| My path to purification began in the home of | | | | of necessities, she relieved me of my burden, |
| Shiva the Destroyer - or perhaps it was just | | | | a backpack filled with 'non-essentials' - |
| his rubbish bin. The shantytown of Darchen at | | | | laptop, camera, food, clothes and water. |
| the foot of Mt Kailash in western Tibet is | | | | |
| populated with half-naked, red-cheeked | | | | Embarrassing as it was, a lovely Tibetan |
| children playing in trash heaps. Teahouses | | | | woman, eight years my junior, carried my pack |
| running on car battery power, with dirt | | | | the rest of the way around Mount Kailash, |
| floors lined with old pillows, serve as | | | | simply because I could not. (At the end of |
| bedding for road-weary pilgrims and | | | | our kora, Yang Jing not only refused payment |
| backpackers before they start on their kora | | | | for her help, but offered me a gift - her |
| around Asia's most sacred mountain. | | | | decades-old yak bone prayer beads; the only |
| | | | recompense I can now offer her is this |
| The word kora means 'pilgrimage circuit', or | | | | story). |
| simply, 'big circle'. It describes the | | | | |
| clockwise path followed by devout followers | | | | Though weighed down with my belongings, Yang |
| of Buddhism and Hinduism in their effort to | | | | Jin soon outdistanced me, while I struggled |
| attain spiritual absolution for the sin of | | | | along at the rear, making my way up the bleak |
| being alive. Throughout Tibet one can see the | | | | Drolma-La, passing the glacial brooks of |
| faithful making koras around temples and | | | | Shiva-Tsal and the clothing-littered stones |
| other holy places, though none as consecrated | | | | and macabre shanks of hair that pilgrims |
| as the 52-kilometer circumambulation of Mt | | | | leave to symbolize the expulsion of their old |
| Kailash (known in Tibetan as Kang Rinpoche | | | | sins. With a light snow frosting the terrain, |
| and in Mandarin as Shen Shan). | | | | I finally caught up with Yang Jing atop the |
| | | | scenic pass where she recited her prayers. |
| I began my pilgrimage at dawn (after | | | | |
| hesitantly downing a cup of salty yak butter | | | | Then with the frozen jade waters of Gauri |
| tea for strength) guided by a trail of prayer | | | | Kund lake below, we carefully began our |
| flags up the misty southern ridge to the | | | | descent. As we reached the lower level, I was |
| Gyangdrak and Selung monasteries, and then | | | | able to breathe again and the remainder of |
| following the few stone cairns back down to | | | | the kora was a delight. We crossed snow banks |
| the kora. At one point the kora branched off, | | | | and passed venerable elders prostrated in |
| leading to a sky burial site, the place where | | | | verdant meadows fed by small streams |
| Buddhists bid farewell to the dead by | | | | trickling down from the mountain's |
| dismembering corpses and leaving the remains | | | | horizontally-banded crystal face. Later, we |
| for the birds of prey that form koras of | | | | arrived at a smoky encampment, with chanting |
| their own far above. The proximity of a | | | | pilgrims sitting around yak-dung fires. |
| burial site is disturbingly announced in | | | | |
| advance by the shredded clothes in the | | | | We continued past fields of boulders |
| vicinity, and more abruptly, by the | | | | blanketed in thick green moss before taking a |
| occasional human bone dropped from the sky by | | | | rest in a tea tent crowded with jovial |
| said birds. | | | | Tibetans. Instant noodles and soft drinks |
| | | | were available, but I boldly choose the |
| I continued my journey, passing a number of | | | | traditional Tibetan staples of yak butter tea |
| resplendently dressed pilgrims watering their | | | | and tsampa, an 'instant' bread made from |
| horses in a shaded canyon. Before long, I | | | | barley flour kneaded with the tea. Like most |
| arrived at the Chuku monastery, which hugs | | | | Tibetan pilgrims, this was all Yang Jing |
| the western hillside above the Lha-Chu River, | | | | carried in her small satchel during her |
| in clear sight of the enigmatic Mt Kailash. | | | | multiple koras. Tsampa may be flavorless, |
| Aside from being the most holy Buddhist site | | | | though it smells unwashed, but it seems to |
| in Asia, it is also the source of four great | | | | provide sustenance and energy aplenty for |
| rivers: the Sutlej, which flows to India; the | | | | Tibetans to complete 13 circuits. |
| Indus, to Pakistan; the Karnali, which feeds | | | | |
| the Ganges; and Tibet's own Yarlung Tsangpo. | | | | After our rest, we pressed on through the |
| | | | lush hillsides, tracing the Dzong-Chu river |
| I arrived at Mt Kalish at dusk, which in | | | | until we came to the Zutul-Puk monastery |
| summertime comes at about 10pm; Mt Kailash | | | | where most of the Hindus from India had set |
| was bathed in ruby-red hues, a spectacular | | | | up camp. I, too, might have spent the night |
| site, though one soon obscured by drizzling | | | | there, but in spite of the searing pain in my |
| rain clouds. Exhausted, I turned in for the | | | | legs, I was determined to follow the steely |
| night at a nearby yurt on the grassy banks of | | | | Yang Jing back to Darchen to complete the |
| Damding Donkhang and soon after I set my head | | | | kora on my second day. My resolve was |
| on the filthy pillows, I fell asleep. | | | | rewarded when we finally rounded the last |
| | | | bend and met with a stunning vista |
| I'd been cautioned by a number of experienced | | | | overlooking the Barkha plains: the Himalayas |
| pilgrims that the second half of the Mt | | | | to the south, aglow under the evening sky. |
| Kailash kora was the most difficult. And, | | | | |
| sure enough, as soon as I passed Dirapuk | | | | We walked by a series of mani prayer walls |
| monastery and crossed the Lha-Chu river the | | | | and inscribed yak skulls, together, into the |
| following morning, the route became | | | | setting sun. It seemed a fitting way to end |
| increasingly treacherous. The steep path | | | | this epic tale, with the southern sapphire |
| eventually thinned out - as did the air - and | | | | face of Kailash behind us - along with our |
| then disappeared altogether among the large | | | | sins. |
| boulders strewn about the Drolma-Chu valley. | | | | |
| | | | Travel Pack |
| I am in my early 30s, but in no time was | | | | |
| moving slower than an old woman. Indeed, | | | | A number of travel agencies and hotels around |
| 80-year-old Tibetans spinning their hand-held | | | | Lhasa can arrange week-long Land Cruiser |
| prayer wheels quickly out-paced me. Before I | | | | expeditions along Tibet's southern route past |
| had ascended but one-third of the way up the | | | | Lake Manasarovar to Mt Kailash for |
| 5,600-meters of evil that is the Drolma-La | | | | approximately RMB 4,000 per person. |
| Pass, I was doubled over with exhaustion. It | | | | Alternatively, budget travelers can take a |
| was then, during this moment of truth beneath | | | | three-day sleeper along the northern route, |
| the luminously golden face of Mt. Kailash, | | | | departing from Lhasa's north bus station |
| there appeared before me a vision. Her name | | | | every couple days to the outpost town of Ali |
| was Yang Jing, my own Tibetan goddess of | | | | for RMB 700. Water, food and a window seat in |
| mercy. | | | | the front of the bus is strongly recommended. |
| | | | From Ali's north junction you can hitch a |
| One day prior, I had met Yang Jing, a Ngari | | | | ride on a 'gypsy' jeep to Darchen/Mt Kailash, |
| local, in the company of her grandmother. At | | | | or catch a lift on one of the trucks from |
| the time, both of them were on their third | | | | nearby construction sites, or the occasional |
| kora in just three days. When she spotted me | | | | rogue bus. Permits are no longer required for |
| draped over a large boulder, they were | | | | travel in Tibet and as such no agency should |
| already halfway through their fourth. | | | | charge you for one. |
| Carrying only prayer beads and a small pouch | | | | |