Cave living and livable caves in Himalayas

What problems does one face when one stays in caves? Where are the livable caves in Himalayas? Can anybody tell me about Sukharam cave in Sunderdhunga (it can supposedly accommodate 250 sheep - unfortuntely did not visit it)? The one near Phurkia was nice but dirty (must be dirtier by now).

Aup, have you read the books of Alexandra David-Neel who once spent several months (in the early part of the twentieth century) living in a cave in Northern Sikkim? Fascinating.

Just what came to my mind Theyyam, strange ....she was a fascinating person and going out to distant places at such a young age is in itself an achievement, specially as a European women of those times.

I'm wondering how these caves would compare with some of the hotels in Pahar Ganj - much nicer, I imagine.
Jituyadav - great avatar!

A real mountain lover, never gets tired by walking. How many kms., Jitu?

I have stayed twice in caves during my trek to satopanth and kuanri pass.Both are not that big.Claustrophobia is a problem also some creepy crawlies.

Re Alexandra David Neel.

I could be totally wrong but, I also read her books, I seem to recall that it is fiction, rather in the mould of Lobsang Rampa.

Ill do a search on the facts, but any comments welcome

Thanks Keith

That you can guess by the colour of the nose which after turning red has even further bleached to orange due to the strong sun

It’s been a long time but I don’t remember it to be fiction, maybe Theyyam will throw some light.

It was all true, no fiction. She was the 1st western woman to enter Lhasa, disguised as a Tibetan beggar, She could speak fluent Tibetan in many different dialects & even Tibetan Lama's considered Her an authority on Tibetan Buddhism.
I visited Her home & museum in the South of France a couple of yrs ago, HH Dalai Lama visited there in the '80's to lay a stone in Her memory.
SEE HERE;
http://www.alexandra-david-neel.org/anglais/acca.htm

Here's some stuff I wrote about Her on another forum;

Here's a copy of "With Mystic's & Magicians In Tibet" by the amazing Mystic Traveller, Frenchwoman Alexandra David-Neel, the first Western Woman to enter & stay in Tibet in the early 1900's.
She secretly travelled across the Indian Himalayas to Lhasa disguised as a Tibetan.She eventually reached the status of an advanced Lama & became a leading authority on Tibetan Buddhism & it's many Tantric practises. She wrote many books on the subject her most famous book was "My journey to Lhasa".One of my all time favourite women is the French Mystic & traveller Alexandra David-Neel At the age of 55 she crossed the Himalaya in midwinter and entered forbidden Tibet disguised as a native Tibetan, eventually arriving in Lhasa it was an extremely dangerous journey & she came close to starvation, faced bandits, and the most appalling weather conditions. She wrote many books on Tibet & Buddhism, some of a very scholarly nature & became something of an authority on the subject. She lived to almost 101yrs old & at 82yrs old decided to go camping in the Alps.On Her 100th birthday she applied to the French authorities for a new passport. When she died her ashes were scattered in the Ganges at Benares.She once left for Tibet & told Her husband She would be back in 6 mths, but it was 9yrs later when She returned by which time Her husband had passed away.
http://www.mysteriou..._David-Neel.htm

Here's a very detailed website with a wonderful biography of her life & some amazing old photo's from her travels during those times.
http://www.alexandra...nglais/biog.htm

Here's a copy of her cd-Rom & video. http://www.alexandra...glais/cdrom.htm

Here's a link to an online version of her book "with Mystic's & Magicians In Tibet" KK

http://www.gourmetin...?showtopic=3281

Here's the online version of "With Mystic's & Magicians In Tibet" http://www.algonet.s.../books/mmtibet/

Here's what www.answers.com has to say about her:

David-Neel's Psychic Sports

For centuries, Tibet was a forbidden territory to Westerners, and only a handful of Europeans succeeded in penetrating the country, usually in disguise. From 1912 on, an intrepid French-woman, Alexandra David-Neel, began a series of travels through Tibet over fourteen years. She acquired the rank of lama.

An Oriental scholar, David-Neel learned Sanskrit and Tibetan and studied the various forms of Buddhism and Lamaism. She became the first European woman to penetrate the holy city of Lhasa. Although skeptical regarding the supernatural, she gained firsthand experience of Tibetan ghosts and demons and saw the paranormal feats of mystics. In her book With Mystics and Magicians in Tibet (1931), she revealed how Tibetan mystics acquired the ability to live naked in zero temperatures by generating a protective body heat (tumo), how they learned to float in air and walk on water, and how they brought corpses back to life or created thoughtforms that had independent existence.

She described such feats as "psychic sports," acquired by special mind and body training. Amongst such feats was the lung-gom training of "inner breathing" and meditation, which enabled an individual to travel at high speed for days and nights without stopping, sometimes with the feet hardly touching the ground. David-Neel herself witnessed a lung-gom-pa, or swift traveler. She described the special training necessary for feats of levitation and for thought-reading and telepathy ("sending thoughts on the wind").

She successfully experimented in the creation of a tulpa or phantom thoughtforms. After a period in isolation following special concentration techniques, she claimed that she succeeded in creating a phantom monk, who became a guest in her party, seen and accepted by the others. But in the course of time, this phantom form changed from a fat jolly monk, becoming lean, mocking, and somewhat malignant, and it was necessary for her to concentrate on special techniques to destroy a phantom, which was beginning to take on independent life.

She explained that Tibetans believed that such psychic phenomena were the result of utilizing natural forces by the powers of the mind. Her experiences seem to have been the result of a long and intimate association with Tibet and its peoples in a period when magic and mystery were more common. Few subsequent travelers have reported such remarkable phenomena, and her books survive as a unique record of a Tibet that has largely been destroyed. However, they helped create the image of Tibet as a place where the most successful mastery of the occult arts had been made. The spread of Buddhist masters to the west has done much to offer a more mundane picture of Tibetan life. KK

Thanks KK.

I just could not get my mind round astral flying.

However I have read the books.

I do believe the truthfulness of (all of) Alexandra David-Néel writings are a matter of debate at least, yes.

As for the topic of this thread: After my having recommended real_true_gurus.com before, must we now start up a comfy_hermit_caves.com one (care of the Taj group, no doubt)? I mean please. Some things should just be left to be discovered by the intrepid, shouldn't they.

If you want to fly drop the mind!

Getting back on Topic an ex Imer & friend of mine from UK lived in a cave above Manikaran a few yrs back.He loved it!KK

I believe IndiaMiker piran-e has visited the cave in question where Alexandra David-Neel lived. He writes about it somewhere (either here or on his blog).

Thanks very much KK for those links!

As you can tell, I am a great admirer of A D-N.

I've experienced lucid dream flying.. and have come very very close to experiencing astral flying as well.. good ol days!