"Kailash, I'm coming." What kind of Belarusian disappeared in a terrible mudslide in Nepal

Among the hundreds of people who went missing in the horrific mudslide in Nepal was a pilgrimage group led by Ukrainian Oleksandr Bilyi. He is a yogi, traveler, and masseur from Odesa, who leads retreats in various countries.

Now, the pilgrimage organizers are distributing information about the group on social media to somehow assist with the search. According to this information, Bilyi's group was part of a larger party of 55 pilgrims. And with Bilyi himself, in his group, there were five other Ukrainians and a Belarusian — Katsiaryna Sakovich. In addition, the group's Nepali guide also disappeared.

Павялічыць

Katsiaryna Sakovich is 41 years old. She holds dual citizenship — Belarusian and Israeli — and has lived in Milan for many years. She practices meditation and bodily practices, and also shares them with other women: for example, on July 31, she organized a retreat on Italy's Lake Como.

On August 19, Katsiaryna posted on Facebook, stating that she was going on a Kora (a type of pilgrimage) to the sacred Tibetan mountain Kailash. As a result, her group was supposed to walk about 52 km around the mountain and ascend to an altitude of approximately 5600 meters.

The Belarusian explained why she decided on the pilgrimage:

“People say that you don’t ‘go’ to Kailash, you are called there. I don’t know if I believe this literally. But I know that for some reason, this journey has been attracting me for some time […]

I'm just curious what happens when you take yourself very far from everything familiar – both physically and internally. Maybe nothing happens. Maybe something does happen. Kailash, I'm coming."

Bilyi's group departed on August 21, starting their journey from Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal. According to the usual route for such trekking, the group was then supposed to move towards the Nepal-China border, and then continue their journey in Tibet.

A relative of one of the group members writes on social media that the group managed to reach the border. According to her, on the morning of August 26, when the disaster occurred, the group was at the Rasuwagadhi border crossing on the Nepali side. Bilyi and his pilgrims, including Katsiaryna Sakovich, were standing in a long queue of travelers waiting for the Chinese side to process their border crossing. To cross it, they had to go over a bridge – that bridge is now completely destroyed, and the crossing complex itself is practically ruined.

It is assumed that around 8:30 AM, the pilgrims were still queuing at the crossing; shortly after that, the mudslide occurred. The crossing was directly in the path of the destructive mudflow.

Since then, there has been no information about the group's fate. Relatives of the missing were informed that the trip organizers from the Nepali side sent a helicopter to the disaster zone but could not find anyone.

Since Katsiaryna has Israeli citizenship, the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs agreed to assist with her search. There are reports of thousands rescued from the disaster zone, but it is still unclear whether anyone managed to escape from that queue at the border point where Bilyi's group was supposed to be. On the other hand, it is too early to draw conclusions about the group's fate, as we have too little information for this: the lists of rescued and deceased are still very raw.

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