2019 – Posted in: ART & CULTURE – Tags: mansarovar lake, mount kailash

Kailash Mansarovar Yatra

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has announced the commencement of the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra.

This year, the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra is scheduled during the period 08 June to 08 September through two routes.
For the Lipulekh route (Uttarakhand), there will be 18 batches with 60 pilgrims each.
For the Nathu La (Sikkim) route, 10 batches with 50 yatris each.
The Yatra involves trekking at high altitudes of up to 19,500 feet.
Pilgrimage is an “important step” towards promoting people-to-people exchanges between India and China.
The pilgrimage, which started in 1981, has “increased significantly” over the years.

The yatra is organized with the cooperation of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police. The Kumaon Mandal Vikas Nigam, Sikkim Tourism Development Corporation and their associated organizations provide logistical support and facilities for the pilgrims in India.
Government of the People’s Republic Of China in organizing the yatra, which is an important step towards promoting people-to-people exchanges and strengthening friendship.

The name could have been derived from the word “kelāsa” which means “crystal”.
The Tibetan name for the mountain is Gangs Rin-po-che.
The mountain is located near Lake Manasarovar and Lake Rakshastal, close to the source of some of the longest Asian rivers: the Indus, Sutlej, Brahmaputra, and Karnali also known as Ghaghara in India.
Mount Kailash is considered to be sacred in four religions: Bon, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Jainism.
In Hinduism, it is traditionally recognized as the abode of Lord Shiva, who resided there along with his consort goddess Parvati and their children, Lord Ganesh and Lord Kartikeya.
According to Jain scriptures, Ashtapada, the mountain next to Mt. Kailash, is the site where the first Jain Tirthankara, Rishabhadeva attained moksha.
Mount Kailash (Kailasa) is known as Mount Meru in Buddhist texts. It is central to its cosmology, and a major pilgrimage site for some Buddhist traditions.
Bon, a religion native to Tibet, maintains that the entire mystical region and Kailash, which they call the “nine-story Swastika Mountain”, is the axis mundi, Tagzig Olmo Lung Ring.

It is a high altitude freshwater lake fed by the Kailash Glaciers near Mount Kailash.

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