Mount Kailash Trekking

   

Trip Overview

Mt Kailash is the sacred mountain of Tibet and home of the great god Shiva. To millions it is the centre of the spiritual universe and it is one of the world's most hallowed pilgrimage sites. Hindus and Buddhists alike trek for weeks, often months, to this extraordinary mountain for the festival of Saga Dawa celebrating the birth of Lord Buddha. It is a wild, remote place with an all-pervading sense of spirituality few could fail to appreciate. This is a journey of a lifetime-a pilgrimage for us all.

From Kathmandu you head north following the gorge of the great Sun Koshi river to the point where it cuts through the main Himalayan Range and here you enter Tibet. Climbing high onto the Tibetan Plateau you then drive west across vast, starkly beautiful plains with the peaks of the Himalaya soaring above you to the south. After several days on the road you gain your first sight of the perfect pyramid of Kailash. Entering the Wesak Valley you encounter hundreds of Tibetan nomads, many of whom will have walked for months to get here. Then there is the day of the festival-an extraordinary day by any measure-with high lamas and devotees chanting and praying ceaselessly as most make the arduous circumambulating of the mountain. For those who wish, the chance is there to join them or you can simply stay in the valley and enjoy the spectacle.

A day camped by the holy Lake Manasarovar allows you to admire the scenery and then you commence the long drive to Shigatse, Tibet's second largest town and site of the great Tashilumpo Monastery of the Panchen Lamas. Then it is on to Gyantse, one of Tibet's most traditional towns, before finally reaching Lhasa. Three days are spent here visiting the great Potala Palace of the Dalai Lama, the revered Jokhang Temple, the monasteries of Drepung and Ganden and perhaps the Tibetan Medical Centre. And there will be time to just wander the streets of Lhasa before the flight back to Kathmandu where your journey concludes.

Trip Information