Far away in the distant Himalayan region, at an altitude of around 5,000 meters, lies the new home of an original Black Forest cuckoo clock from Triberg.

At the foot of the north face of Mount Everest, at an altitude of about 5,200 meters, lies the Tibetan monastery of Rongbuk.

In conversations with Dieter Glogowski, publisher of excellent illustrated books about Tibet and Buddhism (www.dieter-glogowski.de) and dedicated journalist for text and picture documentaries, as well as profound connoisseur of Tibet and Buddhism, it came to light that in the main prayer room of the monastery hangs a cuckoo clock, which, although not that old, has not been working for quite some time.

On closer inspection, it turned out to be a cuckoo clock with a plastic quartz movement, which also cannot be repaired. The nuns and monks of the Rongbuk monastery were very saddened by this and the company HUBERT HERR, clock factory in Triberg / Black Forest immediately agreed to present an original Black Forest cuckoo clock with solid mechanical movement as a gift to the monastery.

A clock in the shape of a Black Forest house was chosen, hand-carved and hand-painted, with a solid fir wood roof, a solid Black Forest 8-day movement made of brass and steel, and ½- and full-hour cuckoo calls, mechanically generated by means of two cuckoo whistles.

“It was a bit of an adventure to travel several thousand kilometers with a cuckoo clock in your luggage,” wrote Dieter Glogowski. First flight to Beijing and from there by the new train up to Lhasa.

From Lhasa we continued by jeep on sand and scree roads up into the Mount Everest area. Normally the transports up there are done by truck, as you can see on one of the photos.

 

Despite these hardships, the clock arrived safely at Rongbuk Monastery and was received with great joy by the nuns and monks. Likewise, they were committed to unpacking the clock right away and hanging it in a fitting place in the main prayer room.

The joy of the recipients was so great that a ” Clock Officer ” was appointed from among them to take care of the clock in the future.

Now this original Black Forest cuckoo clock from Triberg hangs at the foot of the north face of Mount Everest, the highest mountain in the world, at an altitude of over 5,000 meters and delights not only the residents of Rongbuk Monastery, but also the tourists who pass by time and again with the new recognition call “Cuckoo” in place of the traditional welcome “Tashi Delek”.

The cuckoo from the Black Forest enjoys excellent health at an altitude of 5,200 m (i.e. higher than the summit of Mont Blanc – at around 4,807 m the highest mountain in Europe – ), feels perfectly at ease and calls his “cuckoo cuckoo” every half hour into the main prayer room of the monastery and up to Mount Everest.

The solid mechanical movement made of brass and steel of the brand HUBERT HERR also copes very well with this already extreme altitude.

In short, with this gift, the people there in the distant Himalayan region were given a great joy and thus this cuckoo clock from the house HUBERT HERR may have the highest location in the world has ever occupied a cuckoo clock.

Photos:
Mount Everest: @topgold
Other images: www.dieter-glogowski.de