Potala Palace

Norbulingka

Jokhang Temple

Trepung Monastery

Barhkore Street

Sera Monastery

Mt.Namcharbawa

Ranwu Lake

Indian pilgrims and commercial trekking groups typically spend 3 days completing the Kailas kora, camping one night near Driraphug gompa and a second night at Dzutrulphug gompa. The hearty Tibetans often walk the circuit in one long day, starting hours before dawn and finishing in the evening; they believe that walking three or thirteen circuits is particularly auspicious. Some pilgrims complete the kora doing full body prostrations along the ground, a slow journey that can take two weeks. For Tibetans, walking around this holy mountain is more than an act of merit: one circuit is said to purify all the sins of a lifetime; 108 circuits will bring enlightenment during this lifetime. In da lo, the Year of the Horse in the twelve-year Tibetan calendar (1990 was a "Horse" year; 2002 will be the next), walking the kora is equal to thirteen circuits completed during other years.

If you have the time, spend 4 days on the Kailas circuit. A leisurely pace gives you time to visit all three of the monasteries plus time to explore the Ghangjam Glacier below Kailas's sheer north face. Hiring pack animals at Darchhan is usually not a problem, although it can take a day or more for the animals to arrive. Yaks and horses are commonly used. The guesthouse manager can help with the arrangements.

The pilgrimage circuit around Mount Kailas is a wide, obvious trail a few minutes uphill from the Darchhan guesthouse. Lined with rocks and small devotional cairns, the kora heads west from the pilgrims' tents along the base of the foothills. Kailas quickly slips out of view as the trail undulates over a desert terrain of scrub and sandy soil. Most pilgrims start out in the predawn hours, bundled in thick overclothes made from reversed sheepskins.

The trail climbs in and out of small gullies, following the seam where the Bharka plain laps against the foothills. Gurla Mandhata rises unchallenged, a massive block of rock and ice tilted to one side, dwarfing the distant spires of India's Garwal Himal. Fifty minutes from Darchhan the trail ascends a low ridge of moraine topped with prayer flags and Kailas's north face reemerges above the hills. Heaped beside the trail are stone cairns and offerings of clothing, an act considered auspicious at the most holy of pilgrimage sites. On this ridge is the first of four chha-tsal ghang, or prostration sites, found around the kora. Pilgrims perform body prostrations at these stations, first touching their joined hands to the head, the mouth, and the heart, in quick succession before reclining on the ground, face down with arms extended over the head in an act of complete devotion.

Beyond the ridge opens the magnificent desert valley of the Lha Chhu, where immense eroded walls of purple sandstone and conglomerate rock sweep into craggy pinnacles, and the towers of mythical castles loom above the river plain. Descend into the valley for 30 minutes to Serzhong ("Golden Trough," or "Grazing Area"). This is the site of a religious festival on Saga Dawa. Each year the Darbochhe, the tall flagpole standing here, is taken down, redecorated with prayer flats, then raised on this day to celebrate the enlightenment of Buddha. A route crossing over from Serlung gompa enters the valley here, and nearby is the first of the Buddha footprints on the Kailas kora.

A few minutes down from Serzhong the main trail comes to a long mani wall and Chotaen Kangnyi ("Two-legged Chotaen"), where pilgrims receive blessing by walking through this entrance gate to the Lha Chhu. Continue descending from here to the river's gravel flood plain. The main trail stays near the hills, though other paths traverse the plain. The bridge crossing (15450 ft, 4710m) to Chhoku gompa, the first temple on the Kailas circuit, is 40 minutes below Serzhong. Several large meadows isolated in the gravel expanse are fine campsites.

Chhoku gompa (15800 ft, 4820m) clings to the side of an immense cliff face. It is a steep 15-minute climb from the bridge along a trail strewn with boulders and pieces from the cliffs. Chhoku ("Religious Figure"; also called Nyanri gompa and Nyanpo ri dzong) was first established in the thirteenth century as a shrine. The present building was rebuilt after the Cultural Revolution. The central figure in the main lhakhang is original: a squat, pudgy statue of Opaame, the Buddha of Boundless Light, made from a beautiful white stone, perhaps marble. Two other objects of interest to pilgrims are a silver-lined conch shell that Milarepa is said to have recovered from the depths of Manasarovar, and a large copper cauldron brought here by a renowned Indian ascetic. Along shelves on the back wall are the 108 volumes of the Kangyur. The separate, smaller building overlooking the cliff is a gon-khang dedicated to Ghangri Lhatsen, the protecting deity residing in Nyanri, the high ridge rising behind Chhoku. Several meditation caves are located near the gompa, including Langchhanphug, the "Elephant Cave," where Guru Rimpoche is said to have stayed.

Although a trail continues on the Lha Chhu's west ?bank, cross back over the bridge to rejoin the main pilgrimage circuit. The trail now waltzes under the walls of the Lha Chhu Canyon, its huge ramparts of weathered rock towering thousands of feet high. The valley's unusual natural formations have been interwoven with myths of the area, particularly with Gesar of Ling, the hero of Tibet's great epic story. A long, trailing waterfall spilling off the west ?side of the canyon is known as the tail of Gesar's horse; a huge square boulder on a ledge above the trail is one of the dice rolled by Gesar to help him make military decisions; a great hole in the rock with water pouring through is where Gesar's wife, Dugmo, made chhang; and three boulders nearby were used to mash up the yeast cakes when she was fermenting her brews.

The kora stays along the valley floor, sometimes climbing over alluvial ridges spilling from the cliffs. About 1 hour beyond the Chhoku bridge crossing the trail passes a chairlike granite rock. It is the saddle of Kyang Go, Gesar's horse, where pilgrims sit to receive a blessing. A little farther is a boulder surrounded by mani stones and covered with dabs of yak butter and coins. The large imprint in this rock is the first footprint, or zhabjay, of Buddha located on the main kora.

The Lha Chhu now swings right (east) as two large tributaries enter from the north. The second of these valleys, the Dronglung (" Wild Yak") Valley, is one of several routes that lead to the Seng-ghe Khabab, the source of the Indus River. The meadows along this stretch of the Lha Chhu are popular picnic spots for pilgrims. Golden-backed marmots race between burrows screaming at these intruders, the smell of yak chip fires permeates the air, and the first view of Kailas's " golden" north face appears above the hills. On the right bank less than 10 minutes upstream from here is a campsite established for Indian pilgrims. These lucky folks are among several hundred each year selected by means of a lottery system to enter Tibet and perform parikrama, the circumambulation around Kailas. Commercial trekking groups walking the kora in 3 days usually camp at the meadows, though less crowded sites can be found upstream.

The main pilgrimage trail stays above the Lha Chhu's south (L) bank, crossing the Ghangjam Chhu, then leading to a stone hut 30 minutes beyond the meadows. Driraphug gompa, the second temple on the kora, is directly across the river on the north ?ridge. The sheer icy north face of Mount Kailas is now unveiled, framed perfectly by rounded, symmetrical hills " like a huge silver dome placed on a pedestal with two guards on either side" according to Swami Pranavananda. To Buddhists these hill are the thrones of the Riysum Gompo bodhisattvas Chana Dorje and Chenrezig, while a third hill farther east is the residence of Jambayan.