Mount Kailas: 22,028 Feet of Sanctity

 pilgrims working on a kora

http://www.asianart.com/exhibitions/kheradia/58.html

Explore the significance of this hallowed place through the photography of Manoj Kheradia

The landscape of Mount Kailas is as harsh as it is beautiful. The weather at altitude of this sort is unpredictable, except in one respect: it's going to get cold. Gale force winds whip through the valleys, always carrying the threat of snow. The earth seems to dislike having people in this stratosphere, stealing their breath away. Corporeal life should not be here, will not be here long, if the elements have anything to do with it. Which makes the pilgrims who visit all that more amazing.

Hindus, Buddhists, Jains all revere Mount Kailas as a holy place. They travel from all corners of Asia to visit and complete koras. A kora is a circumambulation of Kailas. There are two kinds of koras, an inner kora and an outer kora. An outer kora is a trek of 53 Km, at altitudes ranging from 15,000 to 19,000 feet. For a reference, the highest point in Colorado is Mount Elbert, a paltry 14,433 feet above sea level. Many devout souls believe that a kora is only considered completed if done in a single burly day. An inner kora can only be done if 13 outer koras have been completed. It is shorter, but travels through much harsher, more isolated, higher altitude terrain.

A kora is a way to accumulate merit.  An extreme way, but one that necessarily must bestow a lot of merit. In fact, a great bodhisattva named Lord gTsang-pa rGya-ras once said,

If you circumambulate one circuit

Around the great palace of Ti-se [Mount Kailas],

The obscurations of one life will be purified

Accordingly, if you circumambulate it ten times,

The obscurations of a cosmic age will be purified.

(qtd. in Huber and Rigzin, 125)

Some even complete Koras by through a series of full body prayers; they prostrate themselves, pray, rise up in a spot a few feet from where they had just been, and repeat. This must confer a mountain of merit.

There are no verified successful climbs of Mount Kailas, as it is off limits to climbers. However (according to Wikipedia), in the Tantric tradition, it is said Milarepa, a great yogi and significant figure in the history of Tantra, visited the summit. You see, Milarepa once traveled to Tibet to duel Naro Bön-chung, a great yogi of the Bon religion. They battled ferociously, hurling magic this way and that.  Eventually the battle came to a standstill. They agreed that whomever was able to reach the summit of Kailas first would be the winner of their duel. Naro Bön-chung flew on a magic drum to the summit. Milarepa rode sunlight. Sunlight, being notoriously fast, was the better steed, and Milarepa reached the summit first. 

Buddhist monasteries dot the surrounding landscape, many ancient, many abandoned, a testament to Buddhists' long standing belief in the mountain's sanctity.

Tibetan Buddhists call Mount Kailas "Kang Rinpoche" which translates as "snow jewel" for obvious reasons...just look at it.

southern face of Mount Kailas http://www.asianart.com/exhibitions/kheradia/20.html

Manoj Kheradia is the photographer who captured these images.  He has completed more than 13 koras.  Referring to the Mount Kailas area, he says, "The place is so spiritual and mystic that one is short of words for praise. "  It would be hard to argue with him, even if one's experience of Mount Kailas is only through Kheradia'a photography.

References

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Huber, Toni, and Tsepak Rigzin. "A Tibetan Guide for Pilgrimage to Ti-se (Mount Kailas) and mTsho Ma-pham (Lake Manasarovar)." Sacred Spaces and Powerful Places in Tibetan Culture. Ed. Toni Huber. Dharamsala: Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, 1999. 125-53

Kheradia, Manoj. "Kailas Manasarovar & Tibet." Asian Arts. 4 March 2008. <http://www.asianart.com/exhibitions/kheradia/intro.html>

"Mount Kailash." Wikipedia. 4 March 2008. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Kailash>

Volk, Sylvia. "Mount Kailas and Lake Manasarovar." 4 March 2008. <http://www.iras.ucalgary.ca/~volk/sylvia/KailasandManasarover.htm>