Everything You Wanted To Know About The Kailash Mansarovar Yatra!

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The Kailash Mansarovar Yatra
is regarded as one of the most popular religious yatras for the faith of thousands of individuals that stands rock solid with it! Even though the holy peak of Mount Kailash stands at an enormous altitude of 22,000 feet and the trek involves passing through snowy and arduous trails, thousands of pilgrims take up the yatra every year. And for most of the others, it is their ultimate route to Nirvana.
While there is a lot of information easily available about the yatra, this article aims to answer some of the most common questions related to it, all at one place!
What is its significance?
Kailash Mansarovar Yatra is one of the highly esteemed religious tours that are taken up by thousands of devotees every year. The place is religiously significant to Hindus, Buddhists, Bons and Jains. While Hindus believe Mount Kailash to be Lord Shiva’s abode, Buddhists believe Lord Buddha resides in Mount Kailash. As per the Jains, this is the place where first Jain Tirthankara is believed to have attained Nirvana.
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... How to reach there?
The Kailash Mansarovar Yatra can be taken up by any individual who is between the ages of 18 and 70. For those who are medically fit, they can complete the yatra on foot. As for others, there are options of helicopters, AC buses and land cruisers available.
There are two ways of booking the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra tour. One can either book directly through one of the travel operators in Nepal or Tibet or go through the bookings that are organized by the Ministry of External Affairs.
The Ministry of External Affairs specifies two different paths for the yatra on their official site. One involves passing through the Lipulekh Pass in Uttarakhand and the other passes through the Nathu La Pass in Sikkim. While the first route involves some walking and costs around 1.6 Lakhs per person, the latter is a motor able route and is expected to cost about 2 Lakhs per person.
What to do?
The 21 day long trek to Mount Kailash is a beautiful journey in itself that is religiously significant too. But there are two rituals that complete this Yatra. One, the pilgrims visiting the place must circumambulate around the holy peak. This is called ‘Parikrama’ and it can take up to 3 days to conclude. For senior citizens or individuals who cannot do this on foot, the options of Yaks and Ponies are available as well.
The second important ritual is to take a holy dip in the Lake Mansarovar that is sited at the foot of Mount Kailash. Located at an altitude of 4500 meters, it is the highest fresh water lake in the world and also one among the holiest lakes in Asia.
The popular belief has it that performing the above mentioned rituals does not just make the yatra fruitful but also washes away all the sins of the pilgrims and grants them salvation.
Other Major attractions
While Mount Kailash and Lake Mansarovar are the main attractions of the Kailash Manasarovar Yatra by Helicopter
, there are some other major attractions in the region. These include Gauri Kund which is also popularly called ‘the Lake of Compassion’; Asthapad that is the bottom of the holy peak; Yam Dwar, the point of initiating the Parikrama and Tirthapuri, a place that has spring pools where the pilgrims bathe post their yatra. Tarboche also forms an interesting point of attraction. It is a flagpole that has a number of prayer flags. It forms an integral part of Tibetan Spirituality.