Trip Overview
Mt. Kailash (6714 m), also known as Tise, Kailasa & Kang Rinpoche (in Tibetan, this means ‘Jewel of the Snows’) is celebrated in many Eastern cosmologies as Mt. Meru, the axis mundi. As the center of the universe for nearly a billion Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, and Bon-pos, Tibet's Mount Kailash is perhaps the most revered place on the planet.
For the Hindus, the mountain represents the seat of Lord Shiva; for the Buddhists, a terrestrial projection of the cosmic mandala - the ‘Wheel of Life’; for the Bonpos, Kailash is regarded as the sacred nine-storey Swastika Mountain, upon which the Bonpo founder Sherab alighted from heaven. Jains refer to Kailash as "Astapada": the holy land where Rishabha attained his spiritual realization.
Sherpa Trekking Service (STS) offers expedition-style trips to Mt. Kailash & Lake Manasorovar. We take our Nepalese Sherpa support staff (sirdars, cooks, kitchen help...) from Kathmandu, Nepal, for all our trips in Tibet. This is to ensure similar high quality services that exist in Nepal. The “Sacred Sites of Tibet” trip is planned to arrive at Kailash on a full-moon day to obtain total & unhindered view of the holy mountain in its full glory and majesty.
We begin our trip with a quick flight to Lhasa from Kathmandu. After three days exploring Lhasa and its surroundings, we will travel by road for nine days into western Tibet till we reach our main destination – Holy Mt. Kailash. En-route, we will camp by the 15,000-foot Lake Manasarovar, a crystalline blue body of water that is the world's highest freshwater lake. We will make the beautiful and spiritually penetrating three-day pilgrimage, or parikrama, around Kailash. Following our hike around Kailash and respite at Manasarovar, it is likely that we, too, will feel as though we have arrived at the center of the cosmos.
After our odyssey of Tibet’s sacred sites, we will drive into Nepal and end our trip with a day in Kathmandu, a city rich with the very cultures that have been with us throughout our trip. |
