Today I am sharing a memory of something from my EBC trek. In the mountains, there are treasures. One of them I find is the Blessing Stones. In the Buddhist culture these blessing stones are a form of physical prayer made for the safety of the travelers on the mountains. These Blessing stones are not found on all the mountains, they are only there on the Mountains where in and around there is presence of Buddhist people. Like in Nepal and also in the western parts of India like Dharamshala and Darjeeling.

They are basically called as Mani Stones but to make it simple people call them as Blessing stones. These stones have holy Buddhist inscriptions on them Like Om Mani Padme Hum, which means a call to awaken compassion and wisdom. Like this, there are all type of different prayer inscriptions. On the Everest Base Camp trail, we find these stones in the form of lined up walls or piled up in heaps. Or one can even find a small piece of rock with holy inscriptions. The Sherpas, which are the local people of these regions when they go through these paths, they also keep adding stones. At some places we will also find a prayer flag.

These local Sherpas make them as they believe that carving or placing these Mani stones creates good karma for them and through these stones they are able to pass on the blessings of safety to all those who walk the paths of the mountains. Some of them are carved in memories of their beloved ones who have passed away. The act of carving for them is a form of meditation.

The rule is never step on them as they are believe to be holy and you do not walk upon something which has prayers written on it. Also, once the stones are placed, they are never removed. There is only addition to it as removal is considered to be bad omen. Not all stones have inscriptions some of them also have holy images of their gods. The Sherpas believe that these stones are the way of communicating with God, they consider the mountains very sacred. Leaving a stone there means I respect this place and I ask for a blessing.

If you ever get a chance to visit these Mountains and you see the blessing stones, halt for a minute or two and give your gratitude to them for the blessing they give for the safe journey.

Some pictures of the blessings stones on my journey

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