Gosaikunda is a glacial lake at 4,380 metres in the Langtang mountains of Nepal, north of Kathmandu, sacred to Hindus and Buddhists alike, and on one full-moon night in August tens of thousands of pilgrims fill its shore and wade into the near-freezing water at dawn, believing it washes away sin. The lake is Shiva's. In the story the god drank poison to save the world, and to cool his burning throat he struck the mountain with his trident and made the lake; a dark rock breaking the surface is revered as his shrine, and many believe a form of the god lies resting beneath the water. On the festival of Janai Purnima, Hindu men bathe and replace the janai, the sacred cotton thread worn across the chest, while others tie a protective cord on the wrist, and shamans from the hill villages drum and dance through the night on the shore. The rest of the year the lake is quiet, a bowl of dark water under bare rock and snow with a small shrine and a few stone lodges.
The pilgrim trail climbs from Dhunche, a day's drive from Kathmandu, rising over two or three days through rhododendron forest and high pasture to the lake, the route the faithful have walked for generations; from the lake the trail continues over the Lauribina pass to join the Langtang and Helambu treks. The Lauribina ridge above the lake, draped in prayer flags, lines up the snow-veined Langtang peaks across the horizon, and on a clear morning the Annapurnas and Manaslu stand far to the west. Gosaikunda is one lake of more than a hundred scattered across this high cirque, and streams and ridgelines link it to Bhairav Kunda and Saraswati Kunda, each with its own place in the pilgrimage; the lake freezes solid in winter, and the trail is walked from spring to autumn. Gosaikunda is a lake a god made, and once a year the whole hill country comes up to bathe in it.