Mustang, kingdom of light
Audio 48:30
Approaching Lo Manthang, the mythical capital of Mustang located at an altitude of nearly 4000 meters.
© Olivier Weber
By: Céline Develay Mazurelle Follow
53 mins
On the borders of Nepal and Tibet, this mythical enclave, once a forbidden kingdom, has long been the dream of the French travel writer Olivier Weber. And then, the dream came true… and is told through our microphones.
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In the heart of the Himalayas, at an altitude of almost 4,000 meters, one of the most famous Buddhist mantras, that of compassion, is carved in stone, to remind the traveler who ventures into these high mountains to what extent. point the places are sacred, but also to guide his steps. A path of compassion and wisdom, this is in short what Olivier Weber went to seek in 2019 in the Mustang, where the Tibetan monasteries and the villages clinging to the rock, seem to defy time, weightlessness and gravity. mad race of the world which is played far down there, below. And he found him, accompanied by an astonishing crew: Gérard Muller, nicknamed the blind adventurer who taught him to "see differently", Pierrot the cameraman, Migmar the singing guide and Tibetan refugee and Tsewang, the chef d ' shipment of royal blood,direct descendant of the family that ruled the Mustang until the abolition of the monarchy in Nepal in 2008.
Today, Olivier Weber recounts this journey in a mineral and masterful setting in his book “
In the Kingdom of Light
», A book at the crossroads of worlds, those of ethnology (it is published in the Terre Humaine collection), disability, both interior and geographic exploration, investigation and quest. Because at the end of the road, there is the light, towards which the journalist tends after 25 years of war reporting to rub shoulders with the bête noire and its armies of the shadows. But in his book and his words, the main character remains the Mustang: a fascinating and little-known land, with its sacred peaks, its celestial caves and its stories of Kampa horsemen who, in their time, exfiltrated the Dalai Lama from Lhasa, when China took over neighboring Tibet. Closed until 1992 to foreigners, the “Kingdom of Lo”, attached to Nepal, then looked like a small Tibet, preserved and intact.But for how long ? The shadow of China hangs over this piece of free Tibet.
Olivier Weber's expedition to the Mustang received the sponsorship of RFI, the Quai Branly Museum, the Société des Explorateurs Français and UNICEF France.
Useful links :
- Listen, listen again to
the “Baïkal Challenge” expedition
told by the great voice of RFI since disappeared: Toufik Benaïchouche, and in which Olivier Weber also participated before the Mustang.
This project, launched by the association "Overview" with the association "Y Voir" and the "Somewhere Club", in 2017 brought together blind, visually impaired and hearing impaired people on the frozen Lake Baikal, by - 30 °, in autonomy and on skis on the heights of Siberia.
- The site of
the association “Y voir” founded by Gérard Muller
, Olivier Weber's travel companion in Mustang.
This association encourages the blind to leave their homes, by promoting sport and through expeditions and projects which prove that one can travel when one is visually impaired.
- The site of
Tsewang Bista, the princely guide, at the head of a local company of Mustang treks
, who guided Olivier Weber and Gérard Muller in the Upper Mustang.
Bibliography:
- "
In the kingdom of light
", Olivier Weber, Éditions Plon 2021
- “
L'Arrière-pays
”, Olivier Weber, Editions Calmann-Lévy 2020
- "
Lovers Dictionary of Kessel
", Olivier Weber, Éditions Plon 2019
- “
Frontières
”, Paulsen Publishing, 2016.
© PLON / Human Earth
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