Lama Govinda was probably the last Westerner to visit the Mont Kailash erea in 1948 before the closing of the borders. A buddhist monk and a pilgrim as he defined himself, he became totally fascinated by the sacred mountain. As described in his famous book : "The way of the white clouds". "some mountains are only mountains but other have a personality of their own abd therefore the power to influence people". Parmi ces montagnes sacrées,Among those sacred mountains, "the greatest, since beginningless times, has been and remains Mount Kailash "
The Kailash is identified with the Mount Meru , the axis mundi of Hindu and Buddhist cosmogony which is also the unique source of four among the biggest rivers of the Indian subcontinent: Brahmapoutra (Tsangpo), Indus , Sutlej et Ganga
When they discover for the first time the sacred mountain in the distance, pilgrims offer prostrations and add as an sign of devotion a stone on the cairn that marks the pass, as all pilgrims have done before them since countless times.
The aim of a pilgrimage is to ritually circumambulate the mountain : some will cover the fifty or so kilometers in one day crossing the Drolma pass at 5700 m, some will do it thirteen times, but some will complete the Khora (circumambulation) marquing the by full prostration, at every step, as to become one with the mountain.... |
