Mount Kailash

PeaksNgari Prefecture, Tibet,China

A black-and-white pyramid standing alone on the western Tibetan Plateau, sacred to four religions, never climbed, with four great Asian rivers rising around it.

September·Peaking now

Sep–Oct

Days run near 10–15°C, and snow shuts the mountain by late October.

Year-round The unclimbed black-and-white pyramid, its two sacred lakes and the 52-kilometre kora stand here year-round, but the Drolma-La is snowbound and Ngari unreachable outside roughly mid-May to mid-October, and far-west Tibet can shut with politics.

Mount Kailash is a pyramid of black rock and white snow standing alone on the western Tibetan plateau, and nobody has ever stood on top of it. Hindus, Buddhists, Jains and the older Bon faith all take the 6,638-metre summit for the axis of the world. The Indus, the Brahmaputra, the Karnali and the Sutlej all rise within sixty kilometres of it, and Tibetan tradition gives each an animal mouth: Lion, Horse, Peacock, Elephant. So you walk around it instead: 52 kilometres from Darchen, three days for most and a single push for Tibetans, and one round is said to clear a lifetime of wrongdoing. The first day ends at Drira Phug, the cave of the female yak horn, and the north wall stands straight up behind the roofs where you sleep. Lake Manasarovar below has a four-day circuit of its own, and pilgrims carry its water home in flasks for those who could not come. Your second day climbs to the Drolma-La at 5,630 metres. An hour below the prayer flags the path crosses Shiva Tsal, a stony flat heaped with abandoned coats, shoes and cut hair. Pilgrims lie down here to act out their own death, then leave a garment, a lock of hair or a tooth behind to stand for the body they are giving up. Dying on the circuit is held to be good fortune, and the dead are given sky burial where they fall. Twice your path meets a Dikpa-karnak, a boulder that tests sin; under the first is a passage pilgrims crawl into to see whether they come out the far side. Some measure the whole circle with their bodies. Lying full length, the pilgrim marks where the fingertips reached, stands, walks to that mark and goes down again, so the trail is counted out body by body. Wooden boards are strapped to the palms so the hands slide over grit, with a leather apron and pads at the knees. The canvas gloves wear through and are replaced along the way, which is the other way of measuring the distance.

Worth knowing

Good to know

Altitude, not distance, is the real danger — Darchen sits near 4,600 metres and the Drolma-La pass tops 5,630; spend several days acclimatizing before you start, and walk the kora slowly.
Far-west Tibet opens and closes with politics — arrange a guided group and Tibet Travel Permit weeks ahead, since the region can shut to foreign visitors with little warning.
The north face glows brightest in clear morning light — clouds tend to build over the peak by afternoon, so aim your best mountain views for the first hours after dawn.
Most pilgrims come from May to September — the pass is snowbound and brutally cold outside those months, and even in July nights on the trail drop below freezing.
Hire a local guide or a pack animal for the pass — the Drolma-La day is the circuit's longest and highest, and yaks or porters can carry your load over the top.

Things to do

1
Find the stones that judge you
Twice the circuit runs up against a Dikpa-karnak, a boulder that tests sin. The first has a passage a few metres long tunnelled beneath it, and pilgrims crawl in to learn whether they will come out the far side. The second is a zigzag hollow, entered on the left and left on the right, wide enough that a yak can be led through it. Regulars are working toward thirteen circuits, the count after which a pilgrim is held ready for the far harder inner route beneath the south face.
2
Cross the pass the way the pilgrims cross it
An hour below the flags the path reaches Shiva Tsal, a stony flat heaped with abandoned coats, shoes and cut hair. Pilgrims lie down here to act out their own death, then leave behind a garment, a lock of hair or a tooth to stand for the body they are giving up. That is what turns the climb that follows into a rebirth rather than a slog. The two burial grounds on this route are not metaphors: dying on the circuit is held to be good fortune, and the dead are given sky burial where they fall.
3
Watch how a prostrating pilgrim measures the ground
The method is exact. Lying full length, the pilgrim marks the spot the fingertips reached, stands, walks to that mark, and goes down again — so the trail is measured out body by body with nothing skipped. Look for the equipment that makes it survivable: wooden boards strapped to the palms so the hands slide over grit, a leather apron across the chest, knee pads and canvas gloves worn through and replaced along the way.
4
Give the lake a circuit of its own
Manasarovar has its own pilgrim route, a four-day walk from Chiu Monastery right around the shore, passing eight lakeside monasteries whose guest rooms are little more than a floor and a roof. Bathing here is believed to wash off the wrongs of an entire life, and pilgrims carry the water home in flasks for people who could not make the journey. Most groups now drive the loop in an afternoon and stop only to touch the surface.
5
Reach the yak-horn cave under the north wall
The face is photographed from one place above all: Drira Phug, the cave of the female yak horn, where the first day of walking ends and the north wall stands straight up behind the roofs. The monastery grew around the cave where Gotsangpa, the thirteenth-century ascetic credited with opening this circuit, sheltered after a female yak led him out of a valley closed by snow. Almost everyone sleeps here, which is why the wall is nearly always seen at either end of the day rather than the middle.

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Nearby

150 km