Nup Dechen Puk Cave in Sikkim

December, 2011 - Nup Dechen Puk is the western sacred cave of Guru Rinpoche in Sikkim. This is one of five important caves in Sikkim. My good friend Lok Babu arranged this pilgrimage. Sonam Paljor also went. It was a full day's climb up to the cave at about 10,000 ft elevation. I barely made it. It was very steep and footing was difficult. It even snowed a bit which made things slippery. In places, a misstep could result in hundreds or even a thousand foot drop with no hope of rescue. Despite exhaustion and physical pain, I felt very inspired and peaceful to be there. I didn't get pictures on the way up as I needed to focus on just getting there. Unfortunately, it was cloudy the next day so these photos are the best I could do.