Up above the world so high, like a diamond in the sky....we all have grown listening to and reciting these lines. But, I saw coming this true when I reached the heavenly place amongst the beautiful Himalayas, a place which is known for its divinity, a place known as the abode of gods, a place which is a gateway to the heaven- Kailash Mansarovar !
Mount Kailash or kailash parvat which is said to be the Abode of Lord Shiva is 21,778 ft.high peak situated amongst the beautiful Himalayas in the Tibet autonomous region of China. This mountain is not any other mountain but a divine mountain of high religious significance and importance- not only for Hindus but also for other religious believers like Jains, Buddhists and Bön.
It is the highest pilgrimage in the world which sees thousands of pilgrims every year keeping upto an age old tradition.
I went on this trip as my mom wanted to be on this pilgrimage and she wanted me to join her in this journey. At first, I was wondering that how can I go on a pilgrimage being so young as mostly old people go for that. But, as I have always been a mountain lover and a trekking passionate, I was quite excited for this trip. So I agreed to join my mom and we went there for the first time in 2018 but due to some reasons we were not able to do the 'Parikrama' of Mount Kailash. So it was on our bucket list to go there again for the Parikrama and so there we were ready to do an adventure. We went again in 2019 and this was the best experience that I had in 2019. So here I will share my adventurous cum spiritual cum divine cum lifetime experience.
This was an overland (bus) journey from Kathmandu to Tibet. We went for this trip with a private tour and travel company. So there were around 70 people in the group. We started our journey from Kathmandu,Nepal. The next base was in Syfrubensi- a small village in Nepal. The next stop was the immigration point where we spent almost a day doing the immigration formalities. Then we further drove to Kyrong and stayed there for the night. The next stop was Saga which was followed by our stay by the side of the Divine and Holy Lake- Lake Mansarovar.
Lake Mansarovar- the holy lake is known for its magical and divine experience. It was the Purnima (Full Moon) night which holds a lot of significance and is special. It was 2 am in the midnight and we sat by the lakeside. It is said that Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvati come to take a dip in that lake on a full moon night. Despite of hazy clouds, chill winds and drizzles we were sitting there shivering and reciting mantras just to see that divine light. And soon after we saw the Gold light (we Indians call it Jyoti or Jyot) emerging from somewhere in that lake and then it just disappeared into the divine water. Shivering in those chill winds was worth that experience. That was the Aha moment of my life.
Moving on we drove further to Darchen from where we drove to YamDwar - The Door of Yamraj which is also known as The Gateway to Heaven. From there we started on for our First day of Kailash Parikrama. We walked for around 12 kms and reached the north face of Mount Kailash. As Kailash means crystal that mount seems to shine bright. It is standing tall- far above from rest of the world covered in snow to shine like a diamond. We couldn't complete the next 2 days of parikrama due to extreme weather conditions. I feel sad that we couldn't complete the parikrama but I consider myself fortunate enough to be able to at least reach up to that level to see one face of Mount Kailash. Reaching up to such high altitude itself is very risky and hard but I am glad to have reached there and come back without any health issue.
Going to London, Australia , Switzerland or any other country is definitely on everyone's bucket list but I am glad and blessed to have checked the experience of Kailash Mansarovar Yatra off my bucket list.
Hope some of you get to live that divine experience too. :)
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