Description
Kailash is about a pilgrimage to the holiest mountain for Tibetan Buddhists, Shiva followers, Jain, and Bon religions, located in Western Tibet. Constantly surrounded by pilgrims turning their sutra wheels in their hands and by yaks loaded with gear and food, we sleep in high altitude monasteries, eventually reaching a prayer flag-covered pass, Drolma La, at 5630 meters.
Mt. Kailash is far from being one of the highest mountains of Tibet. It has only 6714 meters in an alpine range that has seven peaks over 8000 meters and many others over 7000 meters. But it has a remarkable pyramidal shape being traditionally associated with the legendary Mount Meru, the mythical mountain of Asia, the adobe of gods mentioned in the Hindu epics. The sutras describe the four faces of Mount Meru as made out of each of a specific element: sapphire, ruby, gold, and crystal. Besides, from Mount Kailash source the four major rivers that water the Indian subcontinent, Karnali that feeds into the Ganges, Brahmaputra, Indus, and Sutlej.
Its snowed capped peak makes it stand out of the pack and the slash on the southern face, cut in the middle by another horizontal line gives a resemblance with a swastika, the holy Hindu and Buddhist symbol of good fortune and auspiciousness. Based on the descriptions mentioned above, Mount Kailash stands like the mountain from the center of a mandala, the ritualistic geometric design symbolic of the universe being used in Hinduism and Buddhism as an aid to meditation. As a result, all the religions that are praying using a mandala, are considering this mountain holy and their believers come here to perform circumambulations or kora around the mountain.
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