Walking the kora around Mount Kailash, Western Tibet, Asia
On the remote plateau of Western Tibet, beyond the Himalayas and nudging the border with Nepal, there stands a sacred mountain. Perpetually coated in snow, with a 6,714-metre peak as rounded as an ice cream, Mount Kailash remains unconquered because, to climb it would be a sacrilege to the Buddhist and Hindu faiths. Tibetans regard Mount Kailash as Kang Rinpoche, 'jewel of snow', the physical manifestation of their mythical cosmic mountain Sumeru, on which they believe is sited their heaven. Here lives a wrathful manifestation of Sakyamuni, the historical Buddha. Hindus believe the peak to be home of Shiva, third god of the Hindu trinity - the destroyer and transformer of life. It is the navel of the Earth, axis of the universe and bears four faces of jewels and gold. Four of Asia's rivers: the Ganges; Indus; Sutlej and Tsango-Brahmaputra have their sources within 100 kilometres of the mountain, and the four sides of Mount Kailash match the points of the compass. One side is slashed by a swastika, the ancient Buddhist symbol of spiritual strength and luck.
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Photo credit: © Lee Karen Stow / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
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Keywords: altitude, buddhism, buddhist, faith, high, hiking, himalayan, himalayas, karen, kora, landscape, lee, mountain, pilgrim, pilgrimage, pilgrims, religion, sacred, stow, tibetan, travel, trek, trekking, walking
