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The Sacred Mountain
The Hindus, the Buddhists and the Bonpos, followers of the indigenous religion of Tibet, all worship this eternally snow-capped edifice in line with their own faith and belief. But even for others who may never be able to make this tough and often dangerous journey and have the experience, the words of Lama Anagarika Govinda should suffice: "It is intangible in its ethereal beauty, as if it were beyond the realm of matter, a celestial temple with a dome of crystal or diamond—the seat and centre of cosmic power, (and) the axis which connects the earth with the universe." The ideal time to trek to Kailas is from May-June to the full moon of October. Indian pilgrims cross over from the Lipu Lek pass and make it to Taklakot, where an Indian pilgrims guest house exists today, and from there to the Manasarovar and Rakshas Tal to Darchen and then finally to the 6714-metre high majesty of the Kailas massif. In 1986, the Ministry of External Affairs selected a total of 200 pilgrims from thousands of applicants. Physical fitness is the main criteria for selection. Though most trek to this holy wilderness on foot, there have been some adventurous like Naomi Duguid who biked all the way in 1987. Many have experienced in these great expanses of stone and icy wastes a sense of nature mysticism and a sense of feeling totally ‘free’ and in communion with the higher powers. This is what will keep mountaineers keep coming back to this mountain. Though the accounts of the earliest travels of Hyder Hearsey and Wm. Moorcraft and others in the early 1800s are gems of descriptive narration and the precise detail of each ring contour and gully, it is the post-1984 diaries of a few who have journeyed all by themselves and in twos and threes that has captured the damage and loss to the history of the Chinese clamp down of Tibet. Surprisingly, except a few of the Indian holy men who travelled to this part of the world and their early accounts, there is not even one account by the modern generation from this country who have thought it fit to leave for posterity in book form, a text that others could benefit from. Kailas has been seen differently by different people—for the Hindu devout, it is the throne of Lord Shiva; for the Bonpos, it is the great crystal on which their founder Thonpa Shenrab descended to the earth from the sky; and for the Buddhists, it is Chakrasamvara and also the great sage Milarepa. However, the words of Bhagwan Shri Hamsa while describing the initiation into the ‘Realisation of the Self’ on the Gauri Kund lake are truly momentous: "It was all one harmony—full of wisdom, infinite love perennial and bliss eternal! Where were the body, its tenements and the ‘I’? It was all Satchidananda (truth, wisdom and bliss)". Commoners like us can of course embark on a mystic journey of their own by reading this excellent account.
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Mount Kailas