| Mount
Kailash And Mansarovar |
High
on the remote western Tibetan plateau in the northern most
region of the Himalayas, sits Mount Kailash, the holy mountain.
The Tibetan people have named it Kang Rinpoche, or snow jewel,
and the Hindus refer to it as Mount Meru. Buddhist, Hindu
and Jain pilgrims from the world over go to this holy mountain
to circumambulate rather than scale the 22,028- foot high
peak. |
Hindus
who walk around the 32-mile circumference of Mount Kailash
use the term parikrama. They believe that lord Shiva, one
of their three main gods, resides atop what they call Mount
Meru. Tibetans refer to the clockwise circumambulation as
a kora. Both words mean the same thing pilgrimage. Doing a
walk around the mountain can away a lifetimes worth of sins. |
 |
| A
Single circumambulation around Mount Kailash wipes away the
sins of a lifetime. |
The
Jains who refer to the Kailash as Mount Ashtapada believe
the founder of their faith, rishabanatha, resides atop the
mountain. And the Bons the religion which predates Buddhism
in Tibet, maintain that the entire mystical region and the
Nine story Swastika Mountain is the seat of all power. |
Mount
Kailash is also the source of four major rivers: the Indus,
the Brahamputra, the Karnali and the Sutlej. The comparison
to the Indian legend of Mount Meru from whose summit flows
four great rivers that irrigate all of Asia is hard to miss. |
Eighteen
miles southeast of Kailash is the circular, turquoise Lake
Mansarovar or Tso Rinpoche (precious lake) a 64-mile circuit,
which is rarely completed except by the most devout. Bathing
in the lake, or even dousing ones head with the holy water
is said to be of enormous spiritual benefit to those who can
brave the icy water which many claim contain miraculous powers.
Hindus are told that complete immersion into the lake ensure
they be reborn as a god. |
There
is no place more powerful for practice more blessed, or more
marvellous than their abode of god. |
