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, 6,638 metres high, standing alone on the western Tibetan plateau in the Ngari prefecture of China, sacred to Hindus, Buddhists, Jains and the Bon religion, never climbed, with four of the great rivers of Asia, the Indus, the Sutlej, the Brahmaputra and the Karnali, rising around its base, and it is circled on foot by pilgrims in a walk of 52 kilometres over a pass of 5,630 metres. The kora, the circuit, takes three days for most walkers and one day for the Tibetans who do it in a single push, and a single round is said to erase the sins of a lifetime; the path leaves from Darchen and on the first day ends at Drira Phug, the cave of the female yak horn, where the north face stands straight up behind the roofs, the place from which the mountain is photographed above all. On the south face a vertical cleft crossed by horizontal layers of rock forms what looks like a giant natural swastika, an ancient symbol of good fortune across the Asian faiths, and Hindus hold the summit to be the home of Shiva, and Buddhist tradition says the yogi Milarepa won the mountain for Buddhism by racing a Bon priest to its summit at sunrise. The second day is the pass. An hour below the prayer flags of the Drolma La the path reaches Shiva Tsal, a stony flat heaped with abandoned coats, shoes and cut hair, where the pilgrim leaves a piece of the old self and passes through a symbolic death, and twice the circuit runs up against a Dikpa-karnak, a boulder with a gap that tests sin; some pilgrims measure the whole circuit with their bodies, prostrating full length and stepping to where their hands reached, a round of three weeks. Lake Manasarovar below has its own four-day circuit, and September and October are the clearest months. Kailash is the mountain that no one has climbed, and everyone walks around it.

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