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Kailas–Manasarovar Sacred Landscape
Tracing the journeys of three old travellers—Rahul Sankrityayan, Pranavanand, and Nain Singh Rawat—three study tours to the Kailas region as well as to the adjoining Indian, Tibetan and Nepal Himalayas were undertaken along different routes in the last 30 years. These study tours help in the understanding of the larger Tibetan and Indian frontier history relating to Kailas.
(Figures 1 and 2 accompanying this article are available on the EPW website.)
The author is thankful to Surinder Singh Pangtey, Ram Singh, Madan Bhatt, Dan Jantzen, R Chand, Kailas pilgrims (Kailash Pande, Anup Sah, Threesh Kapur, Uma Bhatt, Sher Singh Pangtey, Lalit Pant, Prakash Upadhyay, Chandan Dangi, Pushpa Dangi, Tshewang Lama, Abhimanyu Pande, Mukta Lama, Ashok Gurung, Mark Larrimore, Himani Upadhyay, Rafi Youatt, Chris Crews, Pasang Sherpa, Anil Chitrakar, Emily Yeh, Kunga Yeshe, Rinzin Lama, Swapnil Chaudhary and Nyingcha Duoji) and many traders from India, Nepal and Tibet (Daulat and Damyanti Raipa, Ganga-Yamuna Kutiyal, Jaman Singh Bohra, Chandra Aitwal, Deepak Bohra, Devi Lal and Mandodari Tinkri, Moh Zakir, Govind Singh Rawat, Padam Singh Raipa, Rajendra Raipa, Sunder Singh Bonal, Shyam Kharkwal, Chherring), interviews with whom have informed the understanding about Kailas. The author thanks Rupin Maitreyee for commenting on the initial draft.
Parts of this paper were presented in the conference “Mountains and Sacred Landscapes,” organised by India China Institute, New York in April 2017 and in a lecture organised in memory of R S Tolia, by Uttarakhand State Council for Science and Technology and G B Pant National Institute of Himalayan Environment and Sustainable Development, in Almora in 2016.
There are no mountains like the Himalaya, for in them are Kailas and Manasarovar. As the dew dries up in the morning sun, so do the sins of mankind by the sight of the Himalaya.
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