New Delhi: The first batch of pilgrims has reached Kailash Mansarovar after a hiatus of five years. The trip also indicates a thaw in ties between India and China, post the 2020 Galwan clash in which 20 Indian and an unspecified number of Chinese soldiers were killed.
This pilgrimage to the base of Mt Kailash on the Tibetan side is considered one of the most arduous. However, it is of profound spiritual importance to Hindus, Jains and Buddhists.
Though only 6,638 metres high, as compared to the 8,849-metre-high Mt Everest, Mt Kailash remains an enigma. Not a single climber has been able to reach its summit. Most returned and narrated bizarre experiences after climbing part of the way. Some spoke of losing their way, while others claimed that they went around in circles.
Any attempt to scale the peak is now banned.
For Hindus, Mt Kailash is the abode of Lord Shiva. It is treated as the cosmic axis or “world pillar” (Meru) in both Hindu and Buddhist cosmology. Its unique pyramid-like shape, with one mirrored surface, has baffled scientists.
Many pilgrims in the first batch undertook the 52-km challenging, but spirituality invigorating, circumambulation or parikrama around Mt Kailash. Many pilgrims termed it as a transformative journey, one that would help them attain Moksha or Liberation.
Five batches, each consisting of 50 yatris, will travel through Uttarakhand through the Lipulekh Pass, while 10 batches with 50 yatris will pass through Sikkim and cross the Nathu La Pass into Tibet.
The Ministry of External Affairs is the nodal ministry for organising the trip. The normalisation comes after Indian PM Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping met on the sidelines of the Kazan BRICS summit in October 2024. In October, both countries agreed to resume patrolling and disengage troops along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh, resolving the 4-and-a-half-year-old standoff.
