Kailash Tours – A Divine Pigrimage for the Spiritual Transformation
Kailash tours takes you to Mt Kailash, at least 10 to 30 million years old geological high altitude wonderland in the remote part of Tibet/China involving numerous challenges, is a highly venerated spiritual pilgrimage. The Indian pilgrims prefer to call this pilgrimage rather a 'kailash Yatra' (journey). Just an imagination of the Kailash Yatra fills you with a serene feeling of thrill and excitement. It is, in fact, a lifetime journey for every Hindu, Buddhist, Jain and Bon Po who cherish to undertake the Yatra at least once in their life time no matter even there is a life and death risks. During the Kailash Yatra, your first view (darshan) of the massive lake Manasarovar so close to you with the dominant presence of Mt Kailash on its back drop creates awe-inspiring vibrations in you silently urging your unconscious mind to understand the invisible presence of the God everywhere. That is the magnificence of Mt Kailash and Manasarovar!! The moment you are in the area near Manasarovar and Mt Kailash, you will start feeling a kind of tranquility, extreme silence, divine aura and spiritual vibration in the air, in the sky, in the cloud, in the land and in the water everywhere. Then, you will again start feeling as if you are near to a state of wisdom that makes you understand that our life without spirituality is nothing.
So, it is not surprising to know why Kailash tours has been attracting an increasing number of pilgrims and explorers from around the world from the time immemorial. In terms of the religious beliefs, for the Hindus, the Buddhists, the Jains, the Sikhs, the Bon Pos and so on, Kailash tour is being taken as one of the highly cherished one-must-do pilgrimages. Their devotion and worship may comprise ‘snana’ (a holy bath), ‘puja’ (a holy prayer and offering) and ‘hawan’ (a prayer with ‘mantra’ by using wood fire).
For the meditation lovers, it stands for one of the best places tendering special vibration hinting a feeling of nearly near spiritual transformation. While doing meditation in this area, many have shared their wonderful experience of a shuttle touches of massive wave of light and colour connecting the eternal body to the divine power far in the heaven. Simultaneously, they could also watch around the sky the flying pieces of cloud with different image formations, sometimes of ‘om’ (special letter representing the almighty called ‘Brahma’), sometimes of dancing Lord Shiva and so on. Believe it or not?
The Hindu mythology asserts that Mt Kailash is the Lord Shiva’s abode, the highest paradise. All Hindus cherish to achieve this abode for the eternal peace and happiness after their death. Accordingly, the mountain is believed to be the Shiva’s ‘lingam’ (male organ) and the Lake Mansarovar as the ‘yoni’ (female organ) of his consort Parvati or Shakti.
This way, the Manasarovar (‘manas’ stands for mind and ‘sarovar’ for lake) which lies just about 40 km south of Mt Kailash at a height of 4,550 m, is another spiritual attraction offering a marvelously beautiful lake with a reflection of Mt Kailash inside it in a clear day. Rakshas Tal (lake) located just next to Manasarovar symbolizes the lake for negativity, while the latter for its positivity.
There are innumerable myths and mysteries on Mt Kailash and Manasarovar. Many intrepid explorers have been trying their best to explore them. You are also welcome to explore Mt Kailash and Manasarovar.
Mt Kailash
As Mt Kailash is located at a height of 6,714 m (22,027 ft) in a remote western part of the Tibetan plateau, it offers a fascinating destination for the adventure lovers. Not only Kailash tour, but all the tours to Tibet are popular for its wonderful culture, nature and above all, for adventure. The average height of the Tibetan plateau, also known as ‘the roof of the world’, is above 4,000 m. Its high altitude is also an adventure. Coping with the altitude sickness throughout the tour is a special victory and it confirms your good health. If proper care is not taken, it could be even fatal sometimes.
The core feature of Kailash tour is its 3-day trek (‘kora’) in Tibetan and ‘parikrama or pradakshina’ in Sanskrit around Mt Kailash (approx. 53 km) which passes through the high pass called Droma La (5,650 m). Your walk through this pass may establish your record of highest place you have ever been to. It is believed that a single parikarma (circumambulation) erases the accumulated sins of a lifetime while 108 circumambulations will achieve Salvation or Nirvana making you free from rebirth. On your way back after the kora, you can also visit Tirthapuri a holy place for hot spring water bath to wipe out your lifetime sins.
When we talk about the kora (circumambulation), it is interesting to learn that the followers of the Bon Po, the only sect from Tibet, make the circumambulation around the Mt Kailash anti-clockwise. Also, worth to know that many Tibetans still do the kora by prostrating themselves around the rugged mountain that may take almost a month. They believe that the more they torture themselves, the faster it cleans their sins committed so far.
During the Kailash tour a visit to Tsaprang and Toling about 200 km west of Mt Kailash where the ruins of Guge Kingdom (9th century Tibetan civilization) is also highly recommended for the visit takes you back in time with an imagination of how such a rich civilization flourished back in the 9th century and got converted into ruins. There is another equally interesting site called Garuda Valley near the Mt Kailash area known for the ancient civilization with the incredible formation of rocks worth exploration.
Besides, it is amazing to know that it is the Mt Kailash that is the perennial source of the four major rivers of the Indian sub-continent. They are the Indus, the Brahmaputra ('Yarlung Tsangpo’ in Tibetan), the Sutlej and Karnali.
Compared to earlier days, facilities in terms of road, accommodation and food in the Kailash area are increasing day by day. This way, the pilgrimage is getting cheaper and affordable. So, we have been organizing the pilgrimage just with guest houses only where pilgrims/visitors can buy food on their own (lunch and dinner) in all guest houses and they could stay overnight at much lower cost. Please check our cost offered which you will find the much cheaper and affordable. However, because of the heavy destruction caused by the massive earthquake of 25 April 2015, the overland route from Nepal to Tibet through the Khasa transit point got blocked. It is only since the 1st of September 2017, Chinese Govt. opened a new overland transit point via Kerong which lies about 153 km north of the Kathmandu valley. Although the road in the Tibetan side is excellent, the road in the Nepal side is under repair for widening and blacktopping purposes. So, presently as the road is rough from Trishuli to the border, we have to use 4WD jeeps. The use of 4WD jeeps has increased the cost in overland tour despite of our best effort to keep the cost as affordable as possible. This is the first year we are going to use this route for all overland Tibet tours including Kailash and Manasarovar. Hope you will bear with us.
Not only that. There is one more alternative by which Mt Kailash has become easily assessable. We can take a regular 2-hour flight from Lhasa to Ali (new international airport at the far western part of Tibet from where just a 4-hour excellent 4 lane drive will take you to Mt Kailash). In other words, just fly 1-hr flight from Kathmandu and 2-hour flight to Ali, it can take you so close to Mt Kailash with much comfort and luxury. In other words, those who could afford have been using this route with much comfort by saving their valuable time and energy. This way, those days are over when you were required to drive one week minimum just to reach Mt Kailash through the bad road requiring us to crossover many flooding rivers.
Every visitor, every pilgrim returns home after the tour with a highly serene and vivid experience of a kind of spiritual achievement which is beyond his/her explanation. Many, many visitors have repeated the Kailash tour to rejuvenate themselves hoping to achieve more and more in terms of their spiritual development.
Explore Mt Kailash and Manasarovar with us. We are the specialist in organizing all tours to Tibet including to Mt Kailash & Manasarovar with a large number of happy visitors every year. We will not let you down. So, please join one of our carefully designed Kailash tour packages. You will be fascinated!!