4th expedition to Mt Everest: What we can learn from Anshu Jamsenpa

You ask me why I dwell in the green mountain; 

I smile and make no reply for my heart is free of care.

As the peach-blossom flows downstream and is gone into the unknown,

I have a world apart that is not among men.

— Li Bai, Chinese poet

Just like they loom large in Li's poetry, mountains dominate the cultural and creative imagination of the people of Arunachal Pradesh as well. And there lives a woman who rises up and conquers all those imaginations — Anshu Jamsenpa — the first woman in the world to scale the mighty Mount Everest twice in one season within 10 days.

Every time you feel you can't go on anymore, every time you feel your knees are giving up, every time your brain asks you to concede, this woman will give you the courage to rise again.

Perhaps Jamsenpa's indomitable spirit has never been eulogised enough. Maybe that's right — because she is not done yet.

The climber from Arunachal Pradesh who has already scaled the mighty Mt Everest thrice, yes thrice, has once again left for Kathmandu to conquer the world's highest peak.

And the Dalai Lama, who was in Guwahati on a 12-day visit to Assam and Arunachal Pradesh, flagged off her expedition this time around.

"His Holiness is the living Buddha and getting his blessings in person is one of the most treasured and blessed days of my life. I shall cherish it for life, especially the warm hug I got. It will always motivate me and infuse strength to overcome all my struggles," she said after a special audience with the Tibetan spiritual leader.

During her expedition, Jamsenpa will attempt to scale the Everest twice again, a feat she achieved in May 2011. The mother of two children, Jamsenpa climbed the Everest for a third time on May 18, 2013.

Hailing from a small town in Bomdila in Arunachal Pradesh, she belongs to the Buddhist Monpa tribe.

It's been 52 years since India’s first successful expedition, led by Avtar Singh Cheema in 1965, to the world’s highest mountain. In 1984, Bachendri Pal became the first Indian woman to reach the summit. There have been many since then. And yet mountaineers and their endeavours fail to capture the national imagination.

Perhaps there is nothing to lament. The irony is at least not lost on the mountain, which over the years has turned more into a tourist playground with the winds of entrepreneurship sweeping the once final frontier in adventure.

But we couldn't care less. Where is the time to think of mountains and miracles when every day is a struggle in itself. When your day-to-day life canvas is littered with colours of chaos and violence, you don't have the time to think much, but to go on with life.

It's actually difficult to imagine what kind of spirit rules the lives of people like Jamsenpa.

Maybe it's best we just sit back and celebrate her determination.

In my life I have lived many lives.

My voice is sea waves and mountain peaks,

In the transfer of symbols I am the chance syllable that orders the world

Instructed with history and miracles.

— Mamang Dai, a poet from Arunachal Pradesh

Also read: Why climbing Mount Everest is no child's play