some point iron railings on both sides appeared so one could pull oneself along with their arms as well as their legs.
Finally I started getting really tired. The travel of the previous day coupled with the lack of sleep was starting to get to me. But I said to myself "there is absolutely no way that I am not going to finish this".
I knew that I had to be most of the way there because when I looked down I could see far in the distance the lights in town below and the moon looked much closer than it had when I started.
Around that time I saw a western woman walking down and I asked her how much further it was to the top. She replied "you are two thirds of the way there but the last part is really steep".
I thought to myself OMG it's been incredibly steep for what feels like a long time already! In some sections I'd had to pull myself hand over hand up the steps.
But I just kept repeating my mantra and taking one step at a time. I could see the sky beginning to lighten as I got to the top. It was packed with people.
There is a very small temple where one pays respect so I bowed down and then looked for a place outside to watch the dawn with the throng of camera wielding westerners.
I found nothing sacred or spiritual in that scene. It was completely different than being in the Temple of the Tooth or at that "Bodhi Tree Temple". At those other temples the devotion was evident.
At that moment I wished that I had known that the Sri Lankan people were up there earlier. I would have preferred to sit quietly with them.
By the time I got to the bottom (which took me two hours) legs shaking and hips screaming I was completely spent. There was no gas left in the tank.
And yet somehow after only 20 minutes of rest at the hotel I found the energy to pack up, take a five hour tuk tuk ride (those of you who have ridden in a tuk tuk understand the significance of this), a 1 1/2 hour bus ride, arrive in a new town without a hotel reservation, find a good hotel and watch the sun set into the Indian Ocean.
For me the sacred was the climb itself which was a metaphor not the experience as of standing at the summit with a group of people at dawn.
The pilgrimage is having faith and preventing the mind from getting in the way.
It was not the body that couldn't handle the climb it was the mind, doubt, that could have given in.
The metaphor is starting the path in darkness and after great dedication and effort seeing the light burst forth.
The metaphor is not being able to see where the path leads but trusting that it leads someplace positive.
It was an incredible day.
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